How Bob Gentry Returned To Music And Created His 'Back On The Horse' EP, Out Today

Bob Gentry has been a songwriter since his youth, and has endured many of the ups and downs of the music industry, ranging from the very live show-focused drive of Detroit band Moisture in the 90s, through an LA-based iteration of the band that was more focused on recording craftsmanship of songs, through solo work that also took him into outstanding company, opening for acts like Ringo Starr and Heart.

But the transition to streaming proved insurmountable to funding touring and recording and Gentry took a ten year break, assuming he would not return to commercial music. Kirk Pasich of Blue Elan Records, however, checked in with Gentry a little while ago and encouraged him to share any new songs he'd been working on. Gentry had plenty! He had never stopped songwriting, but has been amazed by the way in which Blue Elan has encouraged him to get Back on the Horse, which is also the title of his new EP with the label that arrives today, October 28th!

Bob Gentry recently appeared on our Tower Instagram Live show, which you can still check out right here, but he also spoke with Tower's PULSE! about this journey through music and the core elements of his sound which, as a songwriter, really haven't changed over the years. But his songs have never sounded so authentic to his personal vision and he offers that experience to audiences in a new way with this EP.

Hannah Means-Shannon: Is focusing on releasing music right now helpful because it’s giving you something to do, or is it stressful because the normal processes of releasing a record and playing shows aren’t happening as much right now?

Bob Gentry: It’s tricky. We’re working on doing a show that would be filmed instead of touring. We’ll probably do something.

HMS: That’s great. I’ve seen some pretty great livestream concerts lately, I have to say. I’ve been very impressed both with pre-recorded and live shows.

BG: The Soul Asylum concert, on our label Blue Elan, was really cool. It was a full band. We’ve got to adapt. We’ve got to do something.

HMS: Some people are doing it from certain venues to help raise money for them. I guess every little effort helps in some way.

But congratulations because it must be a tremendous feeling to have a release coming out on October 28th after such a long time for you.

BG: There’s actually going to be another release. They’re releasing an EP for now. But there are a bunch of songs recorded, so hopefully if things settle down, the full album will come out.

HMS: That’s wonderful that you managed to get so much recorded. What was the time period for recording all this?

BG: We recorded it all before the pandemic. Just when we were getting things starting to roll, all this happened. A lot of the artists on the label had tours booked, but the people in line to go next had to decide what to do. It’s a good time to write.

HMS: Is songwriting something that you’ve been doing over the past few years?

BG: I took some time off. I stepped away for about ten years. I just got burned out on music, felt I was getting too old for it. The industry changed with streaming. I had a garage full of CDs and no one was buying CDs anymore. I was still trying to figure things out when the label approached me, and I said, “Let’s do it. Let’s see what happens.” It was kind of out of nowhere.

HMS: Yes, I heard that Kirk Pasich got in touch with you.

BG: I had totally given up. I had said, “I’m not doing it anymore.” But Kirk approached me, and I didn’t know who he was at first. I wondered what the catch was. But there was no catch. The guy is just a fan of music and he’s pretty much changing my life.

HMS: That is so wonderful. I love to hear stories like this.

Is it fair to say that the machinery of the music industry and the problems that it faced during these format changes were what made you want to leave? Or was it that you wanted to stop making music full stop?

BG: I always loved music, no matter what. I was still writing. When Kirk approached me, I had a bunch of songs.  But the very last show I did, I had an opening slot for Ringo Starr at the Greek Theatre.

HMS: Wow!!

BG: Yes, I was opening up for a Beatle. I had opened for Heart, The Pretenders. These were bands I grew up with and loved. But at the end of the day, after paying the band, I could barely pay a phone bill. If I got 50,000 streams, I’d make 200 bucks. I thought, “Something is wrong here.”

HMS: The streaming model is so hard. And of course the only way to possibly make any money aside from that was from touring, and now that has stopped. Things are dire.

BG: That’s why everyone is putting up their PayPal links.

HMS: Crowdfunding platforms like Patreon are helping some people. Everyone is just doing what they can.

BG: It’s definitely been tricky. I’m not going to lie. But even though I don’t know what is going to happen, I’m optimistic. The label has been so supportive. We’re doing a lot of online stuff.

HMS: I have heard a few really nice stories about Blue Elan supporting their artists and I’m impressed. Psychologically it must be nice not only to have a label on your side but people you know you feel so positively about.

BG: It was an instant connection with Kirk. I felt it right away when we first met. It just felt good. Sometimes when you meet people you get a vibe. Ever since then I’ve been on cloud 9. I’m 49 years old and I don’t make any excuses about being older. I’m happy to be my age, but it’s surreal for this to happen at this stage of my life.

I had given up on it even though I’d had some success early on. But I kind of lost my identity after I stopped doing it. It’s like if you’re a writer who stops writing and someone asks what you do for a living, and you have to say, “I don’t know how to answer the question.” But now I feel like I have my identity back and I’m myself again.

HMS: It’s interesting because I think a lot of people are having to ask themselves, “Who am I?” right now. Because if you have a strong sense of identity, you can get through difficult times. People are asking big questions right now about what they want in life. It’s wonderful if you can find that, especially right now.

