The man, the myth, the musician… and your local barber.

Gino, or Mike (either or) is a man of many talents and one of the kindest and approachable people I’ve had the pleasure to get to know. Tired of many bad haircuts around my city, I scoured the internet using Google and Instagram to find someone that would understand what I was looking for and wouldn’t charge me an arm and a leg for a good cut. It all started with a message I threw into his Instagram inbox. His cheery response immediately made me fond of the guy, and I knew it would be a great haircut. Seeing that it wasn’t too far from my corner of the city at a really rad metal and design shop, as well as a gathering and event space named “The Odd Sea“, it solidified the trip over. I appeared on a somewhat grey afternoon before work, and while it was my first time at Odd Sea, I knew of it and was familiar with the space. I was immediately enamored by the fantastic hand painted lettering used for the signage and extremely tasteful and unique vintage memorabilia (mostly biker stuff) that it pulled me in and got me stoked for the cut. It immediately felt like a place I wanted to spend a lot of time in. Once we greeted, I sat down and we discussed what I was looking for haircut-wise. Little did I know we had some mutual connections and we hit it off right away. Chatting about life, haircuts, music and a far reaching range of other subjects, we could, and couldn’t relate on – with every appointment this jovial dude slowly became more of a friend instead of some guy that cuts my hair and kicks me out. I learned more and more about him and when I was thinking about throwing this series together, I thought ‘Hey… this dude is cool. I know he’s led an interesting life with hurdles and a impassioned crawl to musician-hood. He’d be an awesome candidate for this!’ So, the rest is history.

When I first met Gino I took one look at him and I knew he was a musician. He just had that look. Donning a fantastic Ship John hat on his noggin, a beard with the perfect amount of grey (containing wisdom, obviously) he was also rocking some black denim that were perfectly worn and had a fantastic flannel on that was quality, but you could tell has seen some shit; poking through the holes in the flannel and sprawling down to his hands were classic tattoos that were tastefully chosen and placed, etching a certain era and style, crafting his personality and each with it’s own story. For me, it was personally reminiscent of the people I grew up around and looked up to. This, perhaps, is probably why we got along so well right off the bat.

Recently we made some time to sit down to chat. The sun was splashing down, wind blasting dust into our faces, but I lugged my Mamiya C330 medium format film camera around his corner of the Odd Sea and we started chatting. The space was lighting up with sound, as it is a space where it’s inhabitants work on personal projects (welding, wood working, etc.) I pulled out my phone through the eclectic environment, pressed record and sat it down while we talked.

… : indicates partial conversation or a continuation of such

Me – Basically, tell me from the beginning about how ya got into music.

Gino – Well, school band was my start, I played the Saxophone-

Me – Wait, you played the Sax? That’s amazing. Didn’t know that.

Gino – Yeah dude. First instrument …crazy thing is, everyone in my school quit band besides me and the teacher at one point. Maybe the other kids didn’t connect with it, but I stuck with it and the cool thing was later on there would be school shows and assemblies where the teacher and I would be playing songs together.

Me – Wow. That’s nuts. (laughs)

Gino – Yeah, it was a lot of pressure on me as a kid. Later on my parents signed me up for a music lesson trying to teach me music theory and the only thing that stuck from that was learning the C note on the piano. From there.. that blew my brain wide open…

I never really learned how to read music later on, but I would do jazz band and wait for everyone else to start playing… eventually the idea of ‘band’ and marching became a little nerdy for me because I got into punk rock and shit in high school and quit band at that point and picked up a base guitar to play with a friend at the time… from there it was just on, man. Ignited the flame!

Me – (laughs) …that’s really cool dude. Great way to put that.

Gino – …yeah the cool thing was from early on a lot of people were telling me I was gifted in musical talent, but the reality was just that I loved it so much. That was really the gift. It didn’t come out of nowhere, it was what I did so much for a long time and I invested so much time into it… it would be weird if I wasn’t good at it.

Me – Totally – I get what you’re saying. You know, I’ve met a lot of musicians since I’ve moved here and I’ve noticed that there’s a lot of people who are naturally gifted and maybe it comes easier to them… the musical talent, but you can also tell from someone that just loves music and participated in it so much, they all share the same love for music… they can name 20 different musicians who inspire them, they can play 40 songs off the top of their head that they’ve practiced for days on end… it just comes easily for them!

Gino – You’re right – there’s a difference from being a huge music fan and someone that spends all their time playing it and being involved in it… I think it’s almost weird to me when people call something like this a hobby.. because it feels way beyond that for me – more like an obsession. It has been for most of my life.

