MAX GABRIEL

"This guy from Brooklyn, MAX GABRIEL, just put out THE EXILE OF SAINT CHRISTOPHER. It’s been in my pile for a couple of months, with apologies to Max. Turns out it features a few guys that I like a pretty good bit: singer/songwriters Brett Dennen and Mark Geary, and one of my all-time favorite drummers, Shawn Pelton. So, then, I figure it can’t be too bad. And it’s not."
—UR CHART - UR CHART

click on link for full article - Vashon Island Beachcomber

Max Gabriel 7/11/09 @ Room 5 Lounge

Max Gabriel can perhaps best be described as an existential archetype of the Gestalt psychology: his
perpetually tired voice and folk rock roots eerily remind one of Bob Dylan; his boyishly handsome looks
and proficient guitar-keyboard playing bear uncanny resemblances to those of John Mayer; his
thoughtful and intelligent, yet affirming and humorous lyrics – “all my friends are actors, which means
they serve drinks at the bar”– echo the works of Jeff Tweedy; and his fashion sense just reeks of Liam
Gallagher (in a good way, of course… or is it?). But, as the Gestalt psychology teaches us, reality as a
whole is always different from the mere mechanistic sum of its constituent parts. When taken together
as a whole, such familiar yet eclectic elements in Gabriel’s music coalesce to form a portrait of the artist
as a young man who is refreshingly original and unquestionably talented.

Gabriel’s voice actually sounded better on stage than in his recordings, perhaps thanks to the excellent
work of Todd, the resident sound engineer at Room 5 Lounge. However, the backup vocal’s microphone
volume was set at a volume that was too low at times, which made us unable to hear her during some
parts of the performance. That little problem, however, did not take much away from the inspired
performance given by Gabriel and his supporting cast this evening, including Scott Healy on keyboard
and accordion, Glen Alexander on guitar, and Ronnie G. on percussions.
Max Gabriel 7/11/09 @ Room 5 Lounge

Max Gabriel 7/11/09 @ Room 5 Lounge

Standout performances of the evening include the performance of Revolutionary at the Vestibule, a
piano-driven love ballade with an ear-catching, poppy hook in which he sings about a certain fateful
romance between a poet and a revolutionary, and the performance of Wake Up Eleanor, a poignant yet
humorous jab at rampant American consumerist culture.
Max Gabriel 7/11/09 @ Room 5 Lounge

Max Gabriel 7/11/09 @ Room 5 Lounge

Gabriel joined us a little after his performance to tell us more about his music and his life as a musician.

MusicUnion (hereafter MU): Thank you for joining us for the talk and for the wonderfully inspiring
performance this evening. Is this your first show ever in Los Angeles?

Max Gabriel (hereafter MG): Yes, that is right. I am originally from the Bay Area, but I’ve mainly played
gigs in New York so far. This has been a great experience for me, and the audience reception was
fantastic. I would love to play here more often in the future.

MU: Tell us a bit about your latest album, The Exile of Saint Christopher (2007).

MG: Exile is my first record, and my first on sonaBLAST! Records, a scrappy indie label out of New York
and Louisville. I was lucky enough to have Exile produced by Scott Healy, a brilliant
composer/keyboardist extraordinaire, who you can see every night as the keyboardist on the Tonight
Show with Conan O’Brien. Scott’s got incredible ears, and has worked with just about everyone,
including Bruce Springsteen, Al Green, BB King, Jackson Browne, Branford Marsalis, to name but just a
few.

So when Scott, upon hearing my very rough living room demos, agreed to produce my record, it
immediately catapulted me into a very formidable and amazing world of top-level session musicians. We
recorded at Avatar (formerly The Power Station), and Scott just busted out his Rolodex, so in one day I
went from playing only with my peers – you know, college bands, friends from other bands – to
spending about 12 hours straight with people like Steve Holley, who drummed for years with Wings, and
Bakithi Kumalo, the bass player on Paul Simon’s “Graceland” and also the owner of that sick bass solo on
“You Can Call Me Al!” I was completely intimidated by the new environment — I still remember how
in one morning during the recording session I was so nervous that I broke my strings while trying to tune
an A string to a D! –, but I was also having the time of my life, totally hooked into the whole process.

Scott and I poured ourselves into the record over the next year with our sound engineer Jan Folkson,
and we were very lucky to be able to include some very special guests on the recording –
including West Coast folkie Brett Dennen, co- sonaBLAST! signatories Mark Geary and Kelley McRae,
and the famous classical group The Ahn Trio. It was totally a labor of love, and we were able to take
the modest budget sonaBLAST! provided and create a rich, major label soundscape. Honestly, it has been
quite tough trying to get the record into people’s hands, because there just was not a lot of promotional
money behind it for us, and for now we are mainly relying on the word of mouth to get it across people.
But I also made a bizarre viral film about it, so you should check out Youtube for my film Who Is Max Gabriel
at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=claMzFtGwNQ .

MU: Tell us about your musical influences.

