Source: Veruca Salt Official Website
NAME: Gina Crosley
ROLE IN BAND: Singer, bassist, songwriter
BIRTHDATE: May 3, 1978
CURRENT HOME: Chicago, IL
RESUME: Singer/Guitarist for Emil Muzz. Founder of Veronica 37 and Rockit Girl. Joined Veruca Salt in early 2001.
B I O G R A P H Y
An aspiring musician since birth, Gina Crosley tested her hand at just about every instrument and field of music before realizing her roll in Rock music. Guided by loving and supportive parents, Gina started taking dance classes at the age of 4 and continued until 18, taking night classes at William Rainey Harper College while still attending High School. Although dance was a passion, musicianship usually outweighed it, and she played Clarinet, Piano, and Cello before settling into her love for the Viola, which she played from age 11 to 18 in her school's symphony orchestra. However, nothing was as special to her as singing, which she picked up as soon as she could talk. Singing in Varsity Choir, winning 1st place at IHSA Solo competitions and performing the National Anthem at School events, Gina realized her life's ambition was to be behind a microphone as often as someone would let her.
At the age of 18, Gina joined her first band, Emil Muzz, a group that had just lost their lead singer immediately after gaining national exposure for their appearance on MTV's Makeover Madness. The band put out their first recording, a three-song demo called The Shokazuki E.P., within a few months of her initiation into the band. At first she strictly sang lead but soon decided that she wanted to be a guitar player too. With a little instruction from fellow band member Chris Frantisak, Gina was playing guitar on stage with the band in just 4 months. Emil Muzz continued playing shows and ended the year by releasing their first full-length album entitled Superprimered with great critical success. The group lasted another year touring, writing, and performing before calling it quits in December of 1998 due to musical and personal differences. Gina continued on writing and playing guitar before forming the short-lived project called Veronica 37. At the very first V37 show, Louise Post popped into Gina's life, exclaiming that she had seen her perform with Emil Muzz and wanted her to audition for Veruca Salt. This was a dream come true since VS was what inspired her to pick up a guitar to begin with. After two months of playing with the band, it became apparent that guitarist Stephen Fitzpatrick (who was playing bass in the band at the time) would serve much better as guitarist and so a girl bass player was needed, which Gina was not. Simultaneously Louise took an active interest in Gina's desire to form her own band and offered to produce her first album. These events led to the formation of Rockit Girl, and to Louise hiring a different girl to handle the bass responsibilities in Veruca Salt. Gina found a drummer for Rockit Girl right away, but had a much tougher time finding a female bass player to complete the lineup. Her parents suggested that she try bass herself so they took her to buy one, and while at the guitar shop, she met Kathryn Heidemann, a very talented and dedicated young woman who could play the bass like nobody's business. Obviously, Gina snatched her up for Rockit Girl, but continued on practicing the bass herself at her parent's instruction. They saw how upset she was that she had not had the experience to fill the role as Veruca Salt's bass player and vowed that it would never happen again. It didn't.
After forming Rockit Girl, the band spent several months practicing and writing until they had enough material to make an E.P. This was the first album that consisted entirely of Gina's writing (with the exception of two songs in which Ms. Post lent a hand) and was also the first album in which Gina played both rhythm and lead guitar. The Lift-Off E.P., produced by Louise Post, was released in March of 2000 and immediately gained attention from fans and critics internationally. Thanks to the Internet, Rockit Girl continues to sell copies of the Lift-Off E.P. in more than five different countries, and receive press from even more. After playing shows all through the summer of 2000, Rockit Girl decided to take their act on a west coast tour. After being accepted at the ROCKRGRL Music Conference in Seattle, they booked shows at several venues down the west coast including dates at the Mt. Tabor Theater in Portland, OR and The Roxy in LA and set out one day in late October. Tragedy struck though, for only 15 hours into the trip, the tour van broke down and left the band stranded in North Dakota. With spirits low and egos bruised, the band returned home after being forced to cancel every date on the highly anticipated tour. At the same time, Louise decided to make a personnel change in Veruca Salt and asked Gina to replace the current VS bass player. Although surprised and confused, this was just the thing Gina had been waiting for and so she accepted the offer immediately, then decided to take a break from the pressures of Rockit Girl for awhile to concentrate on refining her bass playing skills. Playing the bass was a lot harder than she originally anticipated, and singing over some of the very difficult bass lines of VS songs was challenging as well. However, Gina dedicated everyday to becoming the best bass player she could be, and with Louise's constant encouragement and positive reinforcement, it was soon clear to everyone in the band that the gamble had paid off, and then some.
While working and preparing for an upcoming tour to Japan, Louise received a call from Courtney Love's management asking if she would be interested in collaborating with Courtney on her new all-female "super-group". After Louise accepted the offer she was told that the position as bass player hadn't been filled yet. Excited and proud of Gina's bass playing in Veruca Salt, Louise suggested that Gina be considered for the position. She was, and the two girls were flown out to LA almost immediately to start work on the project called Bastard, which also features Patty Schemel on drums.