The Gibbons boys didn't have a chance, says their mother, Lucie, with a laugh. With their dad, Barry, who owns the Platinum Recording Studio and works as a producer and engineer, and grandfathers on both sides who were music educators, it was pretty much a given that the boys would be musical.
No chance, agrees Michael, the oldest of the three Gibbons sons. "We grew up in the studio. And we grew up with a wide range of musical influences — everything from Stevie Wonder and James Taylor to Debussy."
"Our music style really is thanks to our dad, who has great taste in music," adds the middle son, Guy Ritchie, who goes by his first and middle names.
Add Grant, 15, and you have The Gibbons, a trio that just recorded and released its first CD, "More Than Air."
"It's been a neat thing for them," says Barry. "They love music to death, but they are not caught up in the glitz and glitter of it all."
In fact, for the next two years, the Gibbons trio will actually be a duo. Guy Ritchie left in December for an LDS mission to France. Before that, the Gibbons brothers sat down with the Deseret Morning News to talk about music and their first CD.
Their goal, says Guy Ritchie, is to reach out to the younger generation with music that is wholesome and upbeat, but also fun to listen to. "We want to make parents comfortable, if they listen to it as well."
Their songs, which are written mostly by Michael and Guy Ritchie, with a little help from their dad and others, have a positive message, the boys say. "They are about love, about life and enjoying it, about relationships," says Guy Ritchie. "It's like Ben Folds meets John Mayer," he says, naming a couple of their musical influences. All but one of the songs on the CD are original.
Many are love songs. "That's how we all started. Doesn't everyone?" jokes Michael. But since they also have four sisters, they are very much tuned in to both sides of relationship-building, they say.
They bring not only genes but also a lot of experience to their work. They all have played and sung as long as they can remember. "It seems like we're always jamming together," says Grant. "We love to do that."
"Anytime they get together, it seems like a rehearsal breaks out," adds Barry.
Michael plays mostly guitar and banjo. He was named All-State in jazz guitar in high school and wrote the Especially For Youth theme song for 2008. Guy Ritchie does keyboards and acoustic guitar. He won a statewide Reflections contest as a songwriter when he was in high school. Grant plays the trumpet as well as some percussion and keyboards, and he seems to be heading in his brothers' footsteps.
"When we were kids," says Michael, "we always sang at family nights and performed wherever we could. We did a lot of firesides, visited nursing homes."
More than that, it seemed, life was an ongoing music lesson. "You might say we're freaks in some ways," says Michael with a laugh. "Whenever we were in the car, we'd be listening to classical music or jazz or whatever, and my dad would always say, 'Tell me what instruments you hear,' or 'Sing that bass part.' He made us always pay attention to the little details. He is so passionate about music."
Guy Ritchie, too, praises his dad's influence. "I've always been grateful that he would go to work and spend maybe 10 hours doing music, but he would come home and listen to us. He was never too busy or too tired. It's been a great blessing to have good ears around the house."
Barry admits that passion. "To a carpenter, everything looks like a nail. I just hear the rhythms and sounds and pitches and frequencies of life. I think all humans resonate emotionally and physically with music, maybe some more than others."
But the boys also pay tribute to their grandfathers. Barry's father, LeRoy Gibbons, worked with the Young Ambassadors at BYU for years. "He was a wise man," says Michael. And, in fact, one of the songs on their CD, titled "Grandpa," is a tribute to him.
Their mother's father was also musical. Eldon Woods taught music in high school and owned a music store in Burley, Idaho.
"As we've gotten older and deeper into music, we realize even more how they've blessed our lives," says Guy Ritchie. "In a round-about way, that's how we've become who we are. Our dad, his dad, our other grandfather." They've all passed on their knowledge and passion for music, he says.
For the next two years, while Guy Ritchie is away, Michael and Grant will keep that legacy going. "We'll continue writing, do some concerts. I left for two years (he also served an LDS mission in France). For live performances we bring in some other musicians anyway. Our uncle, Todd Sorenson, has played some mean drums with us."
What they won't ever do is give up music. There's absolutely no chance, they say, of that ever happening.
E-mail: carma@desnews.com