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Gibbz – Actor, Dancer, Musician, Cat Lover

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Gibbs Live

GIBBZ is a renaissance man. After a childhood spent acting in C­list horror movies and ballroom dancing, he received a “degree” from Berklee College of Music. There he focused on music production, aiding in his future full time position as an audio engineer. After 5 years on the road and in studios with international touring acts, he realized being an engineer is a thankless, miserable existence. Luckily, his path had led him to working for a crew that went onto form the Lowtemp record label, including Gramatik and Exmag. They convinced him that it’s OK to drink copious amounts of alcohol and make everyone within a 30 ft radius uncomfortable. Out of this drunken, obnoxious, offensive mess of a man, GIBBZ was born.

We caught up with GIBBZ at a sold out show hosted by First Avenue, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Performing just before the headliner Cherub, his ability to warm up a crowd was like nothing I had seen before. Although about 95{a43c2147d37bcf8b898f59ebaaf066dc60bd9fbfc7430ae40ed3f9adbaab469e} of the room had no idea who he was, I watched as the quirky and extremely talented GIBBZ turned each person watching into a new adoring fan, including myself! Fans cheered loudly as he ended his final song in a impressively high, solo-styled vocal performance.

Mike! Where are you from?

A: I’m from New York. Always lived their except my college days, when I lived in Boston.

What was your childhood like/ high school experience?
A: I had an interesting childhood. I did a lot of acting as a kid, so I would miss a bunch of school to be on set of different productions around New York City. I had to work harder to keep my grades up, but I think being around the film industry at a young age made me a little more mature than kids around me in school. Some kids seemed jealous, but they had no idea that there was really no glamour in it at all. It was waiting and waiting for hours just to stand around for an hour or two and then leave. Movie Magic.
How do you like living in New York?
A: It’s the only place I can really picture myself living. It just feels like home. There’s only one other place I’ve felt as comfortable and that’s Paris. I would consider living there at some point, but for right now, New York is definitely home.
Is that your cat on your FB banner? if so, what is its name?
A: The cat in my facebook banner is Elvis. He’s one of two lovely boys. Elvis and Clüd. He kept wanting attention as I was taking photos with photographer power-couple Elizabeth Kaminski and Dan LaDue. It made sense to involve him.
I read that you acted in numerous horror films. How did you get into that type of work?
A: I actually was just in one terrible, terrible, but awesome horror film called “Return to Sleepaway camp.” My character is hate-able. I did all types of acting as a kid. That was kind of a surprise audition. I thought i was auditioning for a comedy until they handed me the lines before my interview.  
Explain your switch from film to focusing more on audio.
A: I’ve always been interested in audio. My dad’s been playing in the same band my whole life and there’s always been a room in my parents house filled with music gear. Thankfully there was no internet when I was growing up. I was just bored enough to learn how to use the stuff. 
From my understanding, you were into ballroom dancing? 
A: As a teen, I did a lot of dancing. It was years and years and pounds and pounds ago. I competed in a few ballroom competitions, and placed pretty well. I was really into ballroom. Probably because girls.
Are you a Protools or Logic guy? Favorite software/plug-ins?
A: In college I mainly used Pro tools. It was industry standard and my classes didn’t really dive into any other DAW too far. After school I wanted to find more ways to manipulate audio and saw everyone else using Ableton Live. I got a copy and it’s been a pretty strong relationship ever since. I’m just as fast on it as I was with Pro tools and I feel it’s a far stronger program for writing and producing.
I love the vocal effect for “Love Again”. Is that a vocoder that you use to obtain that sound?
A: It is. I’ve always been really into Vocoder sounds since hearing ELO’s “Mr Blue Sky.” I have a lot of vocoder in my other recordings, but none as prominent as in “Love Again” where it’s the focus.
The 80’s synths sound has become very popular recently. Do you happen to know who was first to bring it back? 
A: I’m not sure who brought it back, but I remember the first time I heard older synths in a modern way. It was Breakbot. I nearly lost my mind. I wanted to do that immediately.
If there’s one piece of advice you could tell your younger self, what would it be?
A: If I could tell my younger self anything it would be to have more confidence. I stopped writing for a while. I thought I wasn’t good and the best bet would be for me to help other people create their music. I didn’t like my voice or what I was creating. That was silly of me and I lost a lot of years that I could have been making music.
More Photos from the Show!
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Written by Bo Weber

Supporting artists since 2014

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