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Introducing Gabe Rosales!
 Thanks for this exclusive interview Gabe, You have a new solo album “Vital Nonsense” that contains 20 tracks, You literally hit every music genre you aim for, how did you have a formula for each? Thanks for giving me time to speak on what I'm doing. I appreciate the kind words. There was really no formula to the tracks other than engaging in every emotion life throws at me. Different emotions invoke different styles of music in me that really help to pin point how I want the feeling portrayed to a listener and how I want to express it out of myself. It’s a complete release. Each genre was just me regurgitating what I like hearing from various artists such as Immortal Tech, Herbie Hancock, Tito Puente, Meshuggah, Hezekiah Walker, Alice in Chains and Rage Against the Machine. In that respect, I listened and applied my own feel to the song structures of these genius'. I have played in many bands which also helped legitimize each genre. Growing up what was some of your musical influences? I grew up in the predominantly hispanic, historic city of San Juan Capistrano in South Cali. My pops came from Aguas Calientes and my mom's family came from Chihuahua. Luckily my pops rarely bumped the rancheras. My mom played lead guitar and sang and my dad backed her up. They'd rock out on James Taylor and Simon and Garfunkel tunes and she'd sing sing lots of old mexicano folk tunes. The music I chose to listen to ranged in many different styles. Ha ha, early on I was on to some Jazzy Jeff tracks but by the time 5th grade rolled around it was all about NWA, Eazy E, 2 Live Crew, Faith No More, The Cure and Michael Jackson. Yah, all over the place but each feeling had a place and a time for me. Eventually the hip hop I was listening to got more authentic and the heavy rock got heavier. I started listening to bands like Suffocation, Meshuggah and started listening to MC's like Kool Kieth and Lateef. The lighter stuff I listened to included the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Zap, James Brown and I started getting into jazz like John Coltrane and the blues of Stevie Ray Vaughn
Reading your bio is like a Resume. It is very impressive how did you get your start?
I was always writing since a very young age. My mother used to read me the twisted writing of Edgar Allen Poe when I was 8 which gave me a sick sense of expression. I always wrote lyrics and when I became the lead vocalist in a death metal band, I was finally able to unleash my twisted poems and ryhmes through music. The band was missing a bass player so I picked it up to fill in the sound. I fell in love with it and began taking solos 3 months after I started playing. I was playing bass in a Korn, Pantera kind of band in high school and the lead singer of the band worked at a pharmacy as a delivery boy. It happened that the manager of the pharmacies son-in-law, Paul Pesco, was a producer and talented musician who worked with everyone from Madonna, Mary J Blige, to George Benson and Joan Baez, no joke. He came to a rehearsal and decided to produce us. The band never worked out but he took me under his wing and treated me like his little brother. I'd call him with every new project I had and he started pluggin me in. Its truly one of those being at the right place at the right time stories. Of course shit doesn't happen unless you make it happen, but I was very fortunate. I was blessed to play with a signed band straight outta high school and then it progressed from there.
When did you fall in love with Hip Hop?
Hip hop and rap has always been a huge part of my life since before I played anything. It started with novelty acts like Young and the Restless back in the late 80's. B-Girls, ha ha, that was my jam. From Sugar Hill Gang to NWA, it was the rythmic words that intrigued me. Maybe its my latin blood that draws me towards tripped out poly rythmns, but the syllables in each word create such crazy beats if you listen to each word as a pure percussive instrument. Then when and MC says something of value to me, it really makes a good flow the purest form of self expression with no electric instrumentation. The way Lateef the Truth Speaker would do language acrobatics with a hum in his voice to create this trance, or hearing Divine Stylers laid back flow like a drum roll in a battle field. I also really dug on Kool Kieths style in UltraMagnetic Mc's. He is really abstract and thought provoking in his cadence and vocab. And the tenacity and aggression in Immortal's voice that gave me fuel to face things I didn't like about what I was doing. Hip hop has definitely molded the way I write lyrics and the way I play instruments. Listening to all the bad ass production Dre did on the old Eazy shit was inspirational. It was P-Funk but with huge 808's to over accentuate the groove. Obviously a live drummer doesn't have that same attack a programmed beat does, When I started making my own beats I really focused on making something creative and interesting musically, to appeal to instrumental musicicans. That's the constant complaint I hear with fellow musician about hip hop. Yah, a lot of samples are taken from live instrumentation but actually creating music that didn't previously exist is important to me. Another challenge being a musician creating beats is being able to create a groove that can be heard over and over again without getting tedious and annoying. That’s always a goal of mine. I want something I can bump for a car ride without getting irritated. That’s why I love the old Quincy Jones production on Will Smith, and Young Mc's old shit. It’s musically really dope.
