Lead singer Missy Gibson of Breech is always cooking
up something. Today it's homemade pistachio bread, just one of the
many mouthwatering treats her band is selling at tonight's Breech
Bake Sale.
What does a bake sale have to do with rock and roll?
In the case of Breech, baked goods are, well, part of their bread
and butter. Since their first bake sale last July, the LA-based
band has raised roughly $4,000 towards the production of their first
full-length CD through the sale of baked goods. Not bad for a band
who only has three members that bake.
"My guitar player makes really good peanut butter chocolate chip
cookies. Joe, our accordion player, bakes all kinds of different
cookies. But I bake the bulk of everything," Gibson explains. "So
far, the pistachio bread has been a big winner. The recipe has been
in my family for years. I also do chocolate zucchini bread, blueberry
streusel buttermilk bread, banana bread and pumpkin bread."
They don't call her "Betty Rocker" for nothing. How about pear custard
tarts and chocolate peanut butter bars? Or "Hello Dolly" cookies-a
gooey mix of chocolate chips, graham crackers, walnuts and coconut?
With recipes like these, Breech's baked goods sometimes get more
attention than their music.
"Just yesterday we got an E-mail from some guy who was at our last
bake sale and he says, 'My name is Andrew and I bought one of your
pistachio breads ... I've never had anything so delicious in my
life. I must have the recipe.'" Gibson giggles. "It's very funny
because you get these random people who have never seen your band,
but they're telling you how wonderful your baked goods are. You
can only hope that that will inspire them to come to your show."
Breech has a loyal following, but they use other band's fans to
fuel their bake sale success. That's part of the process. "We choose
big events, like the Beck concert at the Wilshire Theater, because
we know there'll be a lot of people there," Gibson explains. "Then
we make sure that we (our baked goods) are set up at the concert's
ending, sometime around 10:00 or 10:30 ..."
Breech's treats, which range in price from $2 for a giant chocolate
chip cookie to $4 for a loaf of pistachio bread, are a hit with
music lovers and local celebrities alike. The band even gives out
a FREE glass of milk ("whole milk, Vitamin D, the works") with every
$3 purchase! But Breech's foray into bake sales was not some wacky
scheme cooked up by an agent or manager.
"It really came out of necessity," Gibson admits. "We were trying
to pay for our record and none of us had any money. So I said 'Why
can't we do these bake sales? I love to bake, I'm a good baker'...
the guys thought I was a little crazy at first."
Gibson's craziness paid off. The band's recipes have proven so popular,
they're working on a Breech Rock and Roll Cookbook. And if their
bake sales continue as they have been, Breech will have enough money
to complete their CD by this summer.
"All the money we've raised so far has been going into the CD we're
working on," Gibson says. "It's really an awesome thing, when I
look back and I realize, 'Oh my God, we've paid for over half this
thing with bake sale money!'"
Gibson, who jokingly describes her sweet treats as "down-home trashy
recipes," learned how to bake from her mom. But her grandmother
was the real baker of the family. "The recipe card I use to reference
the "Hello Dolly" cookies is still written in my grandmother's handwriting.
I keep thinking I should rewrite and preserve it ..."
Another source of Gibson's inspiration is Betty Crocker, the legendary
cookbook queen. Like Crocker's trademark red and white gingham,
Breech has a logo for its baking venture: a small, vintage baby
doll holding a plate of cookies. "Her name is Scrambled Eggs; I've
had her since I was a year old," Gibson reveals. "She's like our
mascot."
Scrambled Eggs has her image adorned on the official Breech aprons
(http://www.breech.net/bakesale.html).
She can also be found on the inside of Breech's first CD and on
the band's official Web site (http://www.breech.net/).
But Breech is doing a lot more than baking these days. In fact,
Gibson and her band recently found another unique way of raising
money-auctioning off a live concert on eBay.
Gibson explains: "I love the idea of setting up in people's living
rooms; it's always a lot of fun because we meet people and we can
usually crash at their house. So I wanted to do this living room
tour ... and my friend Jeff Favre started brainstorming and he said
what if we sold a performance on eBay?"
The auction for the Breech "House Call" Concert Performance ("You
provide the crowd, Breech provides the entertainment"), grossed
a total of 46 bids in seven days. Like most eBay auctions, it ended
up as a tight race between two very determined bidders who were
also, incidentally, big fans of the band.
The winner-a navy pilot named Scott-will soon be hosting a live
Breech concert in his San Diego home. His high bid of $450 (from
a modest starting bid of $49.99), is a lot more than the band usually
gets for living room gigs.
"I was excited," Gibson says. "Just the fact that people bid made
me feel so good, to know that people were really willing to spend
money to have us come play in their living room."
Despite their eBay success, Gibson is hesitant about doing an encore
anytime soon. "I want to do this again, it's so cool," she admits.
"But then it's not quite as special, so I don't know if we can.
If we do, we'd have to wait a while."
Make that a long while. Breech's pretty lead singer is pretty busy
these days.
"I have a traditional Irish band that I'm in, that played last night.
I have an acoustic project I do called Nellie Bly with our guitar
player. And then I have another band with two other people called
Fuzzy Starfucker that I do part time," Gibson explains. As if that
weren't enough, she also has a side project that involves dressing-and
singing-in drag.
Bake sales? eBay auctions? Crossdressing? Gibson's ideas may be
unconventional, but they are surprisingly successful. "I always
come up with a lot of ideas, and I like to apply them as much as
I can," Gibson reveals. "I'll probably come up with something else
soon ... I just don't know what it will be yet."
Read on for an exclusive interview with Missy
Gibson that appeared in WOMANROCK.com in November 2000.
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