Two local musicians vie to inspire talent
A pair of Hollister song writers say they got so fed up with the
music on the radio, they’re now on a mission to make it big and
bring any interested local talent with them.
Gregory Garrett and Bruce Gilsenan have started what they
call
”
Operation Below the Belt
”
– their goal as a song-writing duo being to write a
Grammy-winning song and inspire local singers to shoot for
stardom.
Two local musicians vie to inspire talent
A pair of Hollister song writers say they got so fed up with the music on the radio, they’re now on a mission to make it big and bring any interested local talent with them.
Gregory Garrett and Bruce Gilsenan have started what they call “Operation Below the Belt” – their goal as a song-writing duo being to write a Grammy-winning song and inspire local singers to shoot for stardom.
Garrett and Gilsenan on Friday met with the Pinnacle at The Music Tree – where Gilsenan teaches guitar lessons – to jam for a while and explain the song-writing process they employ, while discussing their recent ambition to make great music without being defined by the post-production work that characterizes much of the mainstream music today.
They have two specific goals – to write some good music and find up-and-coming artists in the local community – and they’re plenty open about them.
With Garrett, a substitute teacher, seated at the piano and the longer-haired Gilsenan strumming his guitar, they noted, however, that their own interests in song writing span just about every genre of music, besides rap – because it’s “devoid of melody,” Garrett said – while they mentioned how their style is a meld of such artists as The Beatles, Genesis, Stevie Wonder and Steely Dan.
Both are up-beat and often jest – they clearly like to debate about music and talked as an aside about whether Eddie Van Halen, indeed, knew how to read music – as they discussed their more serious goals.
“I heard Obama had our songs on his iPod,” Gilsenan said.
Beyond chatting about culture and the president, they described how they compile their music, from the start – when they sit at the piano and jot down lyrics and melodies as they go on staff paper – to digitizing the music on a synthesizer before testing it in a recording scenario.
Working together for years, they believe they have what it takes to write an award-winning song.
“But it’s also to uplift those upcoming singers to that level,” Garrett said.
To hear some of the songs they’ve been working on, go to Garrett’s MySpace page at www.myspace.com/gregory7126 or to talk about music aspirations, call him at 537-4176.
