Gentlemane - Baby by Gentlemane

Few artists possess a genuine claim to ‘changing music forever’. If you talk to the right type of stale old nerd at a shit Irish themed pub, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Elvis, Hendrix et. Al might rate a conversational mention, however the one name that is universally accepted as the single most influential musician to ever live, is Gentlemane.

The Gentlemane story started less than a year ago. Humble, yet brilliant Melbourne based musician, Jack Nichols, fed up with feeling like “A guide dog for the creatively blind” in his band ‘Cool Sounds’, flippantly decided to write a solo album that would change peoples lives. No longer restrained by the musical and creative limitations of his band mates, Nichols was free to deliver his vision, in the most pure and expressive form.

However, after attending a number of gigs in his hometown, Nichols realized that his ‘peers’ (Scoffs) in Melbourne were “A pack of talentless hacks”, and that he needed to be around people who were not frightened of their own brilliance. The next morning, armed with only a pen, a note pad and a mac book pro, a digital interface and “a shit ton of cash”, Nichols boarded a flight for Berlin.

Despite distraction, in the form of legions of beautiful women, A-grade drugs, alcohol and the constant harassment of fans, whilst in Berlin, Nichols penned ‘Baby’, the album we now know to be the single greatest artistic masterpiece created by any ‘Mortal’ (?). Characterised, by not only wall to wall hits, but by pure emotive expression, virtuous musicianship and faultless delivery, Baby is everything that is joyous, sad, beautiful, ugly, pure and impure in this life. It transcends art and is something closer to an unconscious stimulant.

After turning Berlin, and greater Europe, upside-down, Nichols felt an obligation to return to his birthplace, to give the “pathetic bottom-feeders” in Melbourne a taste of genuine art and an encounter with a real life rock and roll deity.