Gideon's Army

Gideon's Army was founded by singer/songwriter/guitarist Robert Bray. Born in New York City to an Irish Catholic father and a Jewish mother, Robert grew up predominately with his mom in Tenafly, New Jersey, spending weekends and holidays with his father in Queens, NY. Robert's first musical experiences were playing the violin for the Stillman elementary school orchestra and town-select Super Orchestra. He picked up a guitar for the first time in the 7th grade but his youth was spent predominately devoted to athletics. Competing in baseball, basketball, ice hockey, soccer, and track and field, Robert eventually accepted a scholarship to play baseball for Division II Eckerd College in Florida's Sunshine State Conference. It was at Eckerd that Robert took his first acting class and began a torrid and on-going relationship with the performing arts. Robert left Eckerd in the middle of his junior year to move to NYC to pursue a career as an actor. He graduated from the prestigious Actor's Center Professional Conservatory and spent several years working in film and in NYC's downtown theatre scene. It was during this time that he picked up the guitar again and began to build skill and get creative with the instrument. At a certain point in his development, songs started to come at a furious pace and Robert knew that he had found his life's calling. Drawing his lyrical inspiration from his life and surroundings, Robert's musical inspirations are as varied as his life's experiences. He has a special affinity for classic rock, modern alternative rock, contemporary country, soul, blues, and R&B, and cites Scott Weiland and Stone Temple Pilots, Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam as his biggest influences in music. "It was Bruce and Eddie that let me in on music's ability to move you in a profound and transcendent way, and it was Mick and Scott that let me know that rock and roll front man was the coolest job in the world." Gideon's Army has been playing live in New York and New Jersey and in October 2014 released his first full-length album entitled Burn for the Living, recorded in Woodmere, NY with producer Steven Wise.