8 Things You Should Know About The Gab Cinque Band

“No one ever knows how to say it,” New Jersey native Gab Cinque says of her surname, “but I’m just hoping that one day people do.”

The number five in Italian, and pronounced chin-quay, many are becoming familiar with the name thanks to the band’s rigorous performance schedule, and the way they tear the house down with their blues infused classic rock sound, and Cinque’s powerhouse vocals.

Formed in 2022, Cinque, and guitarist Fran O’Brien handle the songwriting duties for the band, and are joined by Steven Franklin on bass, and Anthony Walton on drums.

Their initial release, an EP titled Highway Junkie, came out in the summer of 2023, and since then Gab says they’ve written at least two albums worth of songs.

With music videos on the way, and a full length album due out this summer, followed by an acoustic project in the fall, a lot of people are about to be talking about – and therefore learn how to say the name of – The Gab Cinque Band.

Here are eight things you should know about this up and coming rock foursome.

A local motorcycle gang played a role in creating the cover of the Highway Junkie EP 

When deciding on an image for the Highway Junkie EP (as seen above via YouTube), Gab thought back to some of her favorite album cover art. “I always loved the album covers like Dio,” she says, “and all his stuff with like dragons, and cool stuff like that.”

While dragons aren’t seen on most highways, motorcycles are, and an idea was born.

Gab only had one problem – she doesn’t ride. She did, however, know who to call.

“There’s a local bar we hang out at, and they’ve got these biker guys that work security. So I’m like, perfect. They’re literally in like a biker gang, so I reached out to them. They all drove out, all of them. It was it wasn’t just one of them, they all came out to Sandy Hook, NJ.”

With an array of motorcycles to choose from, the band picked one, put it up on the sidewalk, and had a photoshoot. Gab remembers the bikers “all stood there and watched, and they were the nicest guys in the whole world.”

There was only one person who was a bit critical of the move. “My dad was so mad at me for it,” she says with a laugh, “but they were so nice.”

The creative process between Gab and Fran involves a lot of crate digging 

Inspiration for Gab can be found in a crate of old vinyl.

“I’ll go to a thrift store whenever I’m bored,” she says, “and I’ll just buy random records that I don’t recognize, and listen to them, and get inspired.”

Gab notes this has led to a unique writing process for her, and Fran.

“We’ll kind of create songs based on whatever we’re listening to that week. We do this thing where we’ll pick a band, or a song every week, and just kind of fixate on certain elements that we like on it, and try to implant them into our music.”

She continued, adding, “For a while, we’ve been playing together for almost five years now, and for a while, we couldn’t write songs. We’d be like, why can’t we do this? There was a weird relationship going on where it’s like, getting frustrated that we couldn’t write ideas, and then we didn’t focus on the fun of it.”

The two of them came to a realization – “To get good inspiration, you have to explore, and dive into things. It doesn’t just always come to you, you know, you got to have fun with it. The more we discovered that, then we started to get more songs, and the more we’re having fun with it, the quicker we’re writing better songs.”

Gab’s impressive voice was apparent from an early age 

“Everyone always knew I had a big voice,” she says, recalling, “I sang at my grandpa’s retirement party when I was like four, in front of like a hundred people.”

In another impromptu performance, she remembers, “I was five years old, and I got up in Disney World, and sang in front of a whole crowd, for no reason.”

Once she was in school, and a couple of teachers heard her voice, she says, “I would start getting solos in choir in like fifth grade, and then started getting parts (in musical theater), and I just always went to every opportunity I could.”

Speaking of her childhood years …

Steven Tyler posters adorned Gab’s childhood bedroom walls 

Counting the Aerosmith album Rocks as a personal favorite, the legendary band’s frontman, Steven Tyler, was well represented in Gab’s room when she was growing up.

“He was the guy I had posters of on my wall in second grade,” she says, “It wasn’t Justin Bieber, it was Steven Tyler.”

While her interest in classic rock actually began with The Beatles, which then led to Aerosmith, she recalls a significant factor in her discovery of classic rock bands happened when she was in middle school. “(Around) fifth grade I was in a program called Rock It at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank (now named Count Basie Center for the Arts).” Everyone was given songs to perform, and she says, “My first song I did there was ‘We Are the Champions’ by Queen, and I was so intrigued by Queen.”