What makes this album different from others?
My album is largely hip-hop influenced as you can hear in 85 percent of the music. I guess I'm doing something unique in the way that I am the main MC/singer/vocalist on the entire album, I wrote and arranged all the music, and I actually played the majority of the melodic instruments such as guitars, bass, and keys. I had guest drummers come in and add their own personal tastes to the track or I would have a beat programmed already and just have them come in and lay down live what I had already written. I don't know to many artists that are doing this and have covered such a broad spectrum of music. Every track is heartfelt and honest, I didn't have anyone coaxing me to make a commercial hit. I wanted to prove that it is possible to create everything yourself with work and determination. I hear music in everything and I appreciate many different genres. I want to put the focus back on talent, musicality and lyrical content, rather than rims, chains, and weed. I'm also a teacher and I see first hand how this culture is influencing the kids who are gonna take this place over when we're old. Its frustrating when I'm trying to teach a 9 year old kid a work ethic and an appreciation for creating music when their favorite song is "Pimping Around the World". I ask'em if they know what a pimp is and they respond with "someone who makes a lot of money and has nice clothes". I don't give a shit if people call me a hater because I know my intentions, and they're not to feel better about myself by projecting my insecure shit. I'm here to inspire, inform and create awareness, not place an emphasis on objects that are meaningless when you're dead. Lyrically its a commentary and a venting on politics, religion, love, death and jail life, and its done with the appropriate audio canvas for each feel.
Listen to other MC's if you wanna dream about gold chains, hot tubs full of bitches, and cristal. Listen to my album if you're interested in being aware about the world around you, where you fit, how to cope, taking out aggression, and how you can build something worth more than personal instant gratification. I've lived different lifestyles from attending buddhist meditation courses in silence for weeks, to doing drugs in a room by myself. I've drank Cristal on a private plane touring Europe and I've been a rep in jail for the Southside in south Cali. I've seen and had the opportunity to deal with a lot and I've incorporated it all into my album.
Being that you have worked with key industry people, toured around the world and worked with music super stars, is there any particular story that stands out from your travels?
Working with Jennifer Lopez was a trip. She is a powerful woman and is one of the most hard working in the business. We were in rehearsal for SNL and she had to wear this in-ear monitor that had this awkward black box attached to it that she had to strap to the back of her pants. She was obviously pissed about it so she asked why she was able to talk to someone in China on a tiny phone she could attach to her ear, but she had to wear some bullshit to send sound from a sound board to her ear with a big ass pack. We all laughed but didn't think much of it. She then let everyone know she was serious and demanded to know right at that moment why. Her manager at the time, Benny Medina, boned out at returned like 5 minutes later with an answer about needing a special larger battery pack that ran a special signal. Jen smiled and said, "Thats why you get 10 percent of my paycheck." She commanded a lot of shit, but she was always cool to me. She was one of the better bosses I've had. Made me wonder what I'd be like if I had a grip of cash. I think I'd keep my patience. Ha ha
Who did all the production for Vital Nonsense?
I did the pre-production and writing at different times. I sent the pre-recorded scratch tracks to the guest musicians I was going to have play on it. The drummers would track their parts and then I'd go and record the guitars, keys, bass and vox. Then, if there wasa guest MC or vocalist, they'd do whatever they were gonna do for the final touches. 16 of the tracks on Vital Nonsense were produced and mixed by Riz Story of the band Anyone, who put his creative input in on various tracks and sonicly made the album cutting and huge. Paul Pesco produced the more organic tracks that involved more percussion and acoustic instruments. Paul did the latin stuff and the smooth fusion track. I tracked most everything and these 2 homies made it sound huge.
Any Features/Collabs?
There are many talented musicians I was blessed to get on the album. Some of the highlights were getting the one and only deepest innovator of hip hop Divine Styler, King Live D, Jamin and Jo-City from Organized Grind, drum virtuoso Dave Weckl, The Pharcydes Bert Baker, Juan Doe, Heather Dee Perry of Jimmy Buffets band, Matt Rohde from Prince's band, fusion ninja Prashant Aswani, Jane's Addictions Stephen Perkins and my boy Paul Pesco from everywhere. Weckl is world renowned and so is Divine. I guess that something else unique about the album. You can hear all this talent on one album.
