Work On Something That’s Working

It’s more fun to work on something that’s working than something that isn’t.

If you love heavy metal and you’re a struggling heavy metal artist but for some reason when you pick up a mandolin and play a tender song everyone wants a ticket…you have a choice to make.

And I’m not talking about do you wanna play heavy metal music or mandolin music. Because we already know which music you prefer.

I’m talking about what kind of life do you want to live?

The life where you struggle a lot more but there’s honor and lots of personal cool factor there?

Or the life where you sellout theaters and arenas but you’ve gotta play a mandolin instead of a Les Paul?

You don’t have to keep working on the thing that isn’t working.

Chances are you know of a couple things that are working. Go there.

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

The Kicks and Mitch

It’s been fun to reminisce a bit this week about The Kicks.

Like I said Monday, it was ten years ago that we put out our first album.

And I can’t talk about our first album very long without telling you about Mitch Dane.

We always said that if we could only thank one person during a Grammy speech it would be Mitch.

Mitch was the producer on our first album and the following two. But his contributions were far greater.

Mitch goes first. He’s a true believer. Mitch believes in artists without looking around to see if it’s cool or not to believe. He listens and hears both the music and the person. He speaks on purpose.

He is ultimately cool.

He was the first one to take us in. When we were definitely uncool. When no one was calling or emailing us back, he did. He invited us to his house and we sat on his couch and talked about music for hours.

He knew how to handle four wild eyed guys who had never made a record before. He was a true shepherd. He taught us real music making. He guided us and let us think it was all our idea.

He taught us to play together. To tune after each take. To stand up for ideas. To respect good drum sounds.

The morning coffee was good and the afternoon coffee even better. A studio full of toys and possibilities and vintage guitars and GREAT vocal mics.

But Mitch was the one. His presence is the special thing that makes that studio spin.

Mitch initiated our creative and music making maturity…all the while venturing into the richest of conversations about faith, life, family, love and marriage.

That first record especially was such a joy to make.

So thank you, Mitch. Thanks for going first. We needed that.

***Sputnik Sound

***Juliette

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

Los Lonely Boys And Magic Fairy Dust

The Kicks first slam dunk opening slot tour was with Los Lonely Boys.

(And no, we never did find out how far heaven was.)

Like I mentioned earlier this week, most of our touring back then was two or three shows per weekend and then a long drive back to Nashville. But this tour was something like fifteen shows in twenty days. Super exciting and different.

We had a really great manager at the time who sat in on our rehearsals leading up to the tour and that’s when we really started clicking with what it meant to put a show together. So by the time we hit the road our thirty minute opening set was pretty dialed in. Set list, transitions, talking points, rocking.

For the last song there was a down section in the middle where our lead singer would say a little something to the audience. It was a lull in the song for him to say something short or something long, fun, meaningful, funny, whatever came to mind.

It turns out that planning that lull but not planning what he would say was an a pretty enticing invitation for the spirit, the magic fairy dust, the special extra thing to show up. That moment was the best moment of every show on that tour.


The important thing to see here is that the magic fairy dust happened BECAUSE we had a plan, not because the dialogue was unplanned.

Unscripted dialogue within the context of a well planned show.

The well planned show is the invitation for the magic fairy dust to come make the unscripted parts sparkle.

You can find a tour recap video here. And also some vocal warmups.

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

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