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Past, Present, Future: Garfield Mayor
Garfield Mayor – Vocals, Guitars, Keys, Harmonica, Programming and Production
Wes Finch – Bass Guitar
Ben Haines – Drums/Percussion
1.Past: What is your musical background? What has led you to this point?Wow… That’s a long story! I’ll paraphrase… When I was 14 I knocked on
the door of a friend. His mum let me in and he was sat in the lounge
playing his dad’s guitar. I asked him if I could try, and I did my best
to copy what he’d been playing – a classical piece which always reminds
me of Mike Oldfields ‘Tubular Bells’. I played it upside down of
course, since I’m a lefty. To my pleasant surprise it wasn’t quite as
hard as I’d anticipated it would be. After this they loaned me a old,
beaten up nylon guitar which I restrung left-handed, and with the help
of ‘The Usborne Guide to the Guitar’, I set about teaching myself.
Fairly soon afterwards I realized that with just a handful of chords I
could play tons of the family’s favourite tracks – like The Eagles’
‘Take it Easy’ and Clapton’s ‘Wonderful Tonight’… That Christmas I got
my own Fender steel strung acoustic, and for my birthday in January, I
begun 18 months of guitar lessons. I had a fab teacher and he
introduced me to delta blues, ragtime, classical, jazz and everything
else you work on the acoustic. He also encouraged me to buy a 4-track
tape recorder and to write my own music, which I did more and more. I
realized that by combining my computer (an Amiga 500+) running
‘Octamed’ and my 4-track recorder, and by bouncing tracks back and
forward I could produce some (relatively!) sophisticated tracks. I
guess that was the beginning of my love affair with digital music
production.
In 1994, I saw the video to Oasis’ “Cigarettes and Alcohol” – y’know
the one where Liam Gallagher is stumbling around his changing room with
models under each arm and a bottle of whiskey in the other. And I
thought “That looks like a good job – that’s what I’ll do!” And ever
since then I’ve wanted to be a professional musician – though I’m not
so concerned about the models now… It really is all about the music
these days!
I caught a break a few years back when some guys I’d been working
with at a UK agency called Caragan Music played my track ‘Invisible’ to
a publisher in New York by the name of Evan Lamberg. Evan turned out to
be best buddies with Rob Thomas (Matchbox 20/Santana), to whom we sent
more songs, and on the strength of these, Rob and Evan asked me if I’d
be the first artist to sign to their new label RTEL Records (Sony BMG).
Since then I’ve been riding the roller-coaster of the music business -
with all it’s highs and lows!
2.Present: Where are you at now in your career? What are you currently working on?
Where am I right now? Everywhere and nowhere it seems! I
currently manage myself so that means from day to day I’m stretched
from one side of my career to the other…
On the musical side I’m preparing the band for a Summer tour. It
would be logical for us to open for Rob Thomas on his forthcoming solo
tour so I’m hoping to bring my band across the waters to pay you guys a
visit… Watch this space!
On the business side I’m talking with a lot of music supervisors,
licensors and publishers. Many in and out of the industry have
commented on the ‘filmic’ quality of my music, so I’m considering the
various different ways this can be exploited.
I’m also working with some great designers developing a clothing range and other merchandise. We’ll be launching these at
Zazzle in the coming months. I’m really looking forward to this not least
because it’s a great opportunity for talented designers and artists to
get valuable exposure, and hopefully catch a break somewhere along the
line. If there are any such talents out there they can find out more
about potential opportunities by emailing
info@garfieldmayor.comOh and we’re just finishing up a ‘behind the scenes’ for the video
to ‘Take and Take’… Director Evan Kaufmann has again come up trumps so
I’m very excited about airing it to the fans.
3.Future: What’s coming up for you? Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Spending more time making music and less time with a
‘business’ hat on I hope! And figuring out how to manage a successful
music career and a family at the same time probably.
4.Where can people find more of your music?
My preferred spot right now is
ReverbNationIt’s not a social networking site – it’s a place for real artists
and their fans. The ReverbNation player can run standalone so you can
have it playing in the background whilst you surf. Also by registering
as a fan you get free access to exclusive content like rare and
previously unheard recordings, plus we regularly run Street Team
competitions where you can win CD’s and other merchandise. On top of
all that, the guys at RN are v cool, and are always championing
independent artists and their music.
5.Anything you’d like to plug?
Well, of course I’m always trying to sell my debut album ‘Take
and Take’ which is currently out here at iTunes, at Amazon, here at
Rhapsody plus pretty much every other digital outlet under the sun! So
no MP3 player need be without it
If for whatever reason you can’t buy any of my music right now, make sure you check
ReverbNation where you can get plenty stuff for free.
Anything else I’d like to say?
Cheers!
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