Stop Complaining. Start A Rock Band.

The four of us in The Kicks lived together before the band formed.

We were all doing our own separate artist endeavors and at night we’d sit out on the back deck and complain about how hard life was.

One of our main complaints each of us had was how difficult it was to find other people in Nashville to join a band.

This went on for about six months. Oh the irony.

Then finally in a rare moment of enlightenment I called a meeting in the guitar players bedroom and said ‘guys, we’re idiots, we should just be a band, everyone in?’

And that was it.


It’s time we all get tired of complaining and start doing something about it.

Like start a rock band.

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

Gigs And Busted Teeth

The album release party I talked about last night wasn’t our first show.

We’d had a couple years experience playing already. But even after we released that first album we were very much in the business of saying yes to every live opportunity that we could get.

And it was great. We were on the road every weekend two or three shows. Lots in the southeast and midwest, some in the northeast and even a few out west. Learning how to play, to put on a show, understand our chemistry, craft a setlist, make mistakes, try new stuff.

It was quintessential new rock band on the road. Absolutely fantastic.

And truth be told, I was the head cheerleader of ‘lets book a million shows and say yes to everything’.

But after a couple more years of that I started to become less and less right. Only I didn’t know it.

We did a gig on a Sunday night somewhere in North Carolina. It was a dud. Everything about it was a dud. And we knew it when the gig got booked months earlier. But hey, we say yes to everything. To add injury to insult…during the last song of the set a girl crashed into our guitar players mic stand, hitting him right in the teeth and there was blood.

We should have never been there. His bloody teeth were the physical representation of a great idea that didn’t evolve.

Saying yes to everything was spot on when we started. But the longer we toured the less it was right.

The right ideas can become the wrong ideas. It happens so gradually, it’s easy to miss. 

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

It Was Ten Years Ago Today

It Was Ten Years Ago Today

Ten years ago today I was in a band, releasing our first album. That night we played to a sold out a club called Exit/In in Nashville. Everyone was there.

We somehow stretched our one album into a full headlining set and for the encore played the second half of Abbey Road (well, from Golden Slumbers to the end).

We were young, ready to rock, naively optimistic and had black leather boots.

It was pure electricity.

So ten years later…

It’s even more magical that when it first happened. I had the joy of spending that night (and a bazillion more) with guys I love. Guys who had the magic, the extra something. It was a thrill.

Releasing that first album kicked off a wild ride and sequence of experiences that taught me more than I could have ever dreamed.

Have a listen on Spotify or Apple Music.

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

Master Of The Tour

The whole tour takes on the vibe of the lead singer of the headlining act.

If the lead singer never talks to anyone and stays on the bus all day, the vibe across the whole tour is disjointed, uncertain, fearful, hiding, wondering, egg shell stepping. It’s weird and doesn’t make for a pleasant time on the road. And this happens all the time.

On the other hand when the lead singer knows everyones names, invites the opening act into the dressing room, hangs out at soundcheck and has a sense of humor…That is an infectious, safe, warm, inclusive vibe that flows through every interaction of every person on the tour.

The vibe is always drawn from the leader, the master of ceremonies, master of the tour.

***This idea can be applied to lots of situations but one parallel that I want to make sure isn’t missed here as it’s so practical and important…When someone comes over to your house, you dictate the vibe. Plain and simple. You are the master of the house and the vibe flows through you.

And here’s a little trick…always have a little bowl of m&m’s out. Doesn’t matter if anyone actually eats them. The fact that they’re there makes it better.

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

Hooky Hook

The whole song can be hooky but you still need a hook.

While the hooky makes you a great artist, the hook makes you a hit artist.

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

The Raconteurs In Nashville

I saw The Raconteurs play at the Ryman this past weekend. A great rock band playing great rock songs. 

There was lots of stuff worth noting, but I’ll share two…

Patrick Keeler (drummer) is a force. He’s bold and he has finesse. He’s wide open but nails the details. But even more than that I was stunned at how he was simultaneously leading the band and following. Because the drummer is the engine, and he definitely was. But Jack is the leader…

Jack is both playing the show and thinking of what might work best next. Thinking of ideas in real time, in context of the night, weighing them, deciding yes or no and implementing the result. Some of them work really well, some of them are meh, sometimes there’s obvious mistakes. So the strike outs are real but so are the home runs. But he is responding to his creative voice right there on stage thinking ‘hmmm, maybe this will work…’

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com