Playing to the beat of a different drum

By Sabrina Hornung

sabrina@hpr1.com

The 4onthefloor frontman Gabriel Douglas describes their sound as, “Breathtakingly urgent with passion-consumed delivery, connective and raw.” Their influences stem from the sounds of the Delta Blues, roots rock and folk. Their high-energy shows have packed houses across the Midwest and beyond. The Minneapolis four-piece rock and roll band is known for each of their members playing a bass drum and writing their songs in 4/4 time--hence the name.

The High Plains Reader had a chance to speak with Douglas before their set at Drekkerfest this coming weekend, about their sound, their signature stomping bass, and the Minneapolis music scene.

High Plains Reader: What is your songwriting process--do you start with lyrics or a melody?

Gabriel Douglas: Every song is its own journey. Sometimes those words sneak in first, other times you’ll be humming something in the shower for an entire season before the rest of the song reveals itself. Always be open to the muses and the demons around you. They are interchangeable with their skin and with their duties.

HPR: Can you describe your musical beginnings?

GD: Grew up on a farm in Northwestern Minnesota, played some saxophone. Found a guitar in storage in our house. Taught myself how to play that. Moved to college in Duluth Rock City. Continued the evolution of a musician who loves music.

HPR: Being from Stephen, Minnesota, what did you expect out of the Minneapolis music scene and how have you seen it evolve?

GD: I knew Minneapolis from Semisonic being on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. It’s been great to find out about the low-hanging fruit (the bands that most Minneapolis folks know about that I did not): Prince, Replacements, Husker Du. But also finding out about some of my favorite bands from the early 00s : Love-Cars, Alva Star, Kid Dakota, Vicious Vicious, Dillinger Four, Halloween, Alaska, and so many more. And now to have contemporaries like Zoo Animal, Pert Near Sandstone, Trampled by Turtles, Caroline Smith, the Evening Rig, Communist Daughter, and countless others calling this community home. People are always going to shows here, always finding new bands to turn each other onto.

HPR: Are you currently working on anything?

GD: Always. New the 4onthefloor songs, new solo songs, some downtempo with Orca Colony is in production, and the latest Silverback Colony record is pretty much blueprinted out.

HPR: With regard to 4onthefloor, how did the concept of each member playing a bass drum come to fruition?

GD: There was a defiant breeze on Lake Superior as I left Duluth for Minneapolis. That breeze trailed down I-35 and hid in a box packed away. On that breeze rode the four horsemen of the apocalypse: conquest, war, famine, and death. And instead of attempting to immediately defeat these horsemen, we rode with them. We rode within the ranks of those horsemen and all our demons, staying as healthy as they were, learning their moves, listening to their melodies. That breeze has long since hid itself away again (It unleashed the four horsemen, so rightly so). And then Genghis Khan’s bloodline was felt in a taxi driver in Venice and a street festival pounded throughout the city. Drums upon drums upon drums. And it became so that all members of the 4onthefloor would have their own bass drum.

HPR: In your music, why do you feel a sense of urgency is so important--or rather--why do you find it so appealing?

GD: Life is not to fear, life is to enjoy. Live in moments, not for moments. You can make the choice every moment, of what you want to do with your one precious life. It can take multiple lifetimes to shake the sleep and the morose of a half or quarter-lived life from these bones in the 21st century, but everybody still has that glimmer in their eye if you look hard enough. And some of the people are fully ablaze, let their beacons guide the way. Urgency has to be a part of rock ’n roll. Rock ’n roll is the moments you decide to LIVE.

IF YOU GO

DrekkerFest, 2nd Anniversary

Saturday, September 24, 7pm

Drekker Brewing Co. Alley, 630 1st Ave N, Fargo,