We were lucky to catch up with Robert Gabbitas recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Robert, thanks for joining us today. Can you tell us the backstory behind how you came up with the idea?

My friends and I have always loved being spontaneous and maybe just a little bit reckless. In High School, I had two really close friends, Jonah and Brady, and the three of us never learned how to ground ourselves in reality. On one occasion, Brady came to Jonah and me and said something like “did you know there’s a cave up the slot canyon by my house?” Jonah and I interpreted that to mean “we’re going to find a cave up the slot canyon by your house right now!” We didn’t care that it was eleven at night or that Jonah was still a little loopy from getting his wisdom teeth out, we did it because it would be fun and make for a good story.
We kept that attitude going all through high school. Brady and Jonah got really into theater and I was on stage with them but I wrote incidental music for some of the school plays and would play in the pit orchestra for the musicals. In my junior year, Brady and I wrote a musical about Nikola Tesla and got some friends together to perform it. It was about as good as you expected but I learned that big projects like that aren’t reserved for people with years and years of training and a massive following.
After graduating, Jonah and I wanted to make an animated TV Show but soon realized that neither of us could draw. Soon after, I ended up leaving for a service mission in Boston and jokingly told Jonah to find an animator while I was gone. I ended up being in Boston for two years and while I was there Jonah let me know that he had not only found an animator but he was getting married to one!
When I got back, we started with that same “nobody can stop us” energy from high school and got to work. Jonah had been working on this script and his new wife had drawn character designs and some storyboards. We were pretty excited about what we had so we went to the Salt Lake City FanX Convention (basically Comic Con) and set up a booth to advertise our TV Show: “Who Killed Mr. Jones?”
It was a massive flop. Most of the people weren’t that interested or were just confused. A lot of people told us, things like “Oh, I haven’t seen that show” and before we could explain that it wasn’t made yet, they would wander off into the crowd. After packing up late Saturday night, we stopped by an IHOP for an impulsive midnight meal. While we were waiting to be seated, a group of convention attendees walked in. We ended up chatting with them and once they found out we had been vendors they asked what we were selling. Jonah enthusiastically started telling the story of Mr. Jones who was a crotchety old man who haunted the ugliest-looking sweater and he had to work with three annoying teenagers to find out who killed him or else he’d be stuck in purgatory forever.
We talked with them for just a few minutes until our table was ready, but in that short time, I could feel the connection we had made with these people. We discovered that storytelling, when done right, had this magical power to connect with people. We started to see this silly side project as a way to put more of that connection in the world, and that was far more meaningful to us than letting it be another way to entertain ourselves.
I’ve come to believe that everyone has a responsibility to connect with the people around them. I’m no expert, but I believe that the solution to everything you see wrong with the world begins with seeing others as yourself. Because of that, every person we reach matters to us. If we can make one person feel like they can relate to the story we tell, that opens the door for them to relate to others and that’s a success. Even if in a few years we have to give up because we’ve run out of money, or something happens where we have to stop, I can already say that it’s been a worthwhile endeavor because one person is better off because of it, and that person is me.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My name is Robert Gabbitas, and I go by Bob, but I’m not an old man! A few years ago, my friends and I started a media production company called Idiosyncrasy Media where we are working on bringing people together by making art that is new, innovative, and available for everyone. My mom is a clarinet professor and a talented musician so since my birth, I have always been exposed to the creative side of the world. After High School, I realized that my only developed skills were music and mowing the lawn. Since I didn’t particularly want to spend the rest of my life getting scorched by the sun, I decided to go to school to study Commercial Music.
While in college, my friend Jonah and I thought we could make a TV Show on our own and now we’re too invested to stop.
In all seriousness, I love what I do. Jonah has been my best friend since I moved two houses down from him in the 7th grade, so getting to work with him is awesome.
With the TV Show we’re making (“Who Killed Mr. Jones?”) we’re really focusing on making something that can facilitate emotional connection with other people. We feel strongly that storytelling should come from the heart and that too many movies and TV shows are made to make a quick few bucks and move on. We want to be different and not only make new stories but find the hundreds of other people doing the same thing and give them the credit and audience they deserve.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Team management starts with being a decent person. You’ve got to recognize that as a leader, your job isn’t to make yourself look good, it’s to make everyone in your team look good. You’ve got to look at what their strengths are and what problems they have solutions for. You also have to recognize that mistakes are going to happen. You’re going to make mistakes and your team members are going to make mistakes. It’s all part of the journey. Whatever standard you hold your team to, you need to meet that standard yourself or nobody will listen to you. That standard has to allow room for some error.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I once had the opportunity to write music for a high school marching band to perform for their half-time shows and at their competitions in the fall. The theme they selected was about people who stayed home during World War II and their experiences. The story centered around a young man and a young woman who were separated because of the war but found each other again after the war. After the season was over, one of the band directors forwarded an e-mail they had received from someone who had seen the band’s show.
In this e-mail, he briefly expressed how he had greatly appreciated the band’s performance. “I love music that makes me feel, that moves me,” he said.
I couldn’t help but just think “me too!” Being an artist is not an opportunity for one person to show off their abilities. It’s participating in a group activity, where everyone participates.
For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is connecting with people from totally different backgrounds and still being able to take an aspect of their life and say “me too.” The more and more I’ve participated in creative expression, the more I realize just how similar all of us are.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.idiosyncrasy-media.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bobgabbitas/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-gabbitas/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bobgabbitas
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@idiosyncrasy-media
• Other: www.robertgabbitasmusic.com

Image Credits
Chelsie Nielsen, Maddison Montgomery, Self