Interview With Gary Husband

MuzikMan: Let us start with your background and upbringing Gary. You were born in Leeds, Yorkshire, England-what was your childhood like? When did you first pick up an instrument and how did things develop for you bringing us to present day.

Gary Husband: There was a lot of music around in the house as a child - my dad, being a great musician, and my mother, a fantastic dancer, meant I was exposed to all facets of the music and entertainment business pretty early on. I never had any doubts as to what my calling was in life. I was very lucky. I think it was one of the first things I knew, that music would simply be my life. I began with a very heavy, intensive classical piano training about as soon as I could reach the piano, but outside of this and at home I was hearing Brazilian music, many forms of jazz, a lot of film music - Leonard Bernstein, Bernard Hermann, and a lot of other things I was simultaneously discovering on record or TV. A lot of singers - Lena Horne, still one of my favourite singers of all time, Sinatra, and a lot of big band music. The record player was in constant motion!! Drums came later, and very much as result of the particular hatred I felt towards the whole classical music world - the classical "establishment" as I was experiencing it. This of course was not helped by the fact that most of the music I was being heavily inspired and influenced by, outside of my classical study, was, in their world, simply cast aside as joke music and something I should have been never taking seriously. I ended up making a long break from piano as a result, and gradually ... gradually I eventually started to gravitate back to it, literally almost having to wait and just rediscover it again my love for it again, spiritually. I don't have any regrets though - the big paradox! It is the only real way to properly become a pianist, and that kind of technique and articulation is certainly still with me.

MuzikMan: You have collaborated with the likes of Allan Holdsworth, Gary Moore and Van Halen. Who were some of the more interesting artists that you have had to pleasure to work with? What some of the more memorable events that helped to shape your future as a musician?

Gary Husband: Well, I spent many years through my youth playing all kinds of music, and I feel in a general way all of it helped shape the ways I started to develop. A lot of what I did was pretty dreadful, but you form a lot even as a result of playing terrible music. I think a relevant point here is that I have always enjoyed many kinds of music anyway ... and getting to play with big bands, punk bands, rock bands or whatever it happened to be, really did also shape my sound, attack, technique and articulation, as a drummer. But of course I was just chasing getting involved with something much more meaningful in the areas I wanted to go in - pursuing any chance I could get to start working with that, and dealing with the kind of musical expression that was bubbling away constantly in me.

Article Author: MuzikMan

The content provided for Blog Critics after 9/05 are independent of the services provided by Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck.

Keith Hannaleck, known as “MuzikMan,” is a Journalist specializing in independent and major music reviews and the …

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