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| Image compliments of Paul Brown |
EP. Originally from Strabane, Gary is currently studying music production in Derry and although he’s
only 20, he has been involved in the local music scene for 6 years! The EP ‘Oceans’ is to be launched
at the end of April with a possible tour coming shortly afterwards.
Gary tells the story of how he first picked up a guitar. “My brother was a drummer and my sister was a singer. There were no guitar players in the house so I always wanted to learn to play acoustic or something. I picked up the acoustic when I was about 8 or 9 when I got it for Christmas. I always just messed about with it in my room, I was never too into it until I was 10 or 11 when I got guitar lessons. From there I was self taught and I think when I got more into rock music was when I wanted to learn to play bass, that was pretty much easier to learn after playing the guitar.”
Gigging days started very early for Gary in a rock band he formed while still at school. “When I was
14 I started a local band, ‘Sunday Wreckage’, and toured around Northern Ireland and the Irish
scene. From there I was just a bass player, knew a wee bit of backing vocals and got introduced into
mixing and software and stuff. I kind of developed when I was 17 or 18, a solo career. Nothing really
serious like writing just covers and this last two years I’ve been writing material and recording it now
with Peter Doherty from Karma45. They were all 3 or 4 years older than me so they were all around
17. I was still studying at highschool and remember playing at Sandinos and they had to almost
sneak me in. I was around 15 or 16 but they knew what age I was so no drinking involved. It was all
fun and games and a good learning experience. I picked up the ropes there and how the industry
works from that.”
His transition from Bass guitar back to acoustic has been a smooth one. Gary wanted to be able
to put more into music, including writing and producing his own songs. “I didn’t write any of the
stuff normally and didn’t have any input, it was just all, “Here’s the song, can you play it on bass?”,
because they were older than me. I didn’t write anything ‘til I was about 16 or 17 and from there on
I just really enjoyed it. I had written my first three songs inside a weekend at Christmas and thought,
“this is really fun”. Then I got involved in writing more. This year I really wanted to write a lot more
and see what I could do with it and it’s kind of grown into something now.”
In a way, Gary’s move from the band to pursue a solo career gave him the determination to create
his first EP, an ambition he didn’t get to fulfil in the band. “The aim was always going to be to have
an EP because as part of the band we never got ours finished so the aim was always to do and finish
something but on my own this time, just go for it. It’s turned out well, there’s a great vibe from it
so far, just playing stuff. I’d have a good few songs but I wanted to take a different genre, and give
it a different mixed feel. They started off as really deep and soft but then turned to more rock, well
acoustic rock and then with Pete on guitar and my sister doing harmonies, I don’t really know how
to describe it, kind of like Frank Turner maybe. There’s a last song I’m doing which is just dance, like
an off-beat acoustic tune, so that one’s different from the other stuff. I’m working on a music video
too and a tour hopefully after that. We’re in the final mixes of the last song which is all recorded it’s
just to be mixed and mastered but I’m hoping it’ll be no later than the end of April that it should be
done. There’s 3 tracks and the looks of a possible 4th, like a B-side.”
Although song writing came quite naturally to Gary, one song in particular made him take his time
and work a little harder than the rest. “One song took the guts of 2/3 months called ‘Meaning of
Life’ that took the longest. Being such a deep subject I didn’t know where to start with it. The other
songs where kind of built up over time, I would have just recorded stuff on my phone that had come
into my head, from there I would’ve worked around it. They were basically just two-day projects
but ‘Meaning of Life’ was 2/3 months, writing and pulling my hair out getting it sussed, but I got
there in the end.”
One date has already been announced for Gary’s up and coming Irish tour. He will be playing at
the Galway Fringe Festival at the end of August. Updates on other up-and-coming gigs are all on
his website http://garyelliottmusic.bandcamp.com/track/wooden-boat as well as on Facebook
and Twitter. To have a sneak peak there are tracks of him on the site as well as videos of him on
YouTube.
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