I'm a writer, editor, producer, pianist, songwriter, composer, singer, traveler, surfer, waterman, creative coach, and mentor. I'm also the founder and owner of Gentry Bronson Media & Creative, an agency dedicated to helping creatives and entrepreneurs develop their work and become successful.
My parents named me after a hitchhiker when I was born in Bemidji, Minnesota. After traveling around the country living in a Volkswagen bus and then in Nebraska, my family and I moved into an old farmhouse in the arctic Central Minnesota countryside when I was five. There I made up music on an old, upright bar piano that had plastic keys, which fell off as I played. By the age of 15, I won a series of statewide awards for classical piano.
I left the Midwest as soon I could, a week after turning 18, and became part of the early 90’s Seattle music scene as a songwriter, lead singer, and spoken word poet. Then, I moved to the Czech Republic and became a club DJ in Prague while I also worked for the East European art and literature magazine Yazzyk.
I returned to the U.S., settled in San Francisco, and became a digital producer during the first dot-com gold rush. In 2000, I won three Northern California Songwriting Association awards, then formed the Night Watchmen, a band that gained a small cult following internationally. I released five albums with my band and as a soloist from 2001 to 2005.
After the suicide of my bassist and good friend, I went completely solo in 2006. I released the three-part indie rock album No War with a new band, and also the atmospheric instrumental album Santa Fe Sky, which I wrote and produced with Dave Hoover. I then spent three years touring the U.S. and Europe.
In 2008, I recorded the first English version of Boudewijn de Groot’s Dutch classic Avond with Jesse Brewster and followed that in 2009 with a self-titled EP showcasing different genres. Both releases received international airplay.
Returning to California, I performed headlining and opening slots, including a performance at Oakland Coliseum, and was featured singer on VH1 reality show Hip Hop star John Brown’s song No Games. I released an album of Dutch songs adapted into English called Within A Sigh & A Curse in 2012 and toured Europe a 6th time. Then I released Human, a double album made with vintage equipment, and toured Europe a 7th time in 2014.
I stepped away from music and founded my agency Gentry Bronson Media & Creative in 2015 to help other creatives, then spent four years in Mexico and the Midwest. That was when I began writing and publishing, including a series of Fiddling Grasshopperisms.
I made New Orleans my home in 2017, which is where I wrote and produced my nouveau classical piano album Environments. It was released in November 2018.
My media and creative agency clients now include writers, musicians, entrepreneurs, change-makers, public speakers, circuses, restaurateurs, filmmakers, and visual artists. I continue to learn fascinating new things every day.
Currently, my primary writing projects are a series of memoir stories with twists, turns, trials, tribulations, and tragicomedy; articles and essays on personal development and creativity; and a fact-based fiction series (which I'm really digging because the best stories come from the truth). I'm publishing these autobiographical stories on Medium, my blog, and wherever else they find a home.
Learn more about me on my official website www.gentrybronson.com.
My music is available on Spotify, TIDAL, Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeart, Apple Music, and lots of other places.
