Bob Gaulke

Walkitlikeyoutalkit

adventures in home recording

For the most part, I start albums in Logic on my laptop, then swap files with a pile of very talented friends. As everyone in the world is also currently doing this, it seems obvious that playing live is once again the final frontier for a songwriter. To that end, I've sucked it up and have gotten over my stage fright and am now appearing somewhat regularly at a small cafe in Jackson Heights (espresso77) and a friend's bookstore/cultural center in Williamsburg (GlobalLanguageReads). I thought I'd knock out a quickie just to preview what an acoustic set would look like, so here we are. Enjoy! Bob

Bandcamp

As if things weren't hard enough

More Shriekback

…and finally; “When Are These Not Difficult Times” This 4-track E.P. caps off the first of a set of collaborations with the UK Post-Punk group, Shriekback. Keyboardist Barry Andrews and drummer Martyn Barker are joined by songwriter Bob Gaulke on basses and guitars. “These songs seemed to work well together as a coda to “(S)words” and “(detail)” and perhaps are part of a different direction, separate from the first two.

Subject matter deals from the apocalyptic (“Emergency Romance”) to the mystical (“Time Matters”), to the interpersonal challenges of the opening track, “False Beginners”.

Like the previous two efforts, the recordings represented a set of overdub sessions aided by the expedience of passing Logic sessions between London (Barry and Martyn), New York, Amsterdam (Hans Croon, guitars and editing), and Patagonia (Martin Scian, mixing & mastering).

“Any shortfalls are my own. I work in a bit of a vacuum here in the Bronx; I have no idea how interesting or depressing these tunes sound like. I’m just reporting for inside myself”.

Preview the E.P. on Bandcamp by clicking the button.

Click Here

Shriekbacking

Music Minus One

Shriekback

On those first records, you never knew what would come next, but it was compelling. Like artifacts from an unknown civilization. Information was at a premium- behind the solid colored covers, there might be an insert. Or not.

We’d go down to the Rundell Library where they had NME & Melody Maker subscriptions. Checking the record store bins like lottery addicts. Who did what? Was that one voice or two? The pedigree. “Tench”; “Care”; “Jam Science”. They felt like very personal secrets committed to vinyl. Complete with messages on the run out grooves.

Decades later. The wonders of social media, fast uploads, and Logic software. It’s xmas when the overdubs arrive from Barry and Martyn and the sometimes the songs just have to dry for a while like canvasses.

It’s getting late. Friends are gone. Got to get it out before there are no listeners left.

“(S)words” and “(detail)” stream June 6th.

Bob 04202025

(S)words

Stupid

Streaming Now

Stupid link:

https://srsr.li/bob-gaulke-stupid

I try to be simple. I try to be understood. I can always get simpler. I can get stupid. That was the goal with this record- try to break it down. I played bass and guitar and used the dub principles of “when in doubt, leave it out”…just a short rundown:

Advertisements for Life: I’m at that age where I’ve still got energy but friends are dropping like flies

Dr. Panglossian: If I get to bed by 9pm, anything’s possible.

The Ghost of Phil Ochs: He might’ve been wrong, but his later work still shines to me.

Even if Only: Peopling. It’s what we do.

General Obvious: What are we fighting for, Captain Obvious. I see that you’ve got a promotion.

The Radical Bureaucracy: Teaching. I could be teaching pornography to my students and they’d still be bored out of their minds. The schoolification of everything. How dare anyone demand anyone else’s attention.

On It: The closest I can get to a love song in these times.

My Entire Adult Life: Self-explanatory.

Thank you: Kevin Cerovich- Drums and Trombones/Leon Gruenbaum-Keys/Martin Scian-Mixing and Mastering and a very special thanks as always to my sister in this mission, the famous Emilia Cataldo, aka Nehedar.

Artwork by Lucian Cian!

I'm happy with the music I released in '23 and have more to put out next year. Hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday season. B

Listen Now...

Double Fold-out Gatefold Concept Album, "The Humanities"

It wrote me-

I can’t make any claim to musical virtuosity, vocal prowess, or poetic genius, but I think I just made the best record of my career.

