Throwing everything you own into your beat up van and heading to California is a familiar path many wannabe musicians and actors follow as they head out West to blindly chase their dreams.
Although the odds are stacked quite heavily, opportunities are there for the taking. Such is the case for Richard Gibbs, a dreamer turned rock star and blockbuster film composer.
Gibbs had a knack for being at the right place at the right time, and is grateful for that.
“The story of my life is luck … is serendipity,” Gibbs said, “and being prepared and ready to capitalize on it when I see it. But I’ve always been a very lucky guy.”
Between surfing, touring as Chaka Khan’s musical director, being a five — year member of Oingo Boingo and scoring a 30 — year streak of blockbuster movies and TV shows — including “The Simpsons” — Richard Gibbs has led a charmed life. But Gibbs wants to do more. He is now all about fostering a new kind of vision for Malibu, one that finds all members of the Malibu community coming out of the woodwork and working together. He also wants to secure a place where the talent in town can have a venue to gather, perform, share ideas and collaborate on charitable causes and events.
Go West, young lad
After graduating from Berklee College of Music, Gibbs hit the road.
He shared the reasoning behind his early decision to head West: “I basically piled up all of my belongings in a beat up old Dodge Tradesman van and drove across the country to California, because I’m a lifelong surfer, and I wanted to be a professional musician.”
Beat up Dodge van traded in for life in the ‘Bu
“After 15 years of living in Hollywood and ‘The Valley’ … my career was taking off and I’m married with kids. Finally, getting to the point where I think that we can afford it, and we’re a beach family,” Gibbs said, “so, we decided to move to Malibu.”
Nowadays, Gibbs has his fingers in a lot of pies; he scores films, produces music and offers his fabled Woodshed Recording Studio to the likes of Barbra Streisand, Lady Gaga, U2, Pink!, Coldplay and a list of the world’s top artists.
Gibbs considers Malibu “an artists’ bedroom community,” and he’d like to see it become an “artists’ community.”
“There’s so much artistic and creative power in the city of Malibu per capita, we blow every place else away in the world,” Gibbs said. “Here we are with, you know, fill in the blank of all the directors, writers, actors, musicians, rock stars, singers and choreographers.”
Gibbs was on the city’s Cultural Arts Commission for three years, in order to push some of his community initiatives, but had to move on.
“I left the Cultural Arts Commission because I could no longer be a member of an arts commission for a city that prosecutes people for displaying art, which was the case with the ‘Big Clay’ controversy,” Gibbs explained. “But I am working on other avenues to bring the arts community together.”
In one such move to bring the arts community together, Gibbs founded the Composers Breakfast Club (CBC), which is a weekly meeting for composers, musicians, songwriters and other industry folk.
The CBC attracts a wide audience of music industry professionals, including Michael Carey, an award — winning composer, hit songwriter and producer.
“With the CBC, Richard has formed a diverse community of music, art and production professionals whose daily working lives are often spent in seclusion,” Carey described. “This weekly CBC breakfast and forum of ideas is not only ‘good for the soul’ but also incredibly informative.”
Carey added: “Richard is a bright light in the music community and the city.”
Venue for arts needed in Malibu
Gibbs continues to advocate for a venue.
“We need an artistic ‘commons’, right here in Malibu,” Gibbs said. “It’s ridiculous that we don’t, considering everybody that lives here.”
Gibbs said he feels strongly that a venue devoted to the arts would succeed in creating a better sense of community.
“The Chili Peppers live here. All these bands live here. Coldplay. U2. All these guys are here, but there’s no place for them to really contribute to the arts in Malibu,” Gibbs said. “They’re kind of scattered behind their gates. Bono goes down to the Café Habana and sings karaoke, right? Tell me he doesn’t want community.”
