For more information, email
can be sent to Fran
Hart at: bpd@tiac.netDavid Gates has a simple measure for what defines a good song. "You never get tired of listening to it, over and over again," he says. "I think that's the best yardstick. Good melody, some nice chord changes, maybe a few lyrics that stick with you. Something to remember."
'If I could sing like Joe Cocker I would do that kind of music. But my voice won't carry, so I have to kind of stay within my own capabilities'. - David Gates
Gates, 55, ought to know. He is the voice and pen behind Bread, the mellow, Californian-based pop-rockers whose romantic hits, such as "Make It With You", "It Don't Matter to Me", "If", "Baby I'm-A Want You", and "Everything I Own" have become popular standards since they first appeared in the late 60s and early 70s.
Bread broke up four years after the release of their 1969 debut album -- reconvening only briefly for 1977's "Lost Without Your Love" -- but thanks to their classic status on radio and the endless repackaging of their hits (annual average album sales are about 500,000), it is as if they have never been away.
Now, more than 25 years after the release of their first No. 1, "Make It With You", the band has reassembled for a global tour that will take in about 70 concerts over the course of a year, including Australia and New Zealand before Christmas.
It seems the catalyst may have been one more round of top-notch record sales, this time in South Africa. Gates says the band got back together to do the world tour they never did 2 1/2 decades ago.
"We're a little late getting to it," he says. "But seriously, that's the main reason. We always talked about doing it, and the timing is just perfect. There's still interest in the band, there's still interest in the music, we're available, we have got a good manager that's able to put this together ... It just seems like now's the time; if we're ever going to do it, we better get with it."
The group -- with original members James Griffin (vocals, guitar), Mike Botts (drums), and Larry Knechtel (keyboards) -- did their first show in 18 years in a casino at Atlantic City, near New York, at the end of August.
It came together surprisingly well, says Gates. "The best analogy I have for you is that it's like riding a bicycle. Once you learn you don't forget."
Gates has not been idle in the years since Bread went their separate ways. His solo career has yielded several albums, and he had hit singles with "Never Let Her Go" (1975) and "Goodbye Girl" (1978).
Since then he has largely devoted himself to raising four children with his wife and running their 570-hectare northern Californian cattle ranch. Of raising beef, the Tulsa, Oklahoma-born Gates says: "It is something that I kind of do for personal pleasure, and I've always wanted to do since I was a kid."
In 1994, Gates recorded "Love is Always Seventeen", his first album in more than a decade. The disc is on the small Discovery label of Jac Holzman, who also owned the Elektra label when Bread were signed.
Gates is not planning any new recording with Bread, but he continues to write songs, including team work with country singer Billy Dean. Although his children have grown up ("I've got one doctor and three lawyers"), he says he does not have a lot of spare time.
His own upbringing was as the son of a trumpeter and band director in Tulsa, where he started on violin and piano at the age of five. "I could read and write music all through school, and that helped me a lot," he says. "Still does."
Before he and his fellow Bread members met up and decided to perform their material themselves, Gates made ends meet in Los Angeles -- where he headed with his young family in 1962 -- as a songwriter, arranger, and producer.
Songwriting came easy to him, he says, although he feels his early songs were not too good. "I was especially poor at lyrics in my early going," he says.
"I was so much geared to the music that I thought that any good melody would carry any lyric, and that's not true. You've got to have as good a lyric as a melody, or it just doesn't fit. One's too strong for the other."
Bread were not an overnight success -- their first album sold few copies -- but "Make It With You", with its intricate construction, soothing melody, and intimate charm, changed all that.
"I got goosebumps while I was writing that song," says Gates. "I knew that I was onto something."
Gates traces his sentimental side in part to his Midwestern upbringing, where he says he grew up with traditional values in a "nice family atmosphere".
The songs -- some from personal experiences -- reflect the way he looks at things. "You tend to write how you feel, and if one day maybe you're especially melancholy, you'll sit down and that's the kind of song you'll write," he says. "Not all songs are happy, and you don't always get the girl in the end. Like 'It Don't Matter to Me'. He doesn't necessarily get the girl."
Gates says that beneath the gentle exterior, there is also a rocker inside him dying to get out. "But, you know, I don't have the voice for it. If I could sing like Joe Cocker I would do that kind of music. But my voice won't carry, so I have to kind of stay within my own capabilities. I love to play bass and guitar on rock and roll things, but I just can't sing 'em."
Asked what he thinks of pop music today, Gates, who lists Sting and Peter Gabriel among those he admires, says he is not sure that the songs are as well crafted as they were in other periods. "But maybe we'll get back to it. If a song is going to last, it better be well crafted."
Re-creating the authentic sound of Bread's artistry is something Gates and his crew will be paying keen attention to on tour. On stage the band will be supported by a bassist and lead guitarist from Nashville and backing from 10 string players.
Gates feels the orchestral parts are important. "It adds a lot of quality and dignity to the music," he says. "And strings are on the record, so any time I can get them, I like to have them."
As well as the familiar tunes, the concerts will feature new songs, solo work, and some surprises, he says.
Copyright © 1996 The Christchurch Press Company Ltd. All rights reserved.
Most recent update: Wednesday, March 10, 1999
For more information, email can be sent to Fran
Hart at: bpd@tiac.net