Tony Cummings reports on the emergence of California's GABLE PRICE & FRIENDS

Gable Price & Friends

With three Cross Rhythms radio playlist hits - "How It Sets You Free", "I Don't Wanna Live Like This" and "I Love To Struggle" - Gable Price & Friends are a welcome addition to the dwindling list of top rate Christian rock bands out there and gigging.

Gable is a singer, songwriter and record producer born in the wild, wild west of the USA and currently living in Redding, California. Gable's musical beginnings go back when at age six his Dad began teaching him electric guitar on an Ibanez Strat copy. At age 11 Gable, with his Dad and his two brothers, performed at a music festival at a family friend's farm. Gable shredded the intro to the song "Tell The World" by Hillsong United, for the gloriously named but short lived band Chipotle And The Chicken Strips. Gable joined the worship team at the Vineyard Church on the Westside of Cincinnati. He also had a two-year stint in a covers band with his older brother Jonah.

In 2017, the young east-coast transplant loaded his guitar, his favourite pair of Adidas sneakers and the clothes on his back into his renovated 1977 Dodge campervan (otherwise known as "The Dreamboat") and left Cincinnati, Ohio for Redding, California - a city where no one knew his name. He told American Songwriter, "I only had the intention to stay there for one year, and you could NOT have convinced me otherwise."

In fact, it was not long after Price moved westward that he met Adam Elizarraraz (electric guitar), Cameron Pablo (guitars), David Funk (bass/keys) and Daniel Vargas (drums) and decided a year would simply not be long enough. The boys collectively became the Christian indie-rock band Gable Price & Friends. Their 2018 debut release, 'The Redding EP' featuring the single "Dead Man", birthed a devout regional following. It was the widely praised release of "Awestruck Revival" and subsequent singles from their 2020 LP release, 'Fractioned Heart', however, that got them noticed in the wider US scene.

Price shared, "I have realised that while I love making music and playing shows, it is the feeling of doing something significant that drives and fulfils me. The thought that a lyric that BARELY made it into a track that talks someone off a ledge, and the thought that we could potentially be the guys that inspire a kid to start writing songs and making music. Those things really get me fired up."

In 2020 Gable and his friends were signed to the biggest Christian music label in the world, Capitol CMG. With a powerful single "You Are My Country" announcing their arrival, the subsequent album 'The Consequence Of Being Alive' got enthusiastic reviews and airplay. Switchfoot's Jon Foreman was featured on "How It Sets You Free", a song Gabe co-wrote with Tim Foreman. Other writing credits on 'The Consequence.' include Judith Akers (Judah & The Lion) on "I Don't Wanna Live Like This" and Caleb Chapman (Colony House) on "Tough Love".

Talking about the album Price said, "We all were stretched to look at the big picture of each song. We were stretched a lot by our producers Aaron Brohman and Scottie Mills to consider if what we wanted to contribute helps the song, or just makes us look good. That goes for individual parts, to mix revisions, to the hooks and melodies. I think all of us had to mature a lot as musicians and creators during this process."

One of the most intriguing songs on the album is "I Don't Wanna Live Like This". Price was asked to explain what the song meant to him and the relationship between his spirituality and his music. He responded, "I love referring to 'the Kool Aid', because I feel like everyone pictures a certain group of people, or an organisation, or something they consider to be 'drinking the Kool Aid'. It's funny to me because everyone thinks of something different from the next person, and I think that's fascinating. I think that song is just about going through life unscathed by bitterness. I can disagree with things, I can change the way I do things, but I don't wanna leave this life full of bitterness, and all I ever did was hate on things. And as far as the Kool Aid I'm referring to, I'll leave it up to the listeners' interpretation.

"In terms of the relationship between my spirituality and my music, I think music is a very spiritual thing. The beauty of interpretation leaves a lot of room for people to receive these songs in a spiritual way, but also to receive them in a very human way. I never want to tell someone that they can't relate a love song I wrote to their spiritual practice. I think for me, writing an album about my wife, my life and the contrasts that come with it, felt spiritual in and of itself even though every song wasn't designed for a CCM audience like prior releases were."