Meet Adam Gabriel

We were lucky to catch up with Adam Gabriel recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Adam, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

My Purpose… that’s a strange concept, really. I guess I feel like my “purpose” Is still a mystery to me.
Music is my Passion, my obsession, my one constant love in this life. But the word “Purpose” implies that I was made to do something, like a shovel was made to dig, and it also implies a maker, and I m not sure that I believe in such a thing.
You could say that music is my purpose, but life is long and we affect so many people in so many ways. We’ll see, at the end of it all what my true purpose was.
Regarding my passion though… I’ve always been in love with music, since I was a very little boy. I didn’t have to “find” it, it was part of who I am from the beginning.
I always knew that I wanted to sing and play and write songs.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

Where to start…
Well, I like to tell people that I’m Southern born and West Coast seasoned. I’m a Georgia boy at heart, born and raised not far from Athens, GA. And I like to start with that because I feel it paints a good picture, an accurate picture without a lot of explanation required.
As a Southern boy, I grew up with a love and respect for nature, respect for my elders, yes ma’am, yes sir. A respect for others just on general principle. I grew up in the Bible-belt, so you could say that I felt the “hand of God” in my life from a very young age. Sometimes that hand felt like a touch of destiny, or like I was made for something special. And sometimes it felt like fear, and a beating from my Father.

As I got older, I began to question all the religion that had been fed to me as a child. And as a man, I do believe I’ve found a healthy balance between the guiding principles in the Bible: love, Hope, Compassion, Courage, Forgiveness, etc… and being connected to the world around me, the objective scientific realities, the experiences of others, just being a nonjudgmental human being, open minded. I mean, we’re all flying blind here. We’re all just trying to do the best we can, for ourselves and the ones we love, and when it comes to matters of “God” or “Eternal Truth” … the only thing for sure is that no one really knows, and we just need to be more gentle with each other.

Ultimately, what I do as an artist, songwriter, performer is just playing in the mud. I’m constantly digging through the dirt of my experience, my life, my joys, my trauma, the ache of my hopes and dreams, my fears and failures, all of it “Good” or “Bad” and then I try to share those raw bits of my humanity with others, because it helps us to see each other in a more connected way.
I’m a story teller, and I could write books… but there’s something very magical about music and it’s ability to transcend language, politics, gender, religious beliefs… done right, music is the most powerful bonding agent in human experience. And I firmly believe that.

It’s why I’ve devoted my life to it. I can’t think of a more noble pursuit, or at least a more inspiring pursuit.

I’ve been really fortunate to find individuals, other creatives and musicians and artists to share this journey with. I’ve actually just completed my newest recording project, a five-song EP entitled, “Still Standing” that’s going to be released in a couple months and we’ll be sharing it with a lot of new people and new friends when we go on tour in June, 2025.

It’s our “Southern Summer Tour” And will be heading down through California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and my old stomping grounds, Georgia. I’m so excited to take this music on the road.

In addition to the new EP and the summer tour, I’ll be releasing a much larger, two disc album titled “Orphans” which is essentially a collection of 24 songs that I’ve written over the last 25, 26 years that were never recorded or released. I’m pretty excited about that… There’s a lot of gems in there that I know people will enjoy. I’m hoping to release that shortly after the tour, most likely in July or August of 2025.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

There’s all kinds of answers to this question. Obviously, it’s important to hone your craft, to pursue improvement with a restlessness and a determination, but I’d have to say that the most important quality, hands down, has to be resilient.

To be an artist, you have to be able to take a beating, to face rejection and failure and still be able pull yourself back up, to find your feet again and keep going. This world, as wonderful and as beautiful as it is, is a very brutal, unforgiving place and it will beat you into submission if you let it. It will take everything from you if you let it.
You have to develop an unwavering determination, that no matter what, you are going to continue to create, continue to sing, continue to write, continue to play, continue to share what you have with the world and be authentic and raw and honest.
It’s true, that only the strong survive. But strength is not something you’re just born with. It’s something that you decide to be.

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?

There’s so many challenges in my chosen career as a musician, especially in the age of social media where there are millions of voices vying to be heard. Much of the time it feels like shouting into the void, or pouring out drops of my heart and soul into a vast ocean and wondering “will it ever be heard? Will it ever make a difference?” But these are existential questions that will resolve themselves and I believe that the art of substance and value will always rise to the surface and stand out from the noise.

But the number one challenge that I face is money, haha! The farther I travel down this path, the more I learn that money plays a major role in artists being heard. It’s a shame that the world revolves around this agreed upon illusion of value.
It takes a lot of money to record, to produce, to duplicate and distribute, to advertise, to market, to tour, and without deep pockets the deck is stacked against you. It’s not impossible, but it’s certainly much more challenging.

But every challenge is also an opportunity – an opportunity to be more creative, and it becomes more about creating VALUE, value to share with others, value they can see and feel, value that they want to support.
It’s a snowball effect. I’ve been building momentum, it’s growing and as it grows, it attracts others who want to be part of it, and then it grows more and there a magnetism that draws more support, more excitement… and more value.
This game is about believing in yourself and your story, and never, ever giving up.

I believe that the money will come. I can’t allow it to scare me or discourage me. I can’t allow money to be my focus. There are certainly easier ways to make money and live a comfortable life. But my purpose in life isn’t to live a comfortable life, but rather a meaningful life… And now we’ve come full circle, haha… I guess THAT’S my purpose… to live a meaningful life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.adamgabrielmusic.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adamgabrielmusic?igsh=MWh0M2poem15eXZ2NA==
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@adamgabriel5436?si=1HYF3sb-AzVwJjzt