Talent Unbound: Catching Up With 18-Year Old Metal Singing Prodigy Gabbie Rae

By Andrew Bansal

Photo by Carsten Steinhausen
Photo by Carsten Steinhausen

Unlike the days of metal legends like Dickinson, Halford and Dio making their mark as singers in the early years of their respective bands, it’s extremely rare to come across pure young singing talent in heavy metal in the modern era. Enter 18-year old Los Angeles-based Gabbie Rae. Inspired by the likes of Ronnie James Dio, Gabbie Rae has already established herself as an unbeatable, unmissable metal voice, opening shows for bands like Queensrÿche, Europe, Dio Disciples and many others, as well as appearing on festivals and concert cruises. Fronting her eponymous five-piece band and mainly performing hard rock/heavy metal covers with jaw-dropping perfection, she also throws in an original tune or two, and is now hard at work on a full-length album showcasing her own music. Gabbie Rae is part of the Sirius XM Hair Nation festival set to take place at Irvine Meadows on September 17th 2016, and was at the Rainbow Bar & Grill in West Hollywood last Wednesday August 17th to talk to journalists about the festival and more. Metal Assault caught up with her for a brief and precise conversation. Enjoy it below, and be on the lookout for much more from Gabbie Rae in the near and distant future.

Gabbie, it’s good to have you on Metal Assault. What brings you here today?

We are promoting the very, very awesome Sirius XM Hair Nation Festival that’s taking place next month. It’s so cool to be here with all of these artists promoting the same thing. I feel so cool (laughs).

And lately what has your band been up to? I believe you’ve been doing some touring, big shows, and stuff like that.

Yeah! We recently went on a tour supporting the band Europe, which was about close to a month, and we toured the entire United States, and it was so amazing. But now we’re back and we’re in the studio, getting together our original stuff to finally, finally release (laughs).

Right, I was going to ask you about that, because you do amazing covers, but you must also have the urge to do your own music as well.

Definitely. I mean, obviously, performing covers of bands that I grew up listening to is amazing, and the response has been really great, but I feel like it’s time for me to finally become me, and do my own thing and show what I’m capable of as a musician, as an artist. So, that’s what we’re trying to do now.

Exactly. You do a great job at the covers that you play. How do you pick which songs you’re going to do?

It’s so tough! But what we try to do to the best of our ability when we’re picking covers to play, we like to do stuff that people will recognize, but it’s not expected. For example, a few years ago we wanted to do a Queensrÿche song, and people would probably expect ‘I Don’t Believe In Love’ or ‘Silent Lucidity’, but instead, the 16-year old me decided to do ‘Queen Of The Reich’. So, that’s what we try to do. Every now and then, we like to throw in something like ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ which everybody wants to hear and sing along to, but for the most part, we like to go with a tiny bit of obscurity.

Talking of Queensrÿche, you’ve opened for them, and I saw you here at the Rainbow last year when you actually sang with them. What was that like?

That was upstairs here, and it was absolutely incredible. The best part about it was, it was completely unexpected. I’ve known the guys for a really, really long time, the singer is one of my best friends, but I had no prior knowledge of that (guest appearance) even happening. I was standing there, and he was like, “Hey Gabbie, come on!” I was not prepared, he asked me to do ‘Queen Of The Reich’, and I had no vocal warmup or anything. But it was great, and it was a complete honor to sing with them. Hopefully we’ll get to do that again some day.

I’m sure you will! But usually do you have to do warmups or are you just ready to sing at any given time?

I’d like to warmup, but sometimes there’s no time for it and you just have to go for it. For the most part, when I know there’s a scheduled performance, about a half hour before I like to do some kind of warmup, not really to get my voice working, but just to keep it healthy. If you just go out there and sing, it could be damaging to your voice. So, I try to do my best to always be prepared.

Photo by Carsten Steinhausen
Photo by Carsten Steinhausen

You’re still very young, but for people not aware of your background, when did you actually start singing?

I started singing professionally when I was 7, and when I tell people that, sometimes they laugh and tell me there’s no way that’s possible. But it’s completely true, I stepped on my first rock stage when I was 7 years old, and I knew at that moment that it was totally what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Here I am, now 18, still going for it (laughs).

So, you’ve obviously used to the stage, and the big stages and big shows don’t really get you nervous or anything.

No, I actually prefer big stages and I like the big crowds. Performing for smaller crowds is actually more intimidating, because you can see them staring at you and you’re staring back at them, because who else are you going to look at? But if it’s a huge crowd, it’s cooler and it’s less work (laughs).

Have you had any bad or intimidating experiences playing live yet?

Not really bad, but I’ve had a couple of embarrassing moments, like every artist has had. I’ve fallen on stage many times. There was one time when I was performing, and this gust of wind came, and the lighting system fell on top of me. I think I was 10 years old when that happened. But you know what, it’s actually very educating because you figure out what to do and what not to do, and what to be prepared for.

You’ve been singing for 11 years now. How has your voice changed over that time?

That’s actually funny, I was just listening to a recording from when I was 7, and I sound completely different. I mean, obviously you can tell that it’s me, but it’s a younger version of me. I think my voice got deeper. Does that even happen for girls? I don’t know, but it did for me. I definitely think I sound more mature now.

And it will keep changing as you go on. You still have a long career ahead of you.

I think so. People come up to me and say, “You’re so young and you sound like this now, I wonder what you’re going to sound like in your twenties.” And I’m like, let’s find out! (laughs)

What have been some of your favorite moments so far, performing shows or otherwise?

I’ve had a lot of amazing moments. Here’s a good one. During the NAMM 2015 weekend, I was opening for Vince Neil at Morongo Casino, and it was the first time I’d ever met him. He went on stage and I was standing side-stage watching, and they started playing ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’. Out of nowhere, he points and me and says, “Let’s go!” He called me up on stage to do that song with them, and I almost died. I don’t know how I survived it, but I remember getting on stage and I was almost crying because I just sang with Vince Neil. That was definitely a good one for me.

What else does you band have planned for the rest of the year and beyond?

Our definite main goal is completing the album. I’m really looking forward to that and the promotion of it. We’re going to be shopping the album to different labels and hopefully it gets a really good response, and we can go from there.

Gabbie Rae links: website | facebook | twitter | instagram | youtube

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