Do you play any instruments?
I started playin around on piano when I was like 5, but now I play enough keys to get my ideas down and I focus on bass and guitar. I'm always writing lyrics and I drive wit a hand held tape recorder to capture it all.
Where can people hear/buy Vital Nonsense?
You'll be able to hear and purchase Vital Nonsense on my website at gaberosales.com, you'll be able to purchase it on tunecore, cd baby, guitar nine records. Vital Nonsense will be up on itunes, amazon and my reverbnation as well. My website links to my myspace where you will be able to purchase it as well. It will be available the middle of February.
Who would you love to work with?
I would love to work with Immortal on a track, whether I'm writing the beat, doing a verse, or just playing bass or guitar on something. I'm blessed to be working on an upcoming album with Divine Styler right now entitled Sy9aps. His style is beyond comparison. Flow wise I feel he is unparalleled. Musically I want to track some shit for Dre. I want to collab on a track with Mike Patton. He was the lead singer in a bunch of bands I love, Mr. Bungle, Faith No More, Peeping Tom, Phantomas. He's a freak of a performer and musician. Other than that I'm blessed enough to have access to everyone I love playing and working with.
How long did it take you to put this album together?
I started actually tracking for the album in late Feb. of 08. Some of the jams were grooves I had already incorporated in various groups I had played in, but when I quit all the bands I was in and decided to release my own stuff, I picked my favorite and got on wit it. The whole process took about 10 months. The mastering was completed Dec. 30th 08 and I sent everything to duplication on the 20th of Jan. 09. It was a mission getting everyone together and coordinating so many different schedules but I think we made good time. I was happy about having time to live with mixes before mastering. It gave me a chance to make sure everything was hittin.
Tell us a little about the diversity of the the album, genre wise
I have a tripped out outlook on music and I relate it to feelings. I think some of the heaviest bands are funky and think some of the simplest riffs are heavy. I love jazz and fusion so I incorporated interesting chord progressions and beats and flowed over it. There is not really any straight ahead predictability on the album. Its like this country, its got all kinds of influences from everywhere. I do know where it came from and I try not to disrespect any genre. There's some straight funk and R&B tracks with flows, there's a few jazzy tracks including one instrumental with Dave Weckl. I did a few acoustic steel string tracks that captured the feeling I had at that time about a deceased friend and the other was about my girl and sobriety, which is sung. There are latin feeling tracks with classical finger picked Spanish guitar and one straight ahead cha cha with all latin percussion. I also incorporated some high energy hard rock tunes that captured one of the phases of jail life, and the overwhelming peace you have when you realize the big picture. There's also one death metal tune with crazy drums and growls. That track is about 9/11 and the anger towards the Bush administration coupling with The Carlyle groups bullshit. The album flows together nicely. It all comes straight from my experience and soul so there's never any question that I'm trying to be all these things. I AM all these things just like we are all part of a huge collective. I just chose to express it in its purest form and where I felt the feeling was taking me. I heard words that I had to put to a melody when I dreamt about my deceased homie visiting me. I wasn't feeling laid back when my family visited me in jail and I felt like I didn't know anyone anymore. I felt intellectually determined when I wrote about bringing the hip hop collective under one ministry. I wanted to walk into White House and open fire when I learned about how the FDNY was having to fight for health care post 9/11. Its all there with no bullshit.
How can people contact you for shows/collabs, etc
People can reach me on my website at gabrosales.com. They can go to myspace music under the artist Gabe Rosales. I'm pretty easy to get ahold of. I prefer email.
Vital Nonsense is a pretty interesting name for an album, what was the intention behind it?
There's no way to talk about shit I'm into without sounding like a fucking tweeker. I'm big on quantum mechanics and all the experiments that brought us up to today's real vision of reality that most peeps are completely unaware of. One of the books that influenced me is called The Dancing Wu Li Masters, yah I know, sounds like Wu Tang took too much E. There is an entire chapter devoted to the importance of "nonsense" in the creative process. It said true artists and true physicists know that nonsense is only nonsense by the judgmental intellect that calls it that. To experience something as nonsense is to experience the boundaries of our own preconceived cognitive structures. We don't question what we perceive to be true because someone might call it nonsense but thats where the purest forms of creation and truth come from, delving into nonsense. That’s why I feel it is vital to the creative process, hence the name Vital Nonsense.
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