Review Fix Exclusive: TJ Breen Talks Gentleman’s Rule’s New PBS Special and Tour

April 3, 2014 Patrick Hickey Jr. Music 0

Review Fix chats with TJ Breen of Gentleman’s Rule to find out all about the a cappella band’s upcoming PBS show and their current tour with Under the Streetlamp.

Covering your favorite music in an old-school, yet new way, the vocal prowess of Breen and Gentleman’s rule is the band’s biggest selling point.

Review Fix: How did the band come together?

TJ Breen: We all sang together as undergrads at Indiana University in a group called Straight No Chaser. After graduation, we all decided we wanted to keep singing and we formed Gentleman’s Rule.

Review Fix: How do you decide what songs you’re going to cover?

Breen: We pick songs that fit individual members’ voices. We like to showcase everyone in the group and song choices reflect on whether it’s an oldie tune or something more contemporary.

Review Fix: For people who haven’t heard you before, what song do you think is a good invitation to what you guys do? Breen: I would say that the songs “Good Life” and “Gimmie’ Some Lovin” are a good reflection on us. “Good Life” reflects our passion for being musicians and being on the road performers. “Gimme Some Lovin” reflects our party atmosphere and camaraderie onstage.

Review Fix: What’s a song you guys haven’t covered yet, but you’d love to?

Breen: It’s a little different for everyone, so I would stick to artists. We would love to cover Michael Jackson, the Beatles, and Sinatra.

Review Fix: How important do you believe a cappella music is?

Breen: I think it’s very important. It’s a reflection of how pure and electric the human voice is. No instruments or computers. Just raw pure vocals.

Review Fix: What does it mean to you to be on PBS?

Breen: It’s means the world to us to be apart of the PBS family. We all grew up watching so many great programs and it’s truly a surreal moment to have our own PBS program.

Review Fix: This tour could be an exhausting one. How do you guys stay energetic and level headed?

Breen: Lots of sleep and practice. But we are young and enthusiastic guys who love performing together. It doesn’t take much to get us amped up. Performing is what we love to do and energy comes natural to us.

Review Fix: Any cool tour stories?

Breen: On our first tour, we got to join Jake Owen, the country superstar, on stage and sing his most popular song “Barefoot Blue Jean Night” with him.

Review Fix: How does it feel to perform with Under the Street Lamp?

Breen: It’s great. They’re our big brothers and are extremely talented and we love traveling with them and learning from them.

Photo by Paul Natkin

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14262 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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