We recently connected with David Bagels and have shared our conversation below.

David, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

One of my most meaningful projects I’ve ever worked on, hands down, is my ROBGORE album. It was released in early 2023, but it had been in the works, in some form or another, for decades. The majority of my musical life, I’ve been the guitarist, or the singer, or both, in various alternative rock bands throughout the 2000s. With that being said, not many people may know that my first love is Hip-Hop. Before all the bands I was a part of, I was writing, producing, and performing Hip-Hop since Jr High and then throughout High school. However, near the end of the millennium, I became disillusioned with the direction things were heading so I decided to chart a different course. But the fact I’d never finished and released a proper Hip-Hop album continued to eat away at me. Now fast forward to 2020 and we’re stuck in the middle of a world-wide pandemic. Everyone is quarantined but I knew there was a way to turn these covid lemons into liquid gold. The solitude combined with the current state of the world inspired me to move in a different, but very familiar direction. I can only imagine it was probably like losing one of your senses, making the other senses stronger. I had a laser-like focus. So, for the next two years, I wrote, produced, and recorded the 15 tracks that make up Personal Legend (You Are Not The Target Audience, I Am).

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Greetings, my name is David Bagels (not my real name) and I am a human musician/artist. Everyone has known me by that name for over twenty years so I guess I’m stuck with it. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been a creative person. Not in the sense of being self aware but in retrospect. I didn’t know I was being creative, I was just being me, and creating out of necessity. I thought everyone was like me and that I wasn’t necessarily special in any way.

Music has always been my thing. From banging away at drums before learning to speak to acquiring my coveted Casio SK-1 one Christmas in the mid 80s, which I still own. From learning to make pause tape beats to rap over, to figuring out a way to multi-track using a karaoke machine and my boombox’s high speed dubbing function to sample and loop with the SK-1. Recording on one tape, then replaying what was on the first tape, and simultaneously recording another track on another tape. Repeat. It only had over a second of sampling time so the outcome was sonically degraded by the time I could get around to record vocals over the beat. A few years later, I was able to purchase an Ensoniq ASR-10 and that was a game changer.

Although, I was now producing higher quality beats, I wanted to do more and started exploring a different genre. I was heavily influenced by what was happening musically in the Pacific Northwest, particularly Nirvana, I decided I was going to teach myself to play guitar, sort of. I can admit that some of my biggest flaws are that I am stubborn and very impatient. So basically, I only taught myself just enough to start writing songs, and writing I did. For the next seven or so years, all I did was write for a band that did not yet exist.

The end of the decade ended up being the beginning of something new. Throughout the 2000s, I was part of a few bands that are near and dear to my heart. Starting with DRIVEMOREDRIVE, A Fascination With Heights., and then, Someday Assassin in 2005. Throughout the years, you’d also see a few side projects pop up here and there like The Roxanne Wars, minitrue porno section, and the very short lived Death Is A Holiday and spell drive. Then in 2023, coming full circle and returning to Hip-Hop with the addition of ROBGORE to my list of projects, but that list will never end. I’m currently working on putting together a new band to work on, what seems like, a never ending pile of songs that need to be heard. So, I will see you all soon in the very near future.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, I think the most rewarding part of being a creative person comes from getting on a roll and the ideas start flowing with no end in sight. You may not know where you’re going to end up, but you get on for the ride regardless. Sometimes I may suffer from some sort of block or the ideas I may have aren’t really going anywhere. But one thing I still need to do everyday is write, even a little. Maybe a phrase I overheard, a word, an idea, anything. The notes app on my phone is my best friend. I have never-ending notes which come in handy when I do get on a roll. All the words I had previously written, where I thought they were all disconnected finally reveal themselves as integral parts of the plan all along. That’s when all I need to do is roll with it and ride the wave til the end. The reward is onshore.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I don’t think I’ve ever had a clear motive for doing what I do except because I need to do it. Maybe somewhere inside my head there are blueprints and schematics, plans or whatnot, driving me towards a goal or on a specific mission but I’m completely unaware. All I know is that there are things I need to get off my chest when the need arises. That’s also something some people may not understand about creatives, or at least about me. I never sit somewhere with the intention of writing a song, whether for words or music. There’s definitely an energy at play here, driving me towards the guitar or the notepad, and it’s always reactive. Almost like a sneeze of words and/or music about to explode and I need to be ready with a sleeve or hankerchief. Or in this case, a note pad, a pen, and a guitar.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://robgore.bandcamp.com/album/personal-legend-you-are-not-the-target-audience-i-am
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robgore.ogerrob?igsh=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MINITRUEP0RN0SECTI0N?mibextid=kFxxJD
• Other: https://bixabel.bandcamp.com/album/demonstrative-evidence-of-my-existence-or-demos-for-short

Image Credits

Eva Luz Carrillo