MG: Like a lot of kids in my generation, I grew up in a sort of folk/rock music cannon. Some of my
favorite artists from my youth include Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Leonard Cohen, and Shawn
Colvin, each of whom have had a great influence on my music. Out of more recent acts, Wilco is
definitely one of my favorites.

MU: You had an exceptionally excellent rapport with your supporting cast this evening on stage. Could
you tell us a little bit more about them?

MG: Haha. Actually, we just had our first and last rehearsal yesterday for about two hours. I am a solo
artist, so I usually hire local musicians who work around my show venues. But I was lucky enough to be
able to work with such talented guys for the first show of my West Coast tour. If you haven’t noticed
already, they are actually the members of the house band for Conan O’Brien’s Tonight Show, including
my producer, Scott Healy himself!

MU: You told us that you are working on a new record now, and also played a new song for us today –
The Revolutionary at the Vestibule, — which, by the way, was a really beautiful performance. Can you tell
us more about your new record?

MG: Thank you very much. I am very glad that you enjoyed my new song.
Somehow, I am lucky enough that Scott is still putting up with me, and tomorrow, actually, we’re
beginning session work on the next record in LA. Like usual, he’s pulled out all the stops again, and we’ll
be tracking with Gary Mallaber on drums, who played on Van Morrison’s “Moondance!”, and Leland
Sklar, who has played with everyone but God, including my personal favorite, Leonard Cohen. This
record is going to be a lot more rock and roll and less “sensitive singer-songwriter,” and will also
incorporate some electronic elements. It should be an interesting stew.

MU: Last but not least, could you tell us a little bit about your life as an indie musician and maybe offer
some advice and tips for fellow musicians?

MG: Obviously, this is now a really difficult time to be a musician. But this is also a time of many
wonderful opportunities. The key is to be on your feet at all times, to keep working hard in whatever
ways you can, even if there is no promise of quick money or quick fanbase building. Those things will
eventually come to you at some point, but what’s really important is to keep your passion for music
alive, until the very day they arrive!

MU: Thank you very much for joining us tonight, Max. I wish you the best of luck for the rest of your
West Coast tour and hope to be able to see you again in L.A. sometime soon!

MG: Thank you very much. And please don’t forget to check out my website at www.maxgabriel.com
and my myspace page at www.myspace.com/maxgabriel! - Music Union.com

Click on link to view clipping. - PASTE MAGAZINE

Click on link to view clipping. - PASTE MAGAZINE

Click on link to hear full interview. - OPEN LOOP PRESS

Dear Max Gabriel,

This year SXSW has had over 10,000 applications from artists wishing
to perform at our festival. We are continuing to book talent daily
and Max Gabriel is on our very small list of acts to continue to
consider.

There is still a chance that we'll be able to invite Max Gabriel to
showcase at SXSW. Please inform us by email at musfest@sxsw.com
immediately if you no longer wish to be considered.

Please be aware that although Max Gabriel is an act we would like to
be able to find a showcase for, the odds are against our being able
to, so if you need to make other plans now, we encourage you to do so.

Sincerely,
SXSW Music Festival staff

In the event that we are unable to invite Max Gabriel to showcase,
and you still wish to attend SXSW, you will be able to register for
the SXSW Music Conference and Festival at our lowest rate. You can
find more information at...

https://secure.sxsw.com/r/nbr.php
- SXSW

Click link to listen to full radio interview. - One Geek Radio

"Any touring musician can tell you that there is something special and irreplaceable about emerging from the Holland Tunnel into the swirling carnival of Lower Manhattan. As you make that fateful right turn onto Canal Street, be sure to have Max Gabriel’s The Exile Of Saint Christopher (sonaBlast!) spinning at an agreeable volume. Witness “Wake Up Eleanor;” the hometown boy has a knack for mining whatever remaining details out of the City that have not yet been by his peers and fore bearers up on Bleeker St. The disc also features duets with Brett Dennen and Mark Geary."
—American Songwriter Magazine - AMERICAN SONGWRITER

in excerpt, Max Gabriel is mentioned as part of this compilation (as Gabriel Judet-Weinshel, his filmmaking identity): ""Independent Music for Independent Coffee Drinkers: Volume One" is a production of Holland's sonaBLAST! records and Heine Brothers' Coffee. The first volume, available now for $9.99 at all Heine Brothers' locations and at ear X-tacy records, is a compilation of sonaBLAST! artists, including Louisville's Jamie Barnes.

Holland, a recent transplant from New York, has built sonaBLAST! on the model of independent artists recording for a label not affiliated with any of the major labels. The idea for "IMFICD" came up while talking music with Mays.

"We were talking one day, and I just said why don't we do an indie music for indie coffee drinkers," Holland said. "I saw some quote that indie coffee is 5 percent of the market in the States and the light bulb went off that, hey, that's the same (market share) as indie music. Maybe there is a connection."

"It's just sort of an organic idea that came out of that conversation," Mays said. "The bottom line is that I'm a huge music lover and I love the idea of indie music so we decided to give this a whirl."

