Robbie Gennet
BIO
“If nobody ever truly estimates you in the first place, you can never be underestimated.” – Robbie Gennet
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Robbie Gennet is an estimable talent, the creator’s myriad artistic endeavors coalescing into a creative and cohesive whole, the breadth of musical mystery to be revealed beginning in January 2025. Thanks to a catalog of almost 800 original songs across his varied and lauded career-to-date, plus tours around the world with A-list artists, the stage has been set for Gennet to unveil years of intertwined aural and visual artistry across genres and disciplines—across a year-long timeline.
“I am the dark horse on the long arc,” the ambitious multi-instrumentalist states. “When they see me coming, it will be from behind. That is not hubris, not hyperbole; I operate from confidence without ego.”
Dramatic but focused, hardworking while remaining artistically free, Gennet will release 10 self-produced albums in 2025, all recorded in secrecy over the past few years. Inspired by artists from David Bowie to Lin Manuel Miranda, Gennet is stretching out the definition of what he sounds like to create something beyond label. The release of Walking the Wire in February 2025 will be followed by a release of each consecutive album on the first of every month through November. By the end of the year, Gennet will have released more music than he has in his entire career. And it's just the beginning.
With each subsequent album dropping on the first day of the next month--through November 2025--anticipation simultaneously is built and fulfilled. The releases, which include a written component at the end, hint at a huge reveal—a destination—to be unveiled in 2026. Gennet is cryptic in his effervescent yet mysterious way.
Gennet’s year-long 2025 project marks a return to performing after time out of the spotlight. The multiplicitous singer/songwriter/musician is oftentimes shrouded in mystery. But thanks to his storied history, a 10-album cycle—with all the creative components that contains—makes perfect sense. The combination of art forms that make up the 10 records and visual incarnations represent a journey through life. The chronology tells a story that is at once personal and universal.
Clearly, Gennet’s far-reaching project is unconventional, but it’s a trip like no other, allowing participants a month to process and absorb each step of the concept album cycle, art and music in harmony for a fully immersive experience.
A self-taught musician, Gennet’s skills are ever-expanding. While he learned to understand music without notation, in order to compose for strings and horns to fulfill his fantastical objectives, Gennet learned orchestration with continuing education classes at Musician’s Institute, where he’s also taught. Yet the genre-fluid creator remains a rabid auto-didact across musical and artistic disciplines, his creations becoming the listener’s soundtrack, covering a gamut of emotions from joy to terror. Gennet is philosophically intellectual without being inaccessible, provocative without trying to be. He believes in producer/guru Rick Rubin’s mantra that music is made for oneself; you create because you must, and listeners will follow.
The greatest artists in any genre have no category or genre; their name is their label. And with deep influences including boogie-woogie, the blues, Jeff Lynne’s gorgeous grandiosity, intellectual post-metal and funk, created with dignity, respect and passion, Gennet jumps into the void. His influences cannot be pinpointed, he’s absorbed them, culminating in something entirely new, yet redolent of his myriad lifelong passions and study in film, music and performance.
At the core, perseverance and creativity are often forged in fire. But for Gennet, the fire was literal. Southern California’s devastating late 2018 Woolsey blaze took his house, recording studio, priceless instruments and much of his past work. Then came the pandemic, the dual tragedies providing time and inspiration, his pared-down but prolific solo musical musings became stellar songs and a focus that were “equal parts catharsis and craft.”
The current cycle of creativity that will debut in 2025 began in 2018, with an album of orchestrated rock Robbie began working on with producer Colin Liebich. In the difficult ensuing years, Robbie expanded on his vision, writing and creating more music in the studio and working with top notch musicians to bring it to life. However, the same difficulties that made his creative time at home possible wound up slowing down the studio project. While that project took time to finish, at home he was creating volumes of new work. In 2022 he released the first of these solo records, Fadeaway, but the rest have been under wraps until now.