Me – I guess that’s how you know it’s real, then. (laughs)

Gino – Yeah up until COVID it was my main thing. My whole life. I was in a band and doing DIY everything. Making records, pushing shows, making it happen. I had people there, too, y’know. My bandmates, people who inspired me so much musically… but when COVID happened, no one really lost interest, everyone just moved away and had to go on with their lives. But through that, I was hustling everyday for years trying to get the ball rolling so it was nice to have a break, you know what I mean? I think about like… tech or finance or something… nobody thought that they really had to be worried about their jobs… it kind of felt like any day you could be let go or laid off… but music felt different. No one thought music was gonna be one of the things taken from us [during the pandemic]. Wasn’t even on the radar to us. So for that to actually be taken from us and then be laid off from your job or something. It was fucking nuts.

(Gino was in a few different bands at this point and had different project under his belt like Ole Tinder which later turned to Hyways and, before that, was stepping in to play sax and other instruments with other major award winning artists and Rockabilly bands.)

Me – …a bit of a repeated kick to the nuts.

Gino – A little bit – yeah! (laughs)

Gino – So when music went away for me… everyone [involved in the band] started moving away. I took that opportunity I was given, in a way, to take a sort of break. I did live streams and stuff, thought about what I wanted to do, but ultimately everything stopped for a minute. It felt weird.

Me – Yeah – I can imagine. I know you love playing for a crowd… I can tell that’s where you shine. You love live music.

Gino – Yeah that’s where I belong! (laughs)

There was a lot in between here, but through our conversation I was seeing a very passionate guy talk about his hardships in life, marriage, raising a little human and balancing work, his passions and life all at the same time. I learned that Gino was inspired to cut hair because it was something he discovered he enjoyed early on in his career. Gino started doing it on tour buses for other musicians and it became more than a hobby to him. When he wasn’t able to tour constantly and play late shows due to being a dad, the barbering brought him a more stable schedule and income.

Later, when the world slowed down from the pandemic, all the things that brought him a creative outlet, and funds, stopped. As someone who has seen him play a live show, I can say that he shines brightly when on stage. The guy is meant to be a musician and it shows through his strong presence when he does so. Through a crowd of cowboy hat-wearing Seattlelites, all whom had a smile on their face, you could see their eyes lit up with attention while he strummed his guitar and blasted his harmonica through his poetic folky lyrics.

Me – …so what’s the deal with your style? It’s pretty obvious to me that it’s a mishmash of all the things you’ve loved in your life. Is there something that particularly inspires you?

Gino – hm… y’know it’s mostly just whatever I find to be cool. (laughs) It’s as simple as that really. Of course there’s a lot of different styles I’ve had throughout the years but I have been thinking about personal style a lot lately and it’s evolved a lot for me. I used to be rocking western hats all the time to fit what I was doing with my music… of course I still love that shit, but being a dad and prioritizing comfort while also wearing stuff that still feels like ‘me’ is important now more than ever… the other day I played my first show wearing some sneakers!

Me – That’s wild! (laughs) Was that weird for you?

Gino – … a little. But it’s different now. My taste has changed and I’m cool with doing what I wanna do now. I don’t feel like I need to fit a certain mold or something.

Me – That makes sense. It’s more like a development of your personal style instead of wearing what you might be expected to… with being a dad and stuff I would imagine you reach for comfort more often than not.

I asked Gino to elaborate further on his clothing choices and what inspired his clothing choices.

Me – Could you elaborate on what inspires your personal clothing choices?

Gino – Tough to say… I’ve always just worn what I’ve liked. It’s not super intentional. I like 60’s, 70’s and 80’s biker shit with a sort of vintage western weirdo stoner car mechanic vibe.

It’s obvious to me that Gino was, and is, inspired by his surroundings. From his origins with music and punk, rockabilly and biker culture, he contains multitudes which are plainly seen in his stylistic choices. I’m always the curious type as to why people choose what they choose and why they enjoy that certain pant or shirt, or cap. With Gino he says it isn’t super intentional, but anyone with a perceptive eye on style can tell that he makes these choices with intention, possibly without even realizing it. Perhaps most people who are just naturally stylish truly might not think about it as much as someone like me, who thinks about it a little too much. I think this is incredibly interesting and a huge part in why I started this series. It was great to peek into his thought process and learn a lot about what makes Gino tick – at the end of the day, this is someone who puts a lot of effort into the way he looks, perhaps unintentionally, but that’s a huge reason why he is so genuine and stylish.

I was blown away when I first heard Gino play his music in his shop (which he apparently does a lot for his friends and customers) because it was seriously unique. You can hear something and think ‘Damn! That’s talent!’ but it doesn’t happen often. There was plenty of surprise when this humble and humorous dude told me it was his tracks and that was his voice. From an a little kid in band with a knack for the sax to a multi-talented artist, motorcycle fanatic and dad, Gino continues to give some damn good haircuts and make people smile.

If you’re ever in Seattle, consider getting a good fade from him at his shop Freewheelin’ Barber Co. located at The Odd Sea or supporting his music at www.hywaysmusic.com/mikegiacolino.

Thanks for tuning in!