To celebrate International Women’s Month we’re shining a light on women from the TGF community, continuing with the incredible Gaby Elise, bassist from James and the Cold Gun and former TGF team member.
To celebrate International Women’s Month we’re shining a light on women from the TGF community, continuing with the incredible Gaby Elise, bassist from James and the Cold Gun and former TGF team member.
My mum bought me a pink electric guitar when I was 8 or 9 years old after she saw the music video for “Don’t Bother” by Shakira and the rest was history. I had an awesome guitar teacher who taught me for years. He would show me how to play bits of jazz, classical and electric guitar, basically anything I wanted to learn depending on what I was listening to at the time.
By the time I was 14 I started playing in bands. We would cover Deftones, Black Stone Cherry, Metallica - it was fucking awesome. Then by the time I moved to Oxford for Uni I started playing shows in the local music scene and that’s where I really discovered the community you can build and be a part of through music.
I first started touring in 2022 after playing a solo set supporting the band Snake Eyes at the Sebright in London. The singer messaged me the day after the gig saying that their bass player is leaving and would I like to try out for the band. I was like… well I have never played bass in my life but I’ve played guitar for a long time, so how hard can it be? Everyone knows everyone in the UK touring circuit, so it was through that that I got to know James Joseph from James and the Cold Gun, so when it was time to leave my old band, he hit me up and asked if I wanted to play a few shows. That was two years ago and we are still out here rocking across the UK, EU and North America.
I’ve always played around with words and lyrics in journals, so sometimes I will come up with a story or poem and try to fix it to music. Other times I’ll hum a melody in my head and then figure out the instrumentation beneath it.
Other times I’m just fucking around on guitar or bass and the words and melody come naturally. I love writing in my room, from the comfort of my own bed with my laptop and old as hell audio interface, in a safe space I’ve curated for myself with all of my clothes and trinkets and stuff I’ve accumulated throughout my life.
It’s the ultimate safe space to express myself and where I feel most creative.
I’m inspired by women who don’t give a fuck and, by voices that are unapologetically themselves. Kim Gordon, PJ Harvey, Tori Amos, Mark Lanegan, Elliott Smith, Jeff Buckley…all of their vocals are immediately recognisable and iconic. They were purely channeling some ethereal stuff that was utterly them, when they sing it’s like you know them like an old friend.
To me songwriting is all about storytelling, it’s that alchemy of translating your story, yourself, your essence into sounds. Ever since I was a kid I felt like I had something to say, and I wanted to find a way to make people listen. I don’t think I could write a song about something I didn’t feel or relate to. If we can do that then it's another way of finding connection with people in the short time we are on this little floating rock in space.
Big boots, tiny skirt/shorts, tiny t-shirt, and huge bold winged eyeliner. I’m a short queen so anything that makes me feel like I can stomp around and take up space on stage - the rest of my band are 6 '2-6' 7 so I need a little bit of height or else I run the risk of looking like everyone’s kid brother.
I loved the 70s, 80s and especially the 90s as a kid and the majority of my clothes shopping is vintage and secondhand. I try to stay clear of fast fashion as much as possible. Debbie Harry, PJ Harvey, Taylor Momsen, D’Arcy Wretsky, Cherry Curie are all huge style icons to me.
I remember being around the age of 13/14 years old and flooding my Tumblr with pictures of these badass women playing on stage and taking up space. It was an awakening point where I was like…fuck I can play around with makeup, jewellery and clothes and make myself look however I want, and that’s another way of expressing myself. Baggy band tees, leather, chains, chunky silver jewellery, big boots, flares etc.
Anything that makes me feel sexy, messy and powerful.
Never fucking stop. The people you see on stage are the bands that have shamelessly persevered no matter what. No one else is going to believe in you if you can’t carry yourself with your own determination and self belief. I think as a kid I always thought that there would be this person who would magically appear and make me into a famous rockstar, but you realise eventually that no one is coming. You have to do it yourself.
I didn’t see a lot of female representation when I was a kid, so it feels important to me to say to kids, especially young girls, that this life is possible and you absolutely can make it happen if you want to.
I don’t even think it’s about being the best musician. It’s about being the best you can be in your own eyes, and making music that speaks to you, because if this is your lifeline and what keeps you going, then you absolutely have to dive forward towards it with everything you have.
Life is too short not to throw yourself into your passions with everything you have.
As a bass player I love our song ‘Fragile.’ It’s in 7/4 and took me so fucking long to learn, but because of that it definitely rips the hardest live.
I first discovered the Great Frog through my mum and my Auntie Anna and Uncle Paul who all had hands covered in TGF jewellery, so since I was a kid I was obsessed with this heavy metal jewellery.
My mum has this original glass eye ring which she bought from the Frog around 1982, and she passed down to me when I was 18. It has Pat’s original PRR maker’s mark and is one of my most prized possessions.
My family don’t have a lot of money or any heirlooms or anything like that, so those pieces of TGF jewellery passed down are those heirlooms from our own family history for me. So it was a full circle moment when I started working at TGF Soho for nearly 5 years. I got to meet so many awesome musicians who inspired me as a kid, and I honestly would not be where I am if my managers and colleagues hadn’t been so supportive (and let me book off so much time off work to be able to tour).
Music is woven into the fabric of TGF history so I feel so grateful and honoured to have been a part of it.