While Gennet plays some cards close to the vest, he will reveal that the studio album drops will be preceeded by an illustrated book of lyrics drawn by acclaimed artist Skot Olsen. “Each album will bring the words to life once released,” Robbie explains. “Ultimately, no matter what inspires the words, their real power is in reaching other people so they can weave them into their stories. Songs become the soundtrack to our lives, touching us with the kind of commiseration that lets the listener know that someone else captured a feeling we didn’t know could be put to words and music.”
Robbie’s creativity and performance skills have been honed across lineups and instruments, beginning in his native Florida with his own self-titled band and rowdy funksters Rudy, a 1998 Horde Tour veteran and oft-bootlegged live band. Rudy recorded their twisted mélange of groove, funk, and rock across three studio albums. They were a hit with MTV producers, who licensed the entire Rudy catalog for use in their soundtracks including MTV staple shows as The Real World and Road Rules. It was a fun chapter in an ever-evolving story that eventually led to California.
Robbie made the move to Los Angeles, quickly making a name for himself as a sought-after session and touring musician. Though known primarily as a pianist, he is also an accomplished guitarist and bassist, playing and touring with Mike McCready (Pearl Jam), Robbie Krieger (The Doors), Wayne Kramer (MC5), Stefan Lessard (Dave Matthews Band), Paul Barrere & Kenny Gradney (Little Feat), Phil Chen (Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart) and many more. He played keys and sang harmony vocals for Lisa Marie Presley’s 2013 tour, including performing inside Graceland. Other impressive musical stints include working with Eric Dover (Jellyfish, Slash’s Snakepit) Fuel, Dada, Everclear and 7Mary3.
For his own creations, lyricists including Neil Peart, Bob Dylan, Bernie Taupin and David Bowie inspire Robbie’s work. Likewise, novelists ranging from Charles Bukowski to Ayn Rand serve as impetus, while the fantastical imaginations Roald Dahl and J.R.R. Tolkien filled Robbie’s young mind with stories and adventures that now infuse his imagination musically.
During the period of personal and worldwide tribulation from 2018 to 2022, music was Robbie’s savior. “My sessions at Colin’s studio were a lifeline. It took a lot of time rebuilding my house and studio space, acquiring new instruments and trying to get back to creating music. As I wrote, I catalogued the songs into album playlists. As I grew up in the album era and it feels like a nice way to keep songs company.”
While Robbie’s creations know no bounds, he’s also firmly grounded in all aspects of the music business. His talents as a teacher and writer brought him to Musicians Institute in Hollywood to teach piano, as well as to Guitar Player and Bass Player magazine as a journalist, and to Keyboard Magazine as a senior contributor. The Huffington Post tapped Robbie to share his insights on trends in the changing music industry, and he blogged for the outlet about music and socioeconomics for a decade starting in 2006. His own method and instruction book, The Key of One, is a notation-free approach that “unlocks the music within you,” his kind and clever methodology inspiring previously discouraged students to achieve personal musical goals.
The throughline of his musical career is marked by perseverance, ambition and dedication. “I never stopped believing in myself and what I was creating. And I never stopped creating and striving as a songwriter and artist,” Robbie says. “Oftentimes I was operating in a proverbial vacuum, sharing songs with only one or two trusted people and focusing on the work. It’s been a solitary pursuit, but I think the results speak for themselves.”
From his imaginative piano explorations to rock and funk, jazz and pop, Robbie Gennet is a musical chameleon who absolutely defies categorization. The next two years will see an eruption of creativity that Robbie has been harnessing since 2018. With videos and live performances to accompany the multiple releases, 2025-26 is going to be a very busy time for Robbie Gennet, his vision coming to aural and audio fruition in a big way.
The pain and passion that birthed his myriad creativity have been worth it, as the world will soon see. “Out of the ashes rises the Phoenix, right? So, out of tragedy and hardship, I put my feelings, thoughts and emotions into my lyrics and songs,” Robbie concludes. “In the past five years, I feel I’ve written some of my best songs and I hope people will listen to my music and words and find themselves a friend, good company for the road ahead wherever it takes them.”
Additional links:
Robbie on Spotify - Robbie’s music on Spotify
thekeyofone.com - Robbie's music education site
BANDCAMP - Robbie’s Bandcamp site