In addition to Barnes, the consistently strong "Volume One" features New York-based Irishman Mark Geary, The Old Ceremony, Kelly McCrae, Charlotte Kendrick, Gabriel Judet-Weinshel and BLOCK. Barnes' two tracks are from his album "The Recalibrated Heart."

- Courier-Journal

Max Gabriel is mentioned as recording artist at Avatar
New York, NY (September 26, 2006)--As one of NYC's most legendary recording facilities, Avatar sees its share of legendary artists, but the most recent sessions report from the facility shows a particularly good end-of summer run. Artists checking into the West 53rd Street facility for one reason or another included Nile Rodgers, Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, Willie Nelson, and Lucy Kaplanski, while engineers including Elliot Scheiner, Michael Bishop, Kevin Killen and Jay Newland were working the Avatar control rooms.

Outside of session news, Avatar has completely refurbished its Studio E, a Pro Tools suite, and will re-open the room on October 2. Now, check out the schedule--studio by studio--below:

Studio A hosted some jazz sessions, including jazz singer, pianist and composer Tony DeSare recording for Telarc with Michael Bishop engineering and Elaine Martone producing. Jazz bass player Rodney Whitaker and drummer Carl Allen recorded together in Studio A as well, for a Mack Avenue Records release, with James Farber engineering and Allen producing with Al Pryor. Peter Doris assisted on both the DeSare and Whitaker/Allen sessions. Elliot Scheiner and assistant Brian Montgomery engineered two projects in Studio A as well--recording jazz vocalist Jane Monheit, with producer Jorge Calandrelli, and Grammy-award winning percussionist and songwriter Ralph MacDonald. MTVU also booked Studio A, which is equipped with a vintage Neve 8068, to film live performances for "Live Leak" featuring The Roots. Avatar's Anthony Ruotolo engineered, MTV-U's Joe Buoye produced.

Meanwhile in Studio B, which houses an SSL 9000J console, Nile Rodgers was working with Interscope hip-hop artist Lanz, with Ruotolo and Montgomery engineering and Justin Gerrish assisting. Matt Pond PA was in doing overdubs with producer/engineer John O'Mahony, and producer Steven Endelman recorded music for the film Home of The Brave, featuring music by Sheryl Crow, engineering by Gary Chester. Chad Lupo assisted on the Brave sessions.

Producer/engineer Kevin Killen booked Studio C to work on an Elvis Costello track for a Joni Mitchell Tribute album. Studio C, with its Neve VRP72, also hosted sessions for Universal France artist Juliette Greco working with Jay Newland and Gil Goldstein, and Lucy Kaplanski, cutting a new album with producer/drummer Ben Wittman, and engineer Roy Hendrickson. Also in C, producer Scott Healy worked with Max Gabriel, with Jan Folkson engineering and Peter Doris assisting.

Studio G regular Rich Costey mixed upcoming releases in the SSL 4000 G+ room for Brand New, Mumm Ra, Strata, and The View, with help from assistant Jim Keller. Studio G also hosted sessions with Sheryl Crow and Willie Nelson. Crow stopped into sing on a duet with Nelson for a June Carter Cash Tribute album, produced by John Carter Cash, and engineered by Ruotolo.

Avatar's Kevorkian Mastering was the site of completion for a couple cool new records--Fred Kevorkian mastered Live at Fenway Park, Boston MA by Dave Matthews Band and New Magnetic Wonder by The Apples in Stereo. - ProSound

"Somewhere between Joe Henry and Jeff Buckley . . . Which is a compliment."
Ian Mathers of POP MATTERS and THE VILLAGE VOICE

"Max Gabriel is brilliant. It's beautiful music."
Onur Tukel, director of The Tozer
Show

"Really enjoying the Max Gabriel CD."
Stuart Ongley, SGO Music

"A really lovely range of songs. Soothing . . . funky . . . nicely diverse."

Laura MacDonald, Filmaka

"I'm always excited when I find someone who has a command of the English language and isn't afraid to write a lyric with depth that resonates of life experience. Combine the above with excellent back-up talent, an unusually dynamic voice, and a strong work ethic, and you've got a recipe for success."
Myspace fan review

"He has elements of Nick Drake and Scott Miller and the Commonwealth."
Xochitl Gonzalez, director of
Countdown and Stuck

"I found this on Yahoo and had to have it. Haven't heard such great instrumentals in a while. Max sounds like an old soul when he sings, and these arrangements totally rock. Looking forward to hearing more from him."
iTunes
- various

"On the other hand, a far different artist is knocking at the door of attention and is nearly winning full entry. His name is Max Gabriel a young singer-songwriter who writes and performs timeless tunes written as if he were twice his age and performed with an incredible supporting cast that includes Mark Geary, Brett Dennen and Kelly McRae. Even though lyrics seem to be Max’s strong suit, his warm tenor, reminiscent of a young David Wilcox, piano playing and guitar are as equally worthy. The New Yorker’s The Exile Of Saint Christopher is released on sonaBLAST records and has just been given heavy national release thanks to the folks at Paste magazine this month."
—Dogs or Whoever - Dogs or Whoever