A Conversation with Gloriana’s Mike Gossin – HuffPost 8.3.12

Mike Ragogna: Mike!

Mike Gossin: Hello, hello, how are ya?

MR: I’m fine, how are you doing sir?

MG: I’m doing great, thanks for having me on the show. I appreciate it.

MR: Before we start getting into the music, what’s the origin story of Gloriana? Why, might it have something to do with a couple of brothers growing up in New York and learning how to play music in every genre.

MG: (laughs) Yes, Tom and I were brothers and we grew up near the Canadian border in a small town called Marks, New York, and our father was actually a DJ himself. He was also a truck driver for about 30 years and he just loved music. It was a major part of our lives growing up. He always had music playing on his stereo at all times…dinner…it was the soundtrack to our lives, basically. We started playing music really young and left home when we were sixteen years old to move to Wilmington, North Carolina. We spent about ten years playing music there, but we really knew that we had to move to Nashville to really get things going. So we packed up a couple suitcases, a couple guitars, and headed to Nashville with really nothing. From there, we started to look for people to start a band. We were out at a songwriter night and heard Rachel [Reinert] singing. We said that we have to find out who this girl is and how to contact her, see if she’d be interested in starting a group. So we found her, actually, on MySpace; she had a music MySpace page up with like four songs on it and we sent her a message basically saying, “Hey, we’re new in town, we’re looking to start a group.” She responded reluctantly and said, “Yeah, Okay,” like, “Who are these creepy guys?” But, you know, she took a chance and the three of us got together and tried to write, jam and whatnot. We knew that we had something special. It was one of those goosebumps moments where you go, “Wow, this could be really great.” We told her that we didn’t have a place to stay and we thought, “You know what? We’re going to have to move in with you!” and she was cool enough to let us move in with her in her apartment in Nashville. That’s how Gloriana started. It was a crazy, long journey and, you know, when you know it’s right, it’s right. It was just one of those feelings and we were lucky that all three of us were able to meet up at that time.

MR: You also had Cheyenne Kimball with you for a while, right?

MG: Yeah, that was a year later. Rachel, Tom and I started playing around in Nashville for about a year and then Cheyenne joined the group after that.

MR: Right. OK, so eventually, you get signed to a label. What was that story?

MG: Well, we’re playing around town, and Tom and I had a connection with a good friend out of Wilmington, North Carolina, who knew some music managers in Nashville. There were a couple of guys in LA he had connections with too, and he pulled a favor and just said, “Hey, I want you guys to listen to these guys. You know, they’ve been bustin’ their butts for ten years trying to make it in the music business. I think they deserve a shot.” We started playing around town and made the connection with Emblem Records. They basically said, “Write some songs and lets see what you got.” We spent a lot of time writing and playing gigs, so finally, they said that they decided they wanted to do a development deal. Almost for the better part of the first year was really just them testing us out to see what we had, and see what other people’s reactions would be to the band. After that first year, they said, “You know, you guys work hard, we like what you’re coming up with, we think you’ve got something good here, we’re going to offer you a record deal.”

MR: Hard work wins again. Then, of course, out comes your self-titled, Gloriana album, which features “Wild At Heart,” and the single goes Top Fifteen, making your first single off your debut album a hit. What was that like?

MG: It was that moment you always dream of. We were pinching ourselves; after ten years of playing bars and restaurants you kind of get discouraged, man, and you start going, “Is this ever going to happen?” We made the first record with that record deal and that song just took off, man. The people were really connecting with it. The timing had a lot to do with it, too. It had this great summer vibe; it became this sort of anthem for the summer. It’s still great to see people tweeting about it on Twitter and we still play shows and people go crazy for that for that song. It’s like a dream come true, finally.

MR: And you won the American Music Award’s (AMA) Breakthrough Artist Award in 2009.

MG: Yeah, we were not expecting to win that one. We were the only country artist in that category. I think they had Lady Gaga and a couple of other pop people in there, but we were proud to represent country music because it was a fan voted award. That was a pretty big moment for us. We were proud of that.

MR: Plus you toured with Taylor Swift.