I have no idea how it happened, what I did, or how the pieces fit, but this thing just came out of me and I can almost pretend it’s not mine and I think it sounds pretty good.

I wrote my own parts quickly- I don’t really remember the “how’s” and “why’s” of these songs, but somehow, after a year of putting out work or 30 years of making home recordings, or 55 years on the planet, things fell into place.

And this thing is one slick beast. It’s called “The Humanities” and comes in two parts. Each part is a 25 or minute chunk of poetry and funk and jazz and dub about what I experience in my Bronx existence as a former middle-class gringo traipsing around a 21st century environment where people lurch from crises to crises, make love, work crushing jobs, raise children, scream in pain, narcotize themselves, dance, shit and never fall asleep.

I can hear pieces of my record collection. I can feel places I’ve never been. I can sense how somehow I’ve been able to triangulate a lot of stuff I process daily and make some reasonable guesses about others.

I send these paper airplane plans over to Kevin and he works up a frame on the drums and then drops a roof with his horns.

Leon comes over and does a lot of the drywall work on keys. Before you can say, “wtf???”, you’re bent over double laughing at his deadly accurate choices of sounds and parts.

Then comes Kenny bridging, reconciling, twisting and adding lights and plumbing on guitar.

Emilia does the finishing work, adding the vocal furniture and whatever metaphors follow, then

Martin inspects everything, tweaking here and there and gets it ready for your arrival on January 6th.

Click Now

Redux

Hindsight

Who wants be stapled to split-second decisions forever.? With the magic of digital, the tweaking’s easier. I’m showering last month thinking, “fuck-I’m not building songs around a series of bad puns (“We took off”), quickly-sketched situations (“You Crazy”), or mixed metaphors (“More Blood”).

Luckily there were a few songs from a different project with the same team that I could use in their places (“LMD”, “I have no secrets”, “Happiness Headquarters”). These were pulled from other albums because I like short records. I don’t think my voice is strong enough that you need more than twenty minutes of me at a time.

Well, to do any of this I’ve got to assume I possess a modicum of objectivity about my own abilities. I feel the new GQZ is tighter and harder in the right places. I hope you agree.

Bob Nov 22nd 2022

Lick this

The Fabulist

What it says

funky introversion

Now is the sweetest time

After the death of both my parents, I found a lot of comfort in the 20th century Indian poets. I read everything I could find in English, from Penguin anthologies to any chapbook that I could track down on the web. The work of Alexander, Devi, Kolatkar, Seth, Tagore, and dozens of others was pure medicine for my heart.

The album title owes something to the sense of yearning and introspection I sought and found in the many volumes I devoured. The songs followed quickly; written I guitar, I decided to play bass on the tracks as well. I usually don’t do this as I feel my naive approach needs to be tempered with more experienced musicians to derive the effect I look for; well, I had the guitars done over by Marco Raaphorst. In many cases, he expertly colored in what I was sketching or far surpassed my expectations with his parts.

Kevin Cerovich plays drums and trombones, as he usually does and I can’t say how much I rely on him to create the foundation of these collective arrangements. It can be like jenga at times as we build them layer by layer, but he certainly outlines the songs capably by establishing the dynamics and adding brightness to each tune.

Mike Rose is a modern classical composer and the ex of one of my dearest friends. His kindness knows no bounds as he would indulge me with overdub sessions in his kitchen between stints of childcare and bouts of Ben & Jerry’s attacks which we both suffer from.

I’ve adopted Emilia Cataldo as my younger sister. She’s so intuitive as singer and her harmonies always delight. I keep trying to reach for them; perhaps my singing will sound more like hers if we play these tunes live.

Finally, I can’t say enough about Martin Scian, who mixes and masters my work. We’ve still working on the first dozen albums. Two dozen more to go.

I hope you enjoy this album. The cover was shot by Julian Brogi, a brilliant drummer who played on my first album and sadly passed recently. Jules, this one’s for you.