INTERVIEW WITH JEFFREY GAINES FROM TheCelebrityCafe.com ARCHIVES
There has always been a division in people's minds between the "elite stardom" of musicians and the "common folk." The mentality has always been that celebrities were unreachable and, at this level, far above the rest of society. With musician Jeffrey Gaines, this is far from the case.
Early one August morning, my phone rang, and lo and behold, the man on the other end was none other than Jeffrey Gaines. He saw no reason to have a middle-man as a publicity person so just called me himself. It was the only interview I've had in my life where we joked, laughed, and told stories as if we were long-time friends. Everything from music, poetry, race, religion, sex and society was discussed! Gaines portrayed this outlook of being equal and had absolutely no "celebrity" attitude, whatsoever.
His first album, which was self-titled, did very well, and this second album has all the same potential for success. Hitting the charts recently has been the song "I Like You," which is doing well on a lot of college stations.
Jeffrey plays "straight from the heart" and does the kind of music he believes in. Since he is half African-American, I asked him if he felt any problems with race or racism in the music industry, to which he said, "I think it's really odd... Rock music I'm playing was considered weird for white people to play, back when it all started." For Gaines, no question was too personal, and he had a very "lay the cards on the table'' kind of attitude.
This album's style is a lot more personal than his last work. One song, "Elliot," is about a child he had almost had, and his feelings towards this unborn child. "Sweet Janine" was written, oddly enough, because of a David Bowie song he loved to listen to. All of the songs relate directly to his life and his life's experiences.
At one point, Gaines heard my father in the background and asked if my dad had any questions. My dad readily took this opportunity and asked if his mother ever sang to him as a child. Like old college roommates, they joked about how both their parents used to sing Nat King Cole to them. After this interview, Gaines thought about how much of an influence his mother's singing had on his writing.
In concert, Gaines tries to get across this personal feeling that he had shown me over the phone. At one point, he joked that he used to do imitations of other singers during the show, and basically just joke, interact and laugh with the crowd. He is frequently touring, and in fact did hundreds of shows in the past year. He has stopped by New York over the summer, played the Conan O'Brien show, and will be stopping by this area again in October. Overall, there is no way I can overemphasize Gaines' personality and his mentality of being equal and down to earth. For him it wasn't an interview but more a conversation, which really taught me a lot.
At some point, he even started asking me questions about New York City, college life, and my perspective. Instantly this whole phone call dropped the boundaries between the level of stardom and the level of middle class and made me feel like we were on the same plane.