About
"My priorities have always been music driven, hence the difficulties and exuberances in my life. Haha!," says Gentile.
Diane Gentile had done a 15 city tour as support for Jesse Malin in 2019. On route, she stopped for an afternoon coffee with Alejandro Escovedo at his lovely backroad abode in Austin, TX. Taking a walk with both he and his lovely wife Nancy Rankin Escovedo, and the playful dogs, down a long quiet white sandy road, lined with wild trees and brushes of pale green foliage, came a sense of ease and quiet so unfamiliar to her. Born, raised and living in a concrete based NYC, her rushed and hectic routine was wildly chaotic in comparison. In this sense of ease came a mood, and somewhat of an answer, that later found itself in the song “Walk With Me”.
Diane Gentile started The Gentle Men, one of two bands in her life, 10 years ago. Midway through recording her first album, Caught in a Wave, with producer/musician Don Diego (Fantastic Cat), she found drummer Colin Brooks, bassist Matt Basile and guitarist Jason Victor, who helped her showcase songs from that first record, and then record another full album titled The White Sea. She had early unexpected support from press on Caught in a Wave, which propelled further nterest in The White Sea, and the Underground Garage “Coolest Song in the World” airplay on Sirius Satellite Radio of “Motorcycle”, the first single from The White Sea, gave her international attention and another round of exposure to a wider audience of both peers and fans. Steve Wynn of The Dream Syndicate was the producer of “Motorcycle”. She had been a long time fan of The Dream Syndicate and world renown Steve Wynn and Jason Victor, were her guitar idols. RolingStone.com debuted her video of “Little Things”, the second single.
She says “the newest collection of songs on The Bad and the Beautiful all began from those “vignettes I spoke about on my last record - small scenes like the beginnings of films in my head, that create the basis for the songs. I relate these short visual flashes of incomplete stories to my own experiences, but I am never really conscious of that until the songs are completed. What I write about, at first, is usually just a mystery to me. I hope that, to the listener, the mystery is their own interpretation of the lyric, as it relates to their own experiences.”
The new album features the duet with Alejandro Escovedo, plus a song titled “Lace Up Your Sneakers” produced by British born singer songwriter James Maddock. Producer/musician Oscar Albeis Rodriguez produced and played on “Dance ’til Dawn” at Studio G in Brooklyn, and Jesse Malin produced a song titled “Sugarcane” recorded at Flux Studios in the East Village, NYC. The Gentle Men on this record include Colin Brooks, Jason Victor, James Cruz, James Mastro, and Rob Clores with guest musicians Charlie Giordano, Danny Ray, Alfonso Velez, and more. The record is mixed by Geoff Sanoff, engineered and co-produced by Merle Chornuk.
During the pandemic, Gentile released a single titled “The World is a Goner”, covered by American Songwriter Magazine. The song is “not a melancholy tale of a very tragic year, but a song towered above hardships.” Diane also co-produced, with producer Jody Porter (Fountains of Wayne) during this time compiling an online Celebratory Memorial to the late, great Adam Schlesinger (Fountains of Wayne), still available for viewing on-line. She also produced a Memorial Tribute to Sylvain Sylvain of the NY Dolls (still on YouTube). Both shows were sold and featured through online streaming service RollingLive.com. She also then performed through RollingLive.com, her own live concert from the Bowery Electric in NYC.
Recently Diane and the Gentle Men supported Alejandro Escovedo for a sold out show at the Iridium in NY. They appeared for 7 shows at the Montauk Music Festival and Diane played with the Jesse Malin band at the Fine Art of Self Destruction 20 Year Anniversary show at Webster Hall in NYC with other guests Lucinda Williams, Butch Walker, Aaron Lee Tasjan and more. In 2021, Diane toured solo as support for The Replacement’s Tommy Stinson (currently touring his new band Cowboys in the Campfire) on a 23 city tour from NY to the 30A Songwriter Festival in the Pan Handle in FLA. Prior to 2021, Diane Gentile has performed on bills with Chuck Prophet, Steve Wynn, Kevn Kinney, Laura Cantrell, Richard Lloyd, Leslie Mendelson, Lenny Kaye and more.
