As a writer I receive tons of press releases and e-mails from new indie artists that just want to be heard. Currently I have no real outlet for their stories, so I thought to share their biographies, dreams, and stories here. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Here is my first musician post:

Gervasio “Herbieman” Goris
New album: Together (April 2012)
Special song on the album: “First True Love”

Combining two dreams is easy, but sailing for three months to realize them takes real courage. That’s exactly what Gervasio Goris did when he came to the conclusion that he needed to leave Argentina if he was to create a successful life for himself as a musician.

Goris has always loved to sail, and while growing up, his middle class family took frequent sailing trips. During one of those trips some family friends brought along a nylon-string guitar, and by the end of the voyage to Uruguay, he was hooked.

“They were singing ‘rock nacional,’ Argentinean folk music, and popular songs of the ’80s—all in Spanish,” recalls Goris. “I was fascinated with their ability. I was about 10 years old, and I knew I wanted to be a musician.”

His parents, both recreational musicians, loved music very much and were supportive of his passion for music. “They paid for my guitar lessons, bought me instruments and amps, and also lent their car so I could go to my first gigs,” says Goris. He dedicated his first solo album, Little Boy, to them.

Goris’s parents had moved to Miami in 1993, while Goris had stayed in Argentina, attending college, earning a degree in Economics with a minor in Political Science, and then starting his own recording studio in his parents’ former home.

Then, when a political crisis hit his home country in 2001, Goris came to the conclusion that he would never have the kind of success as a musician in Argentina that he could in the US. “I was really worried about my future,” he says. “I didn’t see that I could be making enough money as a musician to be able to raise a family or have a decent standard of living.”

So, in 2002, he prepared to leave Argentina for Miami in dramatic fashion—sailing the entire route. All his belongings, including recording gear and guitars, were packed aboard a 40-foot sailboat that his father had built.

“I had dreamed of sailing across the globe since I was a little kid, and certainly I preferred to move to the US, and at the same time accomplish the goal of bringing my dad’s boat with me,” he says.

The journey took 95 days and there were many memorable moments, such as arriving in Brazil in time for the music-rich country’s Carnival celebrations. One of the songs on his album Together was written aboard the Tremebunda, while sailing from Rio de Janeiro to Cabo Frio. “It was the beautiful coastline that inspired me to create the song [“Feel the Same”], which weirdly enough, has a country feel to me,” says Goris.

“I really loved the beauty of Barbados and also the wonderful islands of Angra Do Reis in Brazil, a little west of Rio de Janeiro,” he says.

And, of course, there was the sense of achievement when he arrived, and not to mention the relief of his mother. “The feeling of accomplishment was tremendous,” he says.