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.
Around 14 years old I met a great friend, Steve Topping, an incredible musician - guitarist and composer. I appear on three of his albums, and he's appeared on one of mine and played with me live. We've played, worked, developed a lot together over the years in a way very important to the way I play and write now. Another stand-out would have to be Allan Holdsworth, who I enjoyed many, many years developing with. We played ... a lot! That had really a profound effect on the way I was forming.
Right now I've been working and recording with John McLaughlin - a very special, hugely inspirational and influential figure to me personally, but over the years there've been a lot of other people I've appeared with, toured and recorded with regularly such as Billy Cobham, Jack Bruce, the group Level 42 which still performs and makes new records and live DVDs, the Police guy Andy Summers, Jeff Beck I played with recently, a lot of people in jazz, funk ... lots. I've been lucky.
MuzikMan: Your new double DVD set Force Majeure is an ambitious project featuring your own compositions and your personal interpretations of major groundbreaking artists like John McLaughlin of Mahavishnu Orchestra fame. How did artists such as these become a major influence and why?
Article comments
1 - godoggo
Nice job. A fine drummer and a musician, too! : )
2 - Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck
Thanks. It is one of the best interviews I have ever done, I found it very interesting.
He is a real classy guy as well. Very nice to talk to and humble even though he is one of the most talented musicians in the world. He has worked with some of the best!
3 - The Duke
I had the pleasure of watching Gary workout with Holdsworth in Alexandria Virginia a few years ago. Nicely done.
Thanks
4 - Mongo Lloyd
Thanks! Great read.