Girlfriends, comprised of SoCal natives Travis Mills on vocals and guitar and drummer Nick Gross, felt right at home on the Warped Tour stage in Long Beach, CA. Formed in 2020, the project grew out of the duo’s shared love for the pop-punk bands they grew up listening to, including blink-182, 5 Seconds of Summer, and All Time Low—whose Warped set was later that evening.
Gross is no stranger to the scene. He became the touring drummer for Goldfinger in 2018 and became the band’s official drummer two years later. He’s also on a mission to expand opportunities for the next generation through his Gross Labs Foundation, who are on the festival grounds throughout the weekend.
In the buzzing Warped Tour Artist Lounge, between Girlfriends’ afternoon set and a signing session, Gross walked us through his hybrid setup, essential Roland gear, career highlights, and the importance of family and giving back to the community.
Up and Running
To start off, what are you using on your rig?
“I’ve been using Roland SPD pads for more than 15 years, and right now I’m running the SPD-SX PRO.
I use the 12 pads primarily for breakbeat-style sounds with Girlfriends, and I also have dedicated pads assigned to snare and percussion samples. I use acoustic triggers on my kick and snare drums that feed into the SPD-SX PRO, which gives us a lot of flexibility.
We can blend our live drum sounds with samples and create a much bigger sonic palette than we’d get from the acoustic kit alone. The trigger side of what comes out of that thing is amazing.“
The Mashup
Festival days can be hot and chaotic. How does your gear keep things consistent?
“It has never failed. I’ll say that.
The SPD-SX PRO has been rock solid on every stage. One thing that’s really cool is being able to adjust the sensitivity of my triggers. I was having trouble getting certain snare samples to fire consistently during fast rolls, whether I was playing softly or hitting hard.
“With the SPD-SX PRO, I can really dial that in and make sure every sample is heard in different volumes, in different ways. It’s just fun to get nerdy with it, dive into the settings, and experiment. Those little adjustments can elevate the whole set and open up new possibilities on the sonic side of things.”
Are you using primarily stock samples or are you loading your own in?
“We load our own samples. We’ll pull sounds directly from our records, chop up snares, percussion hits, synth parts, and other elements, then assign them across the pads. It lets us bring the character of the recordings into the live show while still keeping things performance based.“
Changing Lanes
You also drum for Goldfinger. What's it like balancing legacy punk and a more modern band like Girlfriends?
“It’s awesome because they’re completely different experiences.
Goldfinger is just raw. We don’t even play to a click track. We go off the cuff every night, and some days I’m playing songs 10 or 15 BPM faster than I am on other nights. That’s part of the fun.
With Girlfriends, everything is much more locked in. We’ve got metronomes, playback rigs, and production elements that all have to work together. That’s where the Roland gear really becomes an important part of the show. It allows us to deliver a consistent experience every night.”
From Travis Barker to Lindsey Stirling, you've worked with a wide range of collaborators. What have you learned from those experiences?
“I’ve learned how important it is to jump into different projects and to be versatile.
I never wanted to be boxed into one lane as a drummer. Watching someone like Travis Barker build a career across so many different styles reinforced that idea for me. He was a huge idol of mine growing up, and his playing on our first record was incredible.
There are no limits to what you can do as a musician. You don’t have to stay in one place. Working across different projects keeps things exciting and pushes you creatively. If I played only pop-punk music for my entire life, I think I’d miss out on a lot of opportunities to grow. It’s nice to have that freedom.“
