Gabe Kubanda was tired of playing to barflies every night in venues that were sometimes filled, other times scant.
“I was frustrated with playing at the same club to the same drunken people every night and not really being able to get new people out as much,” Kubanda says.
As a result, in 2011, the Phoenix resident founded the Epic Proportions Tour, which performs to approximately 250,000 fans per jaunt. The fans are within the ages of 14 to 24.
“We decided to go where the people are and started offering free shows at high schools and then we started noticing a lot of the music programs are suffering at the schools.”
The Seattle native took his music to schools and the kids loved hearing about his music, his life and his career. It “blossomed and turned into this crazy tour.”
Kubanda has been in the music business since 2001. He attended UCLA Ext. for Music Business and worked for management, artists and bands like Henry Rollins, Filter, Psychedelic Furs, BT and The Crystal Method. He has been in numerous bands including Letters Burning, and was cast as himself on season 2 of VH1 Classic’s Rock N Roll Fantasy Camp.
The next Epic Proportions Tour will run August 13 to August 31 with private shows at schools and military establishments with Kubanda, People Who Could Fly and DJ Teffler. Kubanda then travels overseas to play Denmark, Sweden and The United Kingdom.
Chandler pop/rockers People Who Could Fly are Epic Proportions Tour veterans.
“It’s a good crash course on what it’s like to be on tour for a long time,” says James Mill, vocalist/guitarist.
The three-piece band is from Phoenix and Mills says tour personnel takes care of the logistics.
Kubanda spoke about his company at Warped Tour’s final Phoenix stop on June 28 at Ak-Chin Pavilion on the Full Sail stage.
“Warped Tour is one of the coolest platforms,” he says.
Letters Burning played on the Ernie Ball stage in 2008 and 2010 at the Ventura and Pomona, California, dates. In 2013, Kubanda was chosen by Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman to perform on the Kevin Says stage for a few weeks as a solo artist.
“It’s a great community of great music lovers,” Kubanda adds.
For more information, visit gabekubanda.com.
Photo: Jason Robey / http://wickedgarden.media
