![]() ![]() ![]() For me to end up with Peter-and after that end up working with Phil Collins and Genesis-I was, as you can imagine, like a pig in shit. We all sort of thought Genesis was our own band in a way. The original drummer in Genesis, John Silver, went to the public school I went to. I had some friends who went to the same school as Peter, Charterhouse. What do you reckon?" I was a huge Genesis fan. Peter's manager at that time was Gail Colson, and she got ahold of Steve, and Steve said to me, "You won't believe it-I've been asked if I'm interested in working with Peter Gabriel. was very well critiqued, and I think that's where Peter had heard of us, particularly Steve. Hugh Padgham, engineer: Steve and I had really hit it off and become friendly. Peter heard "Making Plans for Nigel" or something and liked what he heard. ![]() And, of course, we all knew he was a public school boy, which made it not very Joe Strummer. I remember Peter in Genesis wearing a head, and that was really not cool. His manager actually phoned me up and said, "Steve, Peter Gabriel is interested in you working with him." I thought it was a friend of mine joking! I thought it was someone winding me up. Steve Lillywhite, producer: Up until that point, I'd worked with these New Wave bands, and Peter was the first artist who came to me. So Lillywhite, who cut his teeth working with hip, edgy bands like XTC and Siouxsie and the Banshees, was shocked the former Genesis frontman would be interested in collaborating. Gabriel had a background in progressive rock-a very uncool movement in the era of punk and New Wave. (In this case, the image of Gabriel's half-disintegrated face earned the nickname "Melt.") Working with producer Steve Lillywhite, producer Hugh Padgham, synth player Larry Fast, drummer Jerry Marotta and a tightly knit ensemble of other players, he crafted a sonic space that, four decades later, remains distinctly his: Songs like "Games Without Frontiers," "No Self Control" and "I Don't Remember" fuse bleak, paranoid lyrics with expansive arrangements (loads of marimba and saxophone) and production techniques that somehow still sound modern.Ĥ0 years later, Gabriel's key collaborators reflect on the studio experimentation, happy accidents and deep friendships that fueled an art-rock masterpiece. That moment arrived in 1980 with his third solo project, another self-titled set best-known by its lavish, Hipgnosis-designed cover art. I wrote my first lyric to a melody by Yutaka.Peter Gabriel's first two albums are full of brilliant moments: the cinematic 7/8 saunter of "Solsbury Hill," the spooky art-funk atmospheres of "Exposure," the creepy-crawly grooves on "Moribund the Burgermeister." But they showcased a songwriter searching for an identity, working with famous producers ( Bob Ezrin on his 1977 debut, King Crimson's Robert Fripp on his 1978 follow-up) and exploring new sounds on each song-seemingly to find one that might stick. Jazz pianist, Billy Childs and I wrote two songs. The melodies are challenging and so much fun to sing! On this record I wrote lyrics to some songs that had been written as instrumentals like Pat Metheny’s “Secretly Begin” and a song by Brazil’s composer Djavan. As Smooth Jazz kept getting smoother (is that a word?), they stopped playing my music and I fell into this crack between the acoustic and the smooth. Let me try to briefly explain there used be 2 kinds of Jazz radio the traditional, which plays only acoustic Jazz, and the “Smooth Jazz”, which 12 years ago was still open to playing live music without drum machines and with interesting harmonies and solos. I felt we had created a wonderful combination of beautiful music that would be able to cross over into what was happening to Jazz radio. ![]() This was last recording I made for an American based company for 10 long years. ![]()
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