|
Gerry Leonard
Gerry Leonard (born 26 February 1962) is an Irish guitarist known for his harmonic and ambient guitar style and for his work with David Bowie, Suzanne Vega, Rufus Wainwright, Laurie Anderson, Duncan Sheik and many others. He has a solo project called Spooky Ghost. He lives in New York. HinterlandFrom Clontarf in Dublin, Leonard played in bands as a teen, influenced by a mixture of Led Zeppelin, punk and post punk, and whatever was playing on Top of the Pops.[2] He worked as a tape operator in Lombard Sound Studios in Dublin, where one job was recording a demo tape by a 16-year-old Sinéad O'Connor, and he got to see U2 and Phil Lynott at work.[1][2] He then studied classical guitar for five years at the Municipal College of Music in Dublin, where he was particularly interested in exploring the instrument's harmonic possibilities. In 1989, he moved to Copenhagen, where he formed the band Hinterland with Donal Coughlan. Leonard handled guitars and production and Coughlan sang and played bass and keyboards, with both sharing writing duties. The band released an album with Island, Kissing the Roof of Heaven, in 1990 and toured in Ireland, the UK, Germany and Switzerland. The last Hinterland release was an EP, Resurrect, in 1992. Session and touring musician, co-writer, producerNew York's East Village was the next stop for Leonard, where he established himself as a solo performer, producer, and session player. He has recorded and toured, usually as lead guitarist, with Duncan Sheik, Laurie Anderson, Jonatha Brooke, Cyndi Lauper, Sophie B. Hawkins, Avril Lavigne and Chris Botti, among others.[3] In addition to playing guitar for Rufus Wainwright, Leonard was the musical director for Wainwright's Milwaukee at Last!!! tour and subsequent live album. He has collaborated significantly with Suzanne Vega, touring with her effectively as a duo, and producing and co-writing all the songs on her album Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles (Amanuensis Productions, 2014). As a producer, Leonard has also worked on albums for Donna Lewis (In the Pink), Ari Hest (The Fire Plays), Donnie Mortimer (Ten Eventful Years), Czech band Čechomor (Mistečko), and Pamela Sue Mann. When discussing Leonard's contribution to her album L'Oeuf, Laurie Anderson said, "I've always been a fan of Gerry Leonard's lush and groovy parts, so that makes the listening experience even deeper."[4] SoundtracksLeonard has worked in film and theatre, with his guitar playing featured on Peter Nashel's scores for The Deep End and Bee Season, Trevor Jones's soundtrack for CrissCross, and Roger Waters's song for The Last Mimzy.[3] He wrote and performed the score for the Irish independent movie 32A, directed by Marian Quinn,[3] and for Quinn's earlier short film Come To (1998). He has also been involved with some of Duncan Sheik's theatrical works, including Whisper House, staged in San Diego in 2010.[3] He provided music for a performance of "Twelfth Night" at Shakespeare in the Park in New York. With David BowieLeonard worked extensively with David Bowie,[5] featuring on the studio albums Heathen (2002), Reality (2003) and The Next Day (2013).[6] He toured with Bowie on the Heathen and Reality tours, and was musical director for the Reality tour and DVD.[3] He has the only original writing credits other than Bowie on The Next Day, for the songs "Boss of Me" and "I'll Take You There." Bowie and Leonard were introduced by Mark Plati, and Leonard first worked with Bowie on a track from the abandoned album Toy, which Plati was producing.[7][8] He was able to cover the more unique guitar parts on older Bowie songs, such as those initially played by Robert Fripp or Adrian Belew.[8] Leonard's first live appearance with Bowie was for the straight-through performance of the entirety of both Heathen and Low at the Roseland Ballroom in 2002.[8] In 2013, Leonard participated in an April Fools' Day spoof involving an announcement that Bowie would be representing Germany in that year's Eurovision Song Contest.[9] Personal workSpooky GhostAs a solo artist, Leonard works under the name Spooky Ghost, inspired by Donal Coughlan's description of Leonard's guitar sound. Leonard worked on the first Spooky Ghost album from 1996 to 1998, recording it in his East Village apartment.