“As I was making a transfer from the 7 train to the G train, I saw this guy playing and he had about $20 in his guitar case,” Royal said. “I was thinking, ‘This guy is flush. If he has $20, I can do a lot better than him.’ That is what started me going down into the subway. It wasn’t an altruistic ‘let me help the world spread joy’ kind of thing. I was broke and I needed some money.”

Royal played his cello — he is classically trained — in the subway regularly, jockeying for position with all of the other musicians performing along the subway system. Necessity is the mother of invention. And in trying to survive New York while playing in that subway station, Royal found a different path moving forward.

“It definitely supplemented my income,” Royal said. “I was barely teaching. I was teaching substitute hours, which wasn’t very regular. I was making about $75 per day in the after school program. But the freedom to teach after school and enduring things was helpful. If I had a full-time teaching job, I don’t think I would have taken the chances that I took to endure and be available to play. I wouldn’t have been desperate, so I wouldn’t have gone into the subways.”

It was a great way to get exposure as hundreds of people passed by. Two of those people were his future booking agent and his manager. And that sent Royal on a journey of performances nationally and internationally.

“I’ve performed in Europe and South America,” Royal said. “I performed in Eindhoven, Netherlands four times I believe. I played the North Sea Jazz Fest. I played in Vienna, Austria. I’ve played in all of the major American cities. I played in Forcella in Italy. It was an amazing show. That was the first gig that I ever played after being blessed with a booking agent. Having a booking agent has really changed the game for me.”

Performing in the subway had another benefit. Royal focused on writing his own music.

“I started playing the cello a lot more in New York because you can’t bring a grand piano down into the subways,” Royal said with a laugh. “And writing for cello, there is the capacity to play more notes on the piano than there is for the cello. For any given chord on the piano, I can play eight notes while on the cello, you can play 3-4 notes at the same time. And so writing for cello has added to my compositions for cello, which is important for me. Writing for me is a constant change. Different instruments make you write it differently. Playing different instruments, you’re going to get a different feel. If I record electronic music, if I start with a certain synthesizer and a certain drum beat, it dictates where the song goes. I’ve enjoyed changing my style to fit cello music.”

It will basically be Royal up on the Capitol Theater stage with his audience up on stage with him. Royal will make it an intimate affair.

“I’ll play 4-5 songs, but then I also talk with the crowd during the set,” Royal said. “It’s a very interactive show as in I take questions and if someone says something that reminds me of something, I’ll sing a song. There is a song that I wrote my junior or senior year in high school as I was riding in the hallways of Booker T. Washington High School. I imagined that wouldn’t it be cool if one day I was able to travel the world and play my songs? I remember thinking about it with this particular song. And I am going to play that at the show. I’ll play it because it is personally monumental to me. I thought it would be fun to play that particular song and tell a story about it at the show on my birthday. I’m looking forward to giving a little bit of feedback on all the songs.”

Royal has over 100 songs in his repertoire that he wrote. His music is all over the place and counts a wide variety of musicians who have influenced his style, almost like he has all of these musical styles swishing around in his subconscious and then what spews out is his own original music.

“I play some classical.” Royal said. “I’m not playing jazz, but there are some jazzy chords in there. But I’ve always considered the music that I play folk, classical mash soul. And there is a lot of pop music aspects there, the Beatles, Burt Bacharach, Stevie Wonder, Carol King, the Gap Band and soul bands. I have a wide range of influences. I do enjoy playing pop music. I used to call it guilty pleasures. I enjoy all good forms of music.  If you are speaking too much about how complex the chord progression is or what time signature you are in, you’re not really enjoying the music. That’s more of a math problem. My songs go from R&B to rock to classical. I’m all over the place and that’s okay. I don’t think you have to have a centralized sound. It sounds like me because I’m writing it. I use similar voicings on piano. As far as style goes, some of it will be slow. Some of it will be dancing. Some of it will be a ballad. Some will be hot.”

Royal is no stranger to Madison.

“I love coming back to Madison,” Royal said. “I think Madison might be the place where I have played the most in the last six years. I’ve played in Madison 4-5 times. I’ll do a little down time on the Capitol Square. Last time I was there, I didn’t realize how close I was to the water. I was just taking a walk to clear my mind. I walked to the edge. There’s a hotel down there, the Edgewater. I am spending my birthday there that Saturday, so I am planning for the Edgewater. I am a fan of Madison. I’m bringing my girlfriend too. She is excited about all of the things that I said about Madison.”

Madison is an important stop on Gabriel Royal’s musical career.