BEYOND THE BASELINE
BEYOND THE BASELINE BEYOND THE BASELINE
BEYOND THE BASELINE BEYOND
beyondthebaseline
Gilad Bloom By Brian Coleman
“You win from time to time, collecting every dime. This kind of life don’t last forever, but it’s pretty cool on the ATP Tour.” Those are the lyrics buried into the blues ballad of the song “Life on the ATP Tour” by the Gilad Bloom Band, whose lead vocals are sung by, as you may have guessed, Gilad Bloom. The former Israeli tennis star who enjoyed a long, successful professional tennis career has expanded on his love of music in his retirement from playing tennis. The Gilad Bloom Band was formed in 16
2007, and for the last 14 years the group has been playing shows in and around New York City, performing original music written by Bloom himself. “It’s been such a pleasure, and it’s also challenging. But I love it,” says Bloom. “We play shows about once or twice a month, and it’s always the highlight of the month for me. I get to do something a bit out of the ordinary, and get out of that mundane routine of life. It’s been a real pleasure for me, and has helped fill the void that was left by tennis when I retired.”
New York Tennis Magazine • January/February 2022 • NYTennisMag.com
Bloom’s love of music began many years ago when he was a kid growing up in Tel-Aviv. His older brother brought home a guitar one day, and together the two of them would listen to their favorite music and try to emulate them on the guitar. They would practice songs from The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan and more. The guitar was right-handed, and that’s how Bloom learned to play. Despite being a left-handed tennis player, his first tries playing a guitar were right-handed and that is the way he developed his skills on