[10] The album, also titled Spooky Ghost, was primarily an exploration of ambient guitar atmospherics.[3] A second Spooky Ghost album, The Light Machine, was released in 2002. On this recording, Spooky Ghost expanded to a trio, featuring Jay Bellerose (drums, percussion and tabla) and Paul Bryan (bass, keyboards and production). Both musicians had already contributed to Spooky Ghost and the trio is the band's live configuration.[10] David Bowie described The Light Machine as, "Quite the most beautiful and moving piece of work I have possessed in a long time."[3] Frank Goodman called it a "sonically brave, and innovative, and challenging" work that enables the jaded listener to hear music again.[10] BowsieLeonard's work with Spooky Ghost focuses on soundscapes and ambient explorations. As a session musician, he works extensively with rock and folk musicians. He also remains in touch with the musical traditions of his Irish roots, from the naming of his publishing company for Spooky Ghost, Ceol na Phúca (Irish for "ghost music"), to his work with Irish and Irish-influenced folk musicians and filmmakers. Leonard has worked extensively with folk musician and fellow Dubliner Susan McKeown. The two have performed joint concerts, and Leonard has contributed to several of McKeown's recordings. McKeown is known for her encyclopaedic repertoire of folk songs and under the name Bowsie, she and Leonard explore old songs in an expanded setting of ambient soundscapes and loops.[citation needed] Equipment
Since he built his first electric guitar with his father, Leonard has always designed and built his own sets of effects chains and systems, often referred to as pedal boards. In the early days, he used a ’69 Gibson SG, Vox AC30 and Memory Man delay pedal, which morphed into larger Muti Pedal boards in the '90s and then rack-mounted switching systems to handle the demands of a 64-song set with the David Bowie band. Leonard prefers to use a more analog chain but incorporates some newer digital devices, like the Eventide H9 or Strymon Timeline delay, to handle the reverbs and delays. The distortions are all analog pedals selected to complement the artist. Everything is controlled by either Boss ES8 or MS3 style switching systems or a Voodoo Labs GCX 1 switcher, depending on the show. Looping is handled by Strymon, Line 6 DL 4, Pigtronix Infinity, and Boss RC 30 or Boss RC 500. Spooky Ghost live shows use a PRS Hollowbody II, described by Leonard as a "hybrid guitar," that's "like two instruments in one." The instrument produces a warm, clear tone, with two outputs for electric and acoustic, which allow for separate processing and looping of each. This guitar is a mainstay on Spooky Ghost and Suzanne Vega's duo shows and it's the guitar featured in the Reality live DVD performance of David Bowie's "Loving the Alien," arranged by Leonard. He also has a collection of vintage Gibson guitars including his first guitar, a ’69 SG Custom that he still uses; a '65 Firebird with P90s; more recent SGs; and a white Les Paul custom shop with Bigsby. He also uses a variety of other guitars, including a PRS Custom 24, P22T, Fender Jazzmaster, Knaggs Choptank and Kenai J P2, Teisco del Rey, and Rickenbacker 12-string. Leonard uses a variety of amplifiers when recording. He favors tube amps, small amps and combos like his 65 Fender Princeton reverb or 50s Fender Champ 600. A Somatone Roaring 40 2X10 combo was one of the main amps on Bowie's The Next Day sessions, alongside a Mesa Boogie TA 15. Leonard also has Black Cat custom tube amps based on the Kalamazoo 2 circuit and the 50’s Gibson Skylark circuit. From the MK III combo he bought with his first Island record deal to the current MK V series, Leonard has had a longstanding relationship with Mesa/Boogie amps. He used a Nomad 100W head and Dual Rectifier 100W with 2 X 12” cabs on the Bowie tours, while he still uses Lone Star 100W and 30W Special combos for tours and recording. He favors using two small Boogie heads, the Mk V 25w mini head and the TA 15 mini head, for touring with Suzanne Vega. He runs them into two Boogie 1X10 cabs and uses the Boogie Cab Clone IR for attenuation and a direct XLR to the front of the house. DiscographyAlbums
Singles
References
External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gerry Leonard.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