All of this mixed with her love of a current artist, Lady Gaga, who Gab, as a second grader, dressed as for Halloween, and whose range is something she truly appreciates.

“She can kind of just do everything,” Gab says, noting, “she did a Zeppelin tribute band when she started out.”

In addition to her childhood influences, Gab says that once she linked up with Fran he began introducing her to some lesser known bands, and musicians that have flown under the radar, which has expanded her repertoire even more.

Gab has always represented herself, and started contacting venues at the age of 13 

A child of divorce, Gab lived with her father, and while she says her parents supported her 100%, and took her to vocal lessons, and brought her wherever she needed to be, “They just didn’t know how to get me involved in these things, and find them for me.”

This made her a bit different from her peers. “All the kids that did theater, and singing all had parents that were like managing it, and they knew what to do.”

Gab took matters into her own hands. “I would just spend all of my time figuring out how to do this myself.” This included emailing both local, and major venues when she was just 13 years old.

“(I) never would get responses,” she says, “but I’d be like, ‘Hey I'm a singer. My dream is to sing here.’”

As an adult Gab’s now realized a few of those dreams, having performed at some of the local venues she emailed as a young teen. There’s one venue, however, that she’s still waiting to hear back from.

“Madison Square Garden didn’t get back yet, but soon.”

Gab was previously in a cover band, and is glad that experience is over 

After graduating high school Gab joined a cover band out of Pennsylvania, and while it was a learning experience, she says, “Honestly, I hated every second of it.”

Despite not enjoying herself, she stayed in the band for a number of years because of the networking opportunities it presented. “I was like, I’m not 21 yet, so this is my only way to get into the bars and not be questioned, and make my connections myself.”

Ultimately, she wanted to figure out – “How do I do this myself as soon as I’m 21?”

Musically, the band wasn’t rock oriented, and she says the few times they tried rock songs it didn’t go well. “We did some Guns N’ Roses,” she says, “and I don't recall any of the solos being played correctly.”

The band wanted Gab to be a pop singer, and she remembers them telling her “‘Rock stuff isn't going to sell,’ … ‘No one’s ever going to want you to sing Heart on stage.’”

She says, “That was right when I was like – you know what, I’m going to prove you so wrong.”

Gab left the band just weeks before turning 21, already having The Gab Cinque Band ready to go, and she happily notes that in addition to their original music, “Now I’m doing Heart tributes.”

The Highway Junkie EP happened on a tight deadline, and is really just the beginning 

Leading into the summer of 2023 everything was coming into focus for The Gab Cinque Band. “We were like, we got an agent, we got all these dates, and we have these big huge venues with these crowds.” The only thing missing was a project to release.

“We hadn’t fully discovered the sound we wanted,” Gab says, “but I basically just booked us a release party without having the EP because we were just taking too long … I think we just needed to rip off the Band-Aid, and just do it.”

From a business perspective, she says, “I thought about it like this – most bands’ first release doesn’t do well, so let’s have our release that doesn’t do well … just so there’s something there to show.”

Even with that in mind, she’s still happy with Highway Junkie. “There’s a lot of stuff that I’m really proud of on there.”

With two albums worth of material having been written since then, and an acoustic project also in the works, Highway Junkie will likely prove to be an “I knew about them way back when” release.

When she’s not singing, Gab winds down by painting 

The Gab Cinque Band will be performing live a dozen times next month, and with a schedule like that, they value whatever downtime they can carve out for themselves. For Gab, that time is spent on another creative endeavor – painting.

“I really do take it easy during the week,” she says, “I just sit in my basement, and I’ll paint. I do a lot of art. That’s a lot of my rest time, I sit there and just zone out for hours, and paint.”

The walls of her home – no longer adorned with the Steven Tyler posters of her youth – are now decorated with her own artwork. Some of the pieces are even music oriented, including one of Freddie Mercury

 “All I do is create,” Gab says, “People are always like, ‘Oh, do you rest? Do you do anything else?’ It’s like, but when I do, I’m so restless.”

Whether that restlessness becomes a song, or a painting, her creative juices never stop flowing.

For more of The Gab Cinque Band, check out thegabcinqueband.com.