Kevo Gitz At Vina Robles Amphitheater
Kevo Gitz is a grammy award-winning guitarist and producer he's played in bands such as Common Kings, Kymani Marley, Yellow Man, Freddie McGregor, Sizzla, and Etana just to name a few. I've seen him perform with Common Kings a good amount of times and have become good friends with him, I had the pleasure to sit down with him and talk about new music, favorite venues, favorite artists and much more!
Q: What are the plans for the future?
Ans: My plans for the future is to keep working on my craft, keep on touring the world sharing my gift of music and to continue building my brand as a Guitarist and Producer (Kevo Gitz Productions).
Q: What’s it like playing guitar for common kings and how long have you been with them?
Ans: I've been working with Common Kings for around two years and it has been a fun filled journey. Great guys, great chemistry and we all learn from each other.
Q: What was your favorite show/tour.
Ans: Wow, tough one! But If I had to choose I would say my favorite show was opening up for Bruno Mars with Common Kings in Hawaii at the Aloha Stadium. That was definitely a magical experience!
My favorite tour was with Mykal Rose (former lead singer of Black Uhuru) back in 2015 in Europe. This tour was special because I grew up listening to their music and to be on stage playing those same songs was just amazing.
Q: Do you play/tour with any other bands/artists aside from common kings.
Ans: Yes. Over the years I’ve worked with a lot of artists/bands including Damian Marley
Kymani Marley, Yellow Man, Freddie McGregor, Sizzla and Etana just to name a few.
Q: What got you involved in music in the first place?
Ans: To be honest, I really don’t know “lol” but what is for sure though, is that music is in my blood.
I use to listen to my Mom and her siblings sing and play the guitar when I was younger and I just fell in love with music.
A couple years later I taught my self to play the Keyboard and started playing in church and in the band at school back in Jamaica and the rest is history.
Q: How do you feel about the Internet in the music business?
Ans: The Internet is good and bad where the music business is concern. Good in the sense of marketing, promotions and just getting your music around the world quickly.
It also can be very bad because on the internet, music is readily available to listen to or downloaded/stolen, so buying music is really a thing of the past. I could dive deeper into the bad but I’ll stop there.
To conclude, I think the good outweighs the bad most of the time because the goal is to get your music out there and its way easier and cheaper to do that using the Internet.
Q: What new music do you like?
Ans: I really like what I’m hearing coming from some of the Jamaican bands such as EarthKry and Raging Fyah. Also there is a lot of fun music coming out of Afro Beat right now.
Q: Who are some musical icons that influence you?
Ans: My influences span all the way from Reggae to Jazz and think all of it shaped my ear as a Guitarist and Producer.
Some of them are:
Bob Marley and the Wailers, Black Uhuru, Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs, Morgan Heritage, Michael Jackson, David Foster, George Benson, Wes Montgomery, Norman Brown just to name a few.
Q: Favorite venue to play and why?
Ans: Red Rocks Amphitheater for sure! I like Red Rocks because of its architecture.
A venue built into the rocks, how crazy is that?! The view from the stage and the audience is equally amazing day or night.
Q: How has this quarantine affected you/and the rest of the common kings team?
Ans: The quarantine has hit the entertainment industry hard. There have been no large gatherings since March, so that means no concerts, events or tours and that’s where Musicians and entertainment personnels make most of their living.
Q: What projects have you been working on (if any) during this off time?
Ans: I’ve been working on a lot of projects as guitarist and as producer in my down time but I wont name any of them right now but stay in tuned, you’ll be hearing them in the very near future.
Q: What band did you get the Grammys with?
Ans: In 2016 I won a Grammy Award as Composer/Guitarist for Morgan Heritage’s “Strictly Roots” in the Best Reggae Album Category.
Links
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevorone/
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