BG: I’m trying. It’s been surreal and fantastic. I’m working with great musicians and great Producers. It’s kind of like a family. You get a genuine sense that these guys care, and that’s partly what made me jump back in, too.

HMS: It must be a big shift to get to be back around music people again, back with your tribe more.

In terms of sound, when you look at your earlier work, like with the band Moisture, and with your earlier solo work, where are you with your sound now in comparison? Do you see developments, or is this a radical rebirth for you?

BG: It’s changed a little bit. The songwriting has always been with me. From the time I was a kid, I always wrote in the same way. Like many musicians, I was always a Beatle fan. I would write songs that started out folky, or with melody or lyrics with something I was trying to say. Then I’d introduce the song to a band, and they’d get their hands on it. Then, suddenly, it would be this great song, and I’d say, “Okay”. At the time, I was in my 20s and playing in the Detroit scene, that generation of early 90s Pop-Rock. The songs went in that direction and when we played live, it was always a big stage event. We had a lot of fun on stage.

But as I got older, and I did the band in California when we re-formed it, we went into the music more. With the Detroit thing, we were all about the show. When I came to LA, we were more about focusing on making an album like Queen, something creative Production-wise. It got cheaper and cheaper to record because people could make things on their own.

Once I went solo, the songs were still the same, but were without the influence of loud drummers and the like. Well, the drummer on this album is incredible, having worked with Alanis Morissette and Alice Cooper. It’s been pretty amazing. And the Producer is like my fifth band member, Dave Darling. He has vision and he doesn’t take it away from what it is, but he polishes it. I’d send him a bunch of songs and he’d say, “Let’s do this one.” We’ve become good friends, and his wife is an amazing artist who sang on some of the songs.

I guess this is a little Cat Stevens-y updated version of singer/songwriter stuff from the 70s, but now.

HMS: I totally agree with you! I was going to bring up some of that regarding the new EP. Do you get a sense of what Dave thinks your identity is as a songwriter?

DG: I do, and I think he nailed it right away. He thought I was a Nilsson, Cat Stevens-y type of singer/songwriter. Not a retro thing, but drawing on that.

HMS: You’re confirming so much of what I’m hearing on this EP.

DG: I love Cat Stevens. I love Nilsson and that kind of songwriting and I don’t know how much of it is out there these days.

HMS: I think that in some ways over the past couple of years, there is more singer/songwriter stuff being created that is more stripped down and aware of tradition. Not derivative, but aware. But there is kind of an underground movement and a good catchword for that is “authenticity”, to be “authentic”. I don’t think you’re necessarily trying to serve that, but I think your music fits well with that zeitgeist.

DG: That’s a great compliment. I’ll take it! I love new stuff too, but I’m always falling back to that stuff.

HMS: The lyrics you write are very direct, and that did remind me a little bit of Grunge, but I think that’s because right after Punk, there was a Folk element coming in. Then Grunge took it harder. It’s almost like you show some signs of that intermediary period, and I think it’s coming around again.

DG: I hope so. I hope there’s an audience for it. That was my biggest concern when Kirk approached me, because I’ve been out of music so long, I don’t know what people are listening to. But he said he thought there was a market for it.

HMS: You may be surprised. I think other musicians will like it, too.

I wanted to ask you about “20 Years To Life”. It seemed like it has a little bit of a beachy sound.

DG: I was being quirky there, with all the legal analogies. I was just having fun with it. People joke about the other half being a ball and chain, and I pictured a big court case. I was actually worried that it might be too quirky.

HMS: At that point, you lean into a quirky song. You go all in. It’s a great song.

DG: I don’t know if it’s super-clever or super-cheesy, but it’s fun. Dave did great production on it, too.

HMS: It was an interesting way of putting you out there again as an artist, because it makes a big statement. Can I ask you about the history of “My Mistake”, which was an older piece of yours?

DG: Yes, it was a song that was on a previous album from ten years ago. I had stopped listening to the old stuff. But every year, the label has a Christmas party, where they fly in the artists and we get together. The following day, they rent out a recording studio, and they let the artists collaborate together, which is an amazing event. Last year, Kirk had the idea of me redoing “My Mistake” with Jackie McLean from Roan Yellowthorn. Honestly, I wasn’t that enthused about revisiting an old song, but collaborating with people was fun. We stripped it down and did it, basically, in one take.

HMS: It sounds great. In some ways, it sounds like a totally different song. I think the tradition of reappraising songs and reworking songs comes in more from Americana music, and Folk, and Country. The fact that you did that made me think of you again in those categories. The music tradition approach to songs is that they aren’t one and done. Songs are more of a living thing that can take different forms.

BG: To me, the term “Americana” is new, but I like it. I like what it stands for. In that genre, also, it’s almost as if the older you are the more respected you are. [Laughs] In Pop music, the younger you are, the better.

HMS: It’s true!

BG: But I think people who like that genre are more aware that they like what they like. They know if someone is faking it or not, they can tell if it’s real. Maybe that comes with being older, I don’t know. I’ll take it. I think I fall into Americana, but I’m not sure. I’m a little Country sometimes. I don’t know. It’s just music.