MG: Yeah, “Wild At Heart” came out and we were looking to get on a big tour because we were still new at that point. She called us up and we were touring in a van in the Southeast. We were playing at a place called, Wild Wing Café; it’s a chicken wing sports bar. We’re sleeping in a van doing that whole thing and we play a show, we get back to the van and the record label says, “There’s someone on the phone who wants to talk to you.” This girl gets on the phone and says, “Hey, this is Taylor Swift,” and we are sitting there saying, “Ha, ha, funny prank, yeah right.” We thought the label was pullin’ one on us, but it was really her! She said, “Listen, I heard ‘Wild At Heart.’ I am going on tour and I’d love for you guys to open up for me.” Kellie Pickler was also on that tour too. It was a great chance for us to get some good exposure in front of a lot of fans–really jammin’ at a professional level. Here’s 20,000 people, you better bring it.

MR: It resulted in your debut album charting #3 in Billboard.

MG: Yeah, it was unreal, man. You work so hard for something your whole life and in this business, there are so many ups and downs. You get let down a lot. There are always a lot of “no”s. You just wait for those couple of “Yes”s to align the stars and put you in a good spot. We are firm believers of, you know, if you don’t give up and you really chase your dreams, it could really happen.

MR: Yeah, yeah, it’s true. What is your creative process when you are writing songs. Do you create material focused on an album or are you constantly writing. What is the process when you sit down to write?

MG: That’s a really good question. For us, we had gone on the Taylor Swift tour, we had gone to Australia, we had gone over to the Middle East to play for the military, we had toured the US time and time again. This was the first time for us being away from home in three years and just working really hard. You go from the normal life to, “Okay, everything around us has changed, but at the core, we are still the same people.” Anyway, we went through all these life experiences and really had a lot to talk about. A lot has changed in our personal lives with loved ones or with each other, or really cool things have happened on the road. So we sat down and wrote for the new record, A Thousand Miles Left Behind, and it is basically the story of the last three years of our lives. And like you said, with “(Kissed You) Good Night”–that’s a song we wrote with our buddy Josh Grier in Nashville. I think the lyrical content, not only in the song, but on the whole record…there’s an honesty to it. From the heart, it’s all real stories that have happened to us. We’re seeing with this song that honesty and that story telling element is what people are really connecting with.

MR: “Wanna Take You Home” was your previous single, right?

MG: Yeah, that’s a fun one. We usually close the set with that one. We love that one a lot.

MR: I also want to ask you about an anthem on the album, “Solider Song,” one of the songs you wrote. What inspired it?

MG: We spent two weeks overseas. We went to Europe, we went to the Middle East, we were in the Persian Gulf. We landed on two different aircraft carriers that I believe had five to seven thousand people on them. They were currently serving in the military in war. So they are launching airplanes 24/7. It was a crazy experience throughout. We really wanted to give back because of everything that was going on with the Middle East and whatnot. We spent some time over there; we lived the soldiers. We saw their life, we lived their life. There were no hotels, nice hotels. We wanted to do it like they did it. It was totally an eye-opening experience for us. The amount of hard work and dedication and the positiveness they keep the whole entire time. I mean, it was 130 degrees out there in the desert. There wasn’t one person complaining out there. You know, they’re away from home for six months to a year at a time. There are no weekends, they work seven days a week so we were so moved by that experience. We came back and we were writing for the record and Tom and I, both of our grandparents were in WWII and we have a cousin who is currently serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. We wrote that with Matt Serletic, our producer, and his father was also in the military. He flew Apache helicopters. It comes from an honest spot in our hearts and we wanted to write a song, like you said, an anthem, not a slower, sadder song. It captured that positive energy that whole time we were over there.

MR: Beautiful, nicely said. What is your observation of the troops over there? What is their morale like and what did you come away with in addition to feeling bonded?

MG: I felt really proud and honored. There were a couple times where, to be honest with you, I was chocked up, hearing their stories. Their morale was so awesome, so positive, and they are amazing people, they really are. I wished the media told a little bit more about how awesome those people really are, man. It’s really moving. Really moving. I’d go back over there in a second. I would play for them again if the opportunity would arise.

MR: I would agree with you. So I was on my way to the Midwest for a Christmas trip three years ago, and as you know, I contribute to The Huffington Post, that has a reputation for leaning left. Winter storms prevented me from getting to my destination, and as I traveled back, all the flights were filled with all the troops going home. I hung out and bonded with a bunch of soldiers and it resulted in a HuffPost Christmas piece, which I wrote about all these guys from these small towns and what they were going home to. It had no political agenda or bent, it was just an appreciation of the men and women who were serving in the Armed Forces. It was a thank you.

