Gabe Rosales is a guitarist, singer, bassist rapper, and producer from San Juan Capistrano, California. Rosales has worked in many genres of music, such as Latin music (most notably flamenco and Cuban music), rock, jazz, drum and bass, fusion, funk, hip hop, jazz rap, and death metal. His album, Vital Nonsense, was released on February 10, 2009. Rosales has played with a variety of artists, including Jennifer Lopez, Fat Joe, Christina Milian, and George Lynch.[1]
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Born in 1978 in Southern California to Mexican parents, Rosales studied began studying music at age 10, originally playing the piano, and later on switching to guitar and bass in his early teens, and was influenced early by groups such as Faith No More, N.W.A, and DJ Jazzy Jeff, as well as Mexican folk music his parents played and listened to. Rosales also began drawing, which started his interest with art. Rosales' parents divorced in 1986 when he was 12 and this split his family. He moved to northern California with his mother after she got accepted into a college, leaving his father in Southern California. At age 13, Rosales developed a fascination with the occult, and bought books by Aleister Crowley and Anton La Vey. Rosales' predominant musical interest was death metal as he began performing with a band just 3 months after he picked up bass as a vocalist and instrumentalist. He utilized his dark Poe influenced poetry as the catalyst for his lyrics.
Eventually conflicts and his obsession with the occult wore on his mother and she sent him to move in with his father. During his first summer back in Southern California, he practiced from 12 to 16 hours a day, and became interested in bands such as Weather Report, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Coltrane, Cameo, Zapp, and Art Tatum. During high school, Rosales starred in many theatre productions, played in seven different bands, and displayed his art at a local art school. He stopped his occult practices, but continued to be subtly influenced by it in his drawings. A friendship began with producer and guitarist Paul Pesco, who introduced him to the Zen Guitar Book, sparking Rosales's interest with Quantum Physics and Eastern thought.
In 1999 at the age of 19, Gabe played on George Lynch's album Smoke This, and consumed excessive amounts of alcohol while on tour. Because of this, Rosales went on a spiritual search, and attended a 10 day Buddhist Vipassana meditation course. After his return, he began playing again and landed gigs with Christina Milian, Jennifer Lopez, and Prashant Aswani. Not until after few jail stints, small time drug dealing, and health problems did Gabe finally reach his lowest point which forced him to make a crucial decision in his life. He took a vow to soberness in 07, resisting both drugs and alcohol and began a new journey as an activist, dedicated teacher, student and revolutionary. His life experiences inspired him to release his 1st solo album where he called upon many high profile influential musicians and artists he has worked with over time to contribute. In 09 Gabe became a proud member of Afrika Bambaataa's Universal Zulu Nation, the US West Coast general of the Anti Injustice Movement, a Guerrilla Republik soldier and a political enthusiast. His music was included on the Anti Injustice Movements Lyrical Warfare mixtape in 2010. In early 2010 Gabe met up with another guitar hero, multi-grammy award winning Andy Summers, the guitarist of the legendary band The Police. He recorded with Summers for an album and continues playing with him on various projects. Rosales is also working on the next original album with the solidified incarnation of the band that was based from his 1st solo album.
Rosales's Vital Nonsense features songs from nearly every one of the genres that he has played in. The album featured musicians such as Dave Weckl, Divine Styler, Paul Pesco, and Prashant Aswani. The album was produced by Pesco, Rosales, and Riz Story, and was recorded in various studios in the Orange County area. The album discusses political ideology, race, religion, jail life and redemption, and various aspects of Rosales's life.