Today we’d like to introduce you to Greg Robbins.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I started singing along to crooners like Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra since elementary school – I was fascinated by it and realized by the time I was in middle school that I was good at copying them. I sang all the time, and my parents encouraged me to start taking voice lessons (in addition to the piano I’d been playing since I was eight) and did musical theatre and choir through middle and high school. I started playing guitar in tenth grade, aspiring to become a musical combination of Jimmy Hendrix and John Frusciante. I told my parents I wasn’t going to college and they laughed at me. I was dead set on being an alternative rock guitarist as my career until I got bad carpal tunnel and tendonitis, and I eventually quit playing at the end of high school. This was an extremely hard experience, and I felt like I couldn’t legitimately do music anymore – I felt empty. I changed a lot – I became a Christian and became really passionate about social justice issues, such as homelessness. I enrolled at Berry College in Rome, GA not sure whether I would become a social worker, opera singer, farmer, or anything else.
The classical training (Bel Canto singing method) I received from Professor Harry Musselwhite revolutionized my voice – it was life changing. But opera didn’t speak deeply to my soul like Hendrix and those crooners had early on. I switched to a Sociology major and still wasn’t sure where my life trajectory would go. Then in my Junior year of school I joined the Berry Jazz Ensemble & Combo and starting gigging around town. I decided that I wanted to sing jazz, not just sing popular standards in front of a big band, for the rest of my life. It captured my soul in such a deep way that the decision was easy – I didn’t look back on the GRE that I recently received a great score on, or all the extra-curricular Sociological field studies I had presented at conferences with, having prepared to go to grad school for Community Development – I gave up all of that. I knew I would with this new lifestyle – I had the deep love for it, the work ethic, and the raw talent. That’s all you need.
It took two years after graduating of working full time jobs and performing at night to get to the point where I was just singing full time– and that’s where I’ve been for the last year. There were usually multiple nights per week where I got barely any sleep, driving all over the Southeast at night and getting to the desk job at 8:30am. I just put out my first album “On Your Way” (which I co-produced along with drummer-producer Justin Varnes and have a couple of originals on) and have performed throughout the Southeast and in multiple prominent venues along the East Coast – all as my own manager and booking agent. This process has not been without its hardships, but has been incredibly rewarding and joyful, and I still don’t look back. I love the hustle, and I love the music. I don’t see myself doing anything else – it’s so beautiful and rewarding to share Joy, Beauty, and Hope with people through this beautiful jazz idiom. I take that very seriously and have reaped the rewards of it early on. This is just the beginning.
Please tell us about your art.
I sing, perform, and write songs because it’s beautiful and extremely life giving to me, and because I can share that life with others. Music has always been the most influential, inspirational force in my life; I’ve always felt it very deeply. It pulls me outside of just myself and points me to a higher purpose– God and people. My greatest motivation is reminding people that there is hope. Louis Armstrong’s early recordings of “On the Sunny Side of the Street” (Pts. 1 and 2) reminds me that life is super beautiful, exploding with joy, regardless of what is going on in my life and the world. It reminds me that I am here to share this hope through music in an honest and excellent manner, and in turn to help remind people to smile and look upwards.
The music that I write is generally very personal – my goal in writing a song is to take a comprehensive snapshot of an emotionally important scene in my life history (or someone else’s). I drill down to what it felt in the moment for me and the other people in the story and make it relatable to the greater human experience.
As an artist, how do you define success and what quality or characteristic do you feel is essential to success as an artist?
Success is very subjective to each artist. However, every artist is driven by the need to express themselves and should be driven by some sort of desire to make the world better. I do desire to be one of the best Jazz vocalists in the world, to tour the world performing my own recorded music with some of the best musicians in the world, etc. However, I believe at the end of my life if I have communicated my heart’s longing to share hope with others in an excellent manner and with integrity, I have done my job and will consider my career a success. I think regardless of my goals or any other artist’s, success is defined by an honest expression of their heart through their art, which in some way needs to have added to other people’s lives and to have encouraged them to be more fully human.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
My debut album “On Your Way” released on April 6, 2018; it can be heard on all major streaming platforms including Spotify (spoti.fi/2Hsc2kt), YouTube (https://bit.ly/2IUnUax), etc. You can also find it on iTunes, and physically on CD and Vinyl via Amazon and CD Baby (or in person at one of my shows!).
I regularly perform all around the Atlanta area and the Southeast, including Saturdays at the Crossing Steakhouse in downtown Norcross from 7-10th, no cover! I have a few Atlanta albums shows coming up, including on Sat, Aug 18th at Jazz in the Alley in downtown Norcross, Sat, Oct 6 at the Velvet Note in Alpharetta, and Sat, Oct 13 at the Suwanee Jazz Festival in Suwanee, GA.
Otherwise, follow my Bandsintown site (https://www.bandsintown.com/a/10906060?came_from=257) or my Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/GregRobbinsMusic/) for other events.
Contact Info:
- Website: gregrobbinsmusic@gmail.com
- Phone: 6785247290
- Email: gregrobbinsmusic@gmail.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/gregrobbinsmusic
- Facebook: facebook.com/gregrobbinsmusic
- Twitter: twitter.com/greghrobbins
Image Credit:
Benjamin Walker
Andrew Rayn Lowry
Olivia Chindamo
Crystal Anne Photo
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