Butch Walker, Ryan Adams, Paul Westerberg, Tom Petty, James Morrison, Jason Mraz, John Mayer, Howie Day, Goo Goo Dolls, Jimmy Eat World, Foo Fighters, Neil Young, Death Cab for Cutie, Billy Joel, anything melodic.
I was going to pull the pretentious singer-songwriter trick and add a member
of the animal kingdom to my name (i.e. Cheryl Crow, John Cougar, Cat Stevens... etc.) But I couldn't decide between Badger D'Angelo or Frankie Gecko .. So I said screw it and kept my birth name.
As a chipper young lad, I took the Amtrak empire builder route from the Motor City to the Windy city, chock-full of visions of music, fame and fortune. I was the lead singer/guitarist of The Gelheads. For 5 years we worked our asses off, playing everywhere from Hollywood to NYC and countless places in between, sharing the stage with some great bands like KISS, The Killers and Everclear. All becoming amazing friends in the process. Ultimately the dark "business" side took over the "music" side and we lost sight of why we were doing it in the first place. All that became important was pleasing industry schmucks, and why the hell there was Chocolate Yoo-hoo backstage when our rider clearly stated "Nestle' Quick." Needless to say, it wasn't fun for us anymore. We called it a day and I moved back to my native Motor City.
After several months of not picking up an instrument.. it came back.. in a more true and honest way than ever.. writing music not to please anyone else but as a true interpretation of what I'm feeing needs to be said. Here I am embracing and creating in the city in which I was created. Writing, performing, living. Thanks Detroit for the warm welcome home. It's great to be back. See you at a show.
of course! How are you doing? Its good to hear from you. We've been pushing through a lot of difficult changes in the band lately, but hope to reemerge soon. If you guys get together to play again, or if you have another band that you're in, we'll have to meet up for another show.
Frankie thanks for the add man, I really dig your stuff - i'll have to come see the Gelheads sometime soon! Feel free to check out my songs and let me know what ya think brotha