MG: And I think with the “Solider Song,” it is not a political stance in any way. It’s just completely separate from politics and it’s us saying, “These are good people, no matter what your political beliefs are. These are Americans, these are cousins, wives, brothers, sisters and, you know, they’re doing a hell of a job out there and risking their lives. They keep up a great energy and it’s just really amazing.”

MR: Yes sir, it’s really amazing. Okay, the new album’s title, A Thousand Miles Left Behindis about the band’s journey?

MG: The title is representative of the journey that we’ve been on. We’ve had some ups and downs in this band and, you know, throughout it all, this is about finding out…this is our first record where we feel like we really found our place. We feel great about it. We’re looking back from everything we’ve been through and looking forward in a positive way. Yeah, it’s about the journey.

MR: Let’s get to a couple more songs, for instance, “Gold Rush,” that starts the album. . You’re basically saying, “Goodbye City of Angels, I left my angel back at home.”

MG: Yeah.

MR: Even though you didn’t write that one, what else is going on in that?

MG: Yeah, basically this song, which Tom wrote, is about the Gold Rush back in the day when everybody rushed out to California to find gold, compared to today, people rushing to California for fame. Really, at the end of the day, what matters most is not the fame or the gold. It’s the one you love. That’s what “Gold Rush” is about.

MR: And there’s another “Wild At Heart”-themed song, you might say (laughs), “Sunset Loving,” where it’s just literally sunset loving in a parking lot.

MG: Yeah, this is one of those feel good songs, ya know? I wrote this song with our producer Matt Serletic and a good friend of ours, Hillary Lindsay in Nashville, Tenessee. Basically, we were doing a lot of fairs and festivals last year. We were at this one in particular and there were about 30,000 people there. It was huge. They’ve got these two-mile campgrounds, and I got a little stir crazy on the road. So I decided to steal a golf cart and go check out what these festivals’ vibes are all about. I take this golf cart and I go all about a mile and a half. I meet these people on the campsite. It’s pretty crazy out there. You’ve got these people running around nuts! So I’m out there and the golf cart dies. I have no cell phone on me so I just hunker down until someone comes out here and finds me. In the meantime, all hell is breaking loose around me. There are people drunk falling around me and whatnot. But on this campsite, there’s this guy and girl sitting in this car and they were kissing and they were totally oblivious to everything that was going on around. So I wrote this song about that moment, really, in a very easy going way of the two of them being so lost in that moment that they were so oblivious to everything around them. It’s called “Sunset Loving,” and what I was going for was the “Wild At Heart” Part 2, but from the girl’s perspective. Whereas with “Wild At Heart,” Tom sings the first verse, you know, and then we all came in the chorus. Rachel sings the first verse… It still has that rhrythmic element that we like to do.

MR: Dude, now that you have a thousand miles left behind, so to speak, what is your advice for new artists?

MG: New artists. Gosh, that’s a good question. I am trying to make it a good one. I would say make sure you surround yourself with not only good business people, but people that you can trust, people that have a good certification, a past history in the business, because the music business is tough, man. You can get yourself in some situations where you sign your name on the dotted line, you know, six months later you go, “Ugh, I wish I didn’t do that.” You’ve got to be sure about the people you surround yourself with. Number two, never give up. Like I said, we fought and fought and fought and…(it was) blood, sweat and tears to get where we are today. We’re very proud of that. We’re strong believers in hard work. If you really chase that dream, I know a lot of people say that’s cheesy, but really, if you really chase that dream, you honestly believe you can do it, it is possible. It definitely is possible.

MR: Again, hard work being what makes the difference. What does the immediate future hold for Gloriana?

MG: Lots of touring. We’re gonna support the heck out of this record. We love playing live, we love playing on the road, so all of our tour dates are on https://www.Gloriana.com, we’ve got some really cool tv appearances coming up…yep, that’s about it. We’re just gonna get out there and show people these songs live and try and put some smiles on peoples’ faces.

MR: I’m sure you will. I wish you the best, and it’s been really fun to watch your climb to the success.

MG: I really appreciate that’s awesome. We’ll see you on the road.

Transcribed by Joe Stahl