Image via Gin Blossoms / Potowatomi Hotel and Casino
When you think of the Gin Blossoms, you may think of a different time in your life. The band made their initial impact with the wave of alternative music that ushered in the early ‘90s. However, after more than 30 years of touring, the band isn’t purely a nostalgia act, and in fact remains very busy with a regular touring schedule. We caught up with frontman Robin Wilson to discuss the band’s legacy, what he’s been up to during the pandemic, as well as returning to the road ahead of the band’s show this Saturday night at Potowatomi Hotel and Casino’s Northern Lights Theater.
Gin Blossoms have been back on the road for a few months now. How does it feel to get back out and start performing again?
It’s great. It’s fun, and really has been a relief. Airports still suck, but just being able to be back doing shows after a 16-month break that was all weird, it’s normal again. My normal life for 33 years has been traveling doing rock shows, and it feels good to be back doing it. We’re lucky that right now we’re getting shows and our stock is up, and people want to come and see us.
How much have you guys stayed in touch with one another during the course of the pandemic?
We’re not very needy guys. We did okay. Other than a few Zoom calls, we had been fairly out of touch, but we’re fine. Once we saw each other at the airport once again, things were right back to normal. It feels good. Everybody in the band is in a happy place now that we’re back doing shows. We’ve been at it since May, which was our first gig back. Normally we would do more than 100 shows in a year, and I think this year we’re doing a total of 45.
That’s still quite a bit of performing.
It’s what’s normal for us. You walk into the dressing room, and it feels familiar. The band sitting around, just being ourselves.
When you think of Gin Blossoms, a lot of casual fans may think ‘90s and the big hits. For artists, it sort of dismisses their latest work. You’ve put out music as recent as 2018. How would you describe some of the newer music that you’ve been putting out?
Well it holds up with the other material, and I think most of the people coming to see us these days may have never seen us before. The newer songs just sort of buzz right by. Since they hold up, they don’t disrupt the show at all. Some people are probably like ‘oh, well this is just a Gin Blossoms song I’ve never heard before.’ They probably don’t even know how old it is. They might think it’s a B-side from one of our early records or something. Mostly the kind of shows that we’ve been doing lately, I get the impression that it’s crowds that have not seen us before, and are just glad to be at a show with a credible band they’ve heard of. There’s a few songs that they’ve heard, and they’re pleased to be out at a show.
What have the initial crowd reactions been like? Are people more involved now because they haven’t had live music for so long?
I think in general people are more excited than they seemed even a couple years back. There’s a sense of relief and celebration that wasn’t there before the pandemic.
With the time off, has there been any new creative endeavors?
During the pandemic, I did a lot of live stream concerts from my home recording studio. When the weather got nice, I started doing concerts out on the front yard for the neighborhood. I was productive, and created a lot of content on YouTube. I recorded a side project for Halloween that got written up in Rolling Stone. I perform with The Smithereens as well, and just did a show with them a few weeks back. I’m also pitching an animated series to all the major networks right now, so I’m kind of wrapped up in that. I’ve already recorded the first season’s worth of music. Later this week I’ve also got a pitch meeting with Netflix, so I’ve managed to keep myself busy.
It’s great that you’ve been able to stay busy and create new things.
I’ve got a lot of grenades in the air right now that I’m juggling. It’s nice to be a rock singer in two established bands and to have the kinds of opportunities that I have. I’m very grateful. My whole life, that’s what I wanted to do, and I get to do that. Very few people get to say that they do exactly what they wanted to when they were eight years old. It’s like growing up to be an astronaut or a quarterback or something. I’m a rock singer.
For tickets and more information about the Gin Blossoms at the Northern Lights Theater, visit the Potowatomi Hotel and Casino website.
