Welcome to another Weekend Warrior profile, where we chat to a fellow keyboard player on the front lines of music making. If you’d like to be profiled yourself, here’s how.
Say hi to Paul Gere, keys man for the Mixtape Junkies. Paul has some great inisghts and experiences that I think a lot of us will identify with!
Band Name
Mixtape Junkies
What genres / eras does your band cover?
Mixtape era – late 1970s through the 1980s.
How many years have you been playing gigs?
Personally since about 1980. Mixtape for the past 7 years.
What inspired you to become a keyboard player in the first place?
I was a piano student from about second grade. I was mostly ticking the boxes but loved to play. It would have been in my early teens that I realized two things:
(1) I could write my own music, and (2) I was pretty good playing by ear.
The stuff I wrote was mostly cheesy ballads (but the girls liked them and one song got me to second place at the Minnesota State Fair talent contest and paid for my first synth (a Roland Juno 106).
My early playing by ear was learning the parts and playing along with recordings – notably Supertramp, Styx and Kansas. That opened the world of playing covers for me. Like most Americans, I was in the Columbia House Record Club. I was force-shipped the Supertramp Live album Paris and played along with it end to end. That album was transformational.
What is the keyboard rig you currently use when gigging?
I have just transitioned from 100% hardware to a hybrid hardware/software rig. Software played a part in my former hardware rig as well (I was an early Camelot Pro user).
Current rig is a Yamaha MODX8 + an Arturia Keylab MkII 88 driving the software side. BTW, I quite like the MkII semi-weighted keybed. I started with the MkIII and it was far too light, so it got punted.
Host software is Gig Performer and I’ve collected an arsenal of instruments from Arturia, Cherry Audio, Pianoteq, Roland, Korg and others. ANY sound is possible in this virtual space and I’ve built some massive layers and splits.
All of the digital stuff sits on a mini PC the size of an Apple TV with blazing specs, including a 2 TB SSD. My audio interface is a MOTU M4 and audio signal from hardware and software converge at a Radial Key Largo mixer.
The mini PC, MOTU, Key Largo and a Shure IEM base are all housed in a 6U rack including Furman power and a thermal fan.
I’ve built my first USB snake, which carries USB MIDI and video signal from the rack to the keyboard stand (a K&M Spider Pro). Also on the stand is an 18″ flat screen monitor that shows me a split screen of Gig Performer and Lyric sheets using Mobile Sheets software. I advance through sets using a Boss FS6 dual footswitch and use FS5s for sustain and mod on both keyboards.
While my monitor of choice is IEMs, I also use a 12″ EV powered monitor on stage for fill and “just in case”.
Is there a piece of gear you’re lusting after?
I’d be a bad musician if I said “nothing”, but I’m so pleased with what I’ve got, I’ve got no plans for changes in the near future. I can see a future where the MODX gets replaced by a smaller MIDI controller for a 100% virtual rig.
Aside from keys duties, do you have other roles in the band?
Happily no. The singer and bassist do most of the booking stuff, bassist manages our finances and built/maintains our web site (he’s an IT guy by day), singer does promo graphics and builds our set lists.
Most memorable gig you’ve played and why was it memorable?
I toured in my college years with an amazing cover band, playing the 80s stuff you hear today when the songs were actually on the charts. We were classmates and dear brothers.
We played all across the upper Midwest US across many states. We did everything together. We had a Minneapolis-based agent who had us out every weekend and all summer 6/7 nights a week.
The other guys were a year ahead of me and had graduated when I made the tough call to leave and go back and finish my college degree. (A factor in my decision was also my girlfriend at the time – now my wife of 35 years). They played on without me for a couple more years.
We stayed in loose contact. Fast forward to just over 15 years ago and a reunion show idea was hatched. I had quit playing altogether for years by then (that’s another story) and we were scattered across the US.
We made it happen. We planned for months and had two rehearsals over weekends at the drummer’s house in Iowa. Remember I had no instrument, so I managed to borrow a Yamaha Motif XS8 from a local guy who wasn’t using it. I had to push myself to learn the instrument and then get cracking on the songs. I practiced/programmed almost daily. A freakish muscle memory kicked in and the parts just fell off my hands.
Finally the show arrived. With a last rehearsal the day before, we were to play a large festival stage for a massive Iowa event. The stage was in a major intersection of a town and there were people filling the streets as far as you could see in all four directions.
We played our hearts out for an hour, bringing back all the old stuff. But the moment that made it my best ever came about 45 minutes in. We had an amazing guest singer join and we did “We Are Family”. She crushed it and our kids (13 among the 5 of us) joined their dads on stage. I’ll never forget it. There may still be video of this on YouTube.
Happily, we’ve played a few more shows since then. Oh – the Motif. I had so many hours in programming I sanded it all to a USB drive and bought my first Motif XF8. Some of those first sounds still live on my MODX and I use a few to this day.
Has anything ever gone spectacularly wrong for you at a gig that you’re happy to share?
Mixtape Junkies had a show at a massive amphitheater venue – the biggest local stage we play.
We had recently learned Bruce Hornsby’s “Every Little Kiss”, which starts with a beautiful piano solo. I had spent hours learning and practicing it note for note. It was incredible.
We get to the song and I launch the solo. Something goes wrong and my mind goes blank. I’m fumbling badly on the keys. This has never happened to me. It’s just me and 500 or so audience members.
While I was wishing to just get to the song, the singer (with merciful intentions) stops me and asks to start the song again. I started over and only sort of played it well.
Rough. After, the guys couldn’t have been nicer about it, but I was pretty upset with myself. That song is no longer in our catalog.
Are there songs you love or hate to play?
A couple I love playing include Money For Nothing by Dire Straits and Something About You by Level 42.
Who are your keyboard player inspirations and why?
Jonathan Cain. He made keys parts integral to Journey’s sound (although the worst music video of the 80s was Separate Ways, which prominently featured his Roland Jupiter just sitting around). Rodger Hodgkins and Rick Davies of Supertramp for making keys the center of their sound. Howard Jones and Thomas Dolby for building a band out of keys alone.
Fantasy time: you get a call from your favourite band of all time, asking you to play keys next week at their gig. Who is that band and how would you pull it off?
Journey. I already know most of their hits – played them in the 80s and I love the music.Not sure I could put up with the squabbling politics though.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Hopeful still playing and fully virtual.
Your 5 Desert Island Discs
So, Peter Gabriel
Gaucho, Steely Dan
Paris, Supertramp
Purple Rain, Prince
Leftoverture, Kansas
