Gabriel Miller-Phillips

about

Gabriel grew up just outside Boston, where he fell in love with music by listening to his parents' old folk records and an after-hours blues show on public radio. He left New England to attend college in New York, where he tried to keep his mind on his schoolwork, not his guitar. Then life took a strange turn: he was diagnosed with a congenital bone disorder that required major operations on both legs. Post-surgery, Gabriel returned to Boston to recuperate. He couldn't walk, drive, or go to school, but he could practice guitar. An invitation to join a friend's band prompted him to move back to New York, despite being trapped in an external fixator ("a metal cage that goes around your legs," he says, "kind of like an Iron Maiden"). Gabriel arrived in the city in pain and on crutches, only to be told that the band had decided not to hire an extra guitarist after all. He spent the next several months holed up in a basement apartment on loan from an acquaintance, with little company except his acoustic guitar. He stayed there, writing songs until he was physically able to return to college to complete his degree. Upon graduation he found a job at Sony as the assistant to the A&R director of Legacy Recordings; he also did work for the non-profit New World Records. When his girlfriend invited him to join her on a trip to her native Southeast Asia, he jumped at the chance. After spending several months traveling Gabriel settled in Brooklyn, finally determined to dedicate himself to

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