By Grayson Boyd

At just 17 years old, Collegiate senior and guitarist Gabriel Metzger (‘21) has already captivated people across the nation with his music. Metzger released his first solo single “What A Shame” on October 16, a song which strongly conveys the message of wanting to rise against the tensions of today. Metzger had been in bands throughout Middle and Upper School, but in September of this year, he decided to branch off on a solo path. Going by the artistic title of “Gabriel,” he launched his own website detailing all of his ventures, along with launching profiles on numerous streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, Soundcloud, and Youtube. 

Photo credit: Joey Wharton.

After listening to Gabriel’s first single, I was moved to ask him a few questions about himself and his musical career. Metzger started playing piano when he was five years old, just as a hobby, but about a year later when he began playing guitar he soon realized that music was his passion. He saw the next logical step was to start playing at live shows with a band, and now he is writing and recording his own music. 

Metzger’s greatest inspirations for his music are Alter Bridge, Sevendust, and Davy Knowles, as each artist has very different styles that he tries implementing into his music. In addition to their music, he really admires their work ethic. They are always pushing boundaries and working on a project, which is something Metzger really tries to emulate. 

When I asked Metzger how he saw this venture panning out five years from now, he stated, “I love music and would love to be able to make a living out of it, but the music industry is so volatile, there’s no telling what the future holds. The only thing I can do is keep making the best music I can and always have a backup plan.”

So much work goes into the process of producing, recording, and releasing music, and Metzger gave me a full breakdown of what occurs when preparing a song for release. Along with playing guitar and bass for his music, Metzger writes out all the instrumentals himself, and for the lyrics, he usually has a co-writer. The idea for each single usually comes from him crafting an idea on guitar and gradually building the song by adding more parts and finally adding lyrics. Plenty of tasks also go into finally recording each song, and Metzger said that as many as six people were involved in their last recording session. He usually records with a few friends who usually consists of Metzger, vocalist Phil Walker, a drummer, a producer, a bassist, and an engineer. Metzger says he plans on cutting this group down to three or four people next time to simplify the process a bit. 

Photo credit: Martyn Davis.

He records rough demos of songs at home, but all of the official recordings he has done thus far have been at Red Amp Audio in downtown Richmond, which he says, “has great sound equipment and a fantastic crew to work with.” I also asked Metzger if he ever plans on providing vocals himself for any recordings of songs, but he was adamant that Walker is quite talented, and Metzger doesn’t plan on taking on any vocal duties anytime soon. Metzger is eager to go back to playing gigs live, where he could provide harmonies while playing guitar, which he loved doing with his old band, Mystic Blue, which played one to two gigs a month before the pandemic shut down most live music.  

As for the future, Metzger says nothing is set in stone as of now, but his group eyes releasing their next single sometime in January. He also confirmed that, with the pandemic, it is very hard to get in the studio long enough to record any full-length records, but stated ideally they would be able to get back into the studio by the end of the year to start putting something together. Be sure to regularly check Gabriel’s Instagram, as he will give frequent updates about future releases and any other major events that he has planned.

Featured imaged credit: Diane Travis.