Q&A

Do you consider yourself to be primarily a songwriter, a singer, a pianist, a guitarist, or a novelist?

“Songwriting and novel writing are the most important to me. I also love improvising on the piano. I try to improvise every day.”

How do you come up with some of the unique chord voicings you use in your songs?

“Discovering them isn’t a mental or a theoretical thing; it’s improvisational. I like to explore tactile and visual patterns. They can only be named in context, but if I really like a particlular pattern or voicing I’ll learn it in every key, and it becomes ‘a Gary chord.’ In fact, I name other people’s unique chord voicings after them — There are Joni chords, or Keith chords, (Joni Mitchell and Keith Jarrett). Open tunings on guitar present another opportunity to make up chords, or even an entire chordal systems. David Crosby in his song Guinevere, and Dave Matthews come to mind. All of these writers are great teachers for me.”

Why don’t you like to play live or tour anymore?

“I actually like playing live, for about 5-10 people at a time, when I can see faces, and when we can all hang out together afterwards. Clubs aren’t enjoyable for me because it’s really hard to control the sound and the technical environment. Concert halls are so big it too often becomes impersonal for me. And the travel involved is very hard -- being away from friends and family. I’d rather just stay home and write, then make the songs come to life in the recording studio.”

How do you reconcile your family life with your writing?

“It’s not exactly reconcilable. Maybe I’d write more songs if I were living alone. But writing is about recording the changes in your life, not changing your life so you can write.

I try to play piano and guitar most every day, then one day I go into this ‘other space’ for reasons unknown to me, and I might write a bunch of songs in 48 hours with no sleep – a whirlwind thing where it seems like nothing I play or sing can go wrong, I’m plugged in. Or, I’ll write a novel in ten days. When I’m in that creative whirlwind, Theresa tells the kids — don’t go under your father’s desk and start pulling his socks off today, he’s writing…. But I’ve had to learn and re-learn not to try to force things to happen. Creativity on that level seems to have its own cycles.”

Who has been your favorite musician to play with?

“I’ve been really fortunate to play with virtuoso players like John Scofield, Art Lande, Paul McCandless, Michael Cochrane, David Samuels, Mark Isham, Stef Burns, Tom Finch, Tony Saunders -- these guys are among the best in the world on their instruments, and also have brilliant creative minds. So any time I’ve played with any of them, I feel honored.”

How do you choose your band members?

“The most important thing is, they need to be better players than I am. Because, for me, the goal is to make each of my songs come alive, and sometimes that takes great skill on an instrument I don’t play. We need to tell the song’s story accurately and creatively. That kind of story-telling takes special players who don’t get hung up on technique. When the song neds to convey a unique harmonic or rhythmic idea, it’s never a problem. So for the sake of my songs, I find the best players I can who are also tuned in with me emotionally and creatively.

Do you have a favorite song of yours?

“If a song I’m about to record is not a favorite of mine, I throw it out. So, honestly, the songs I’ve recorded are my favorites.

Your “sound” keeps changing over the years -- from folk to jazz to rock. What makes you want to change your style?

“Well, I think most writers evolve and change naturally when they are not interfered with by the industry, and don’t get in their own way. In my case, I guess I have devolved from writing songs with complex harmonies and asymmetric meters in the ‘70’s and early ‘80’s, back to my harmonic and rhythmic roots – rock — where it’s all about emotion and feeling it, and sharing that feeling with the listener when you’re playing…. Jazz was an amazing learning experience. It helped me learn the art of music; it allowed me to understand the piano on a deep level. So many of the best players in the world are jazz players. They are able to create in the moment. I wanted to know what they did and how they were able to get there, and feel under my hands. But I never had a desire to play a book of jazz standards. Honestly, I’ve never had the desire to play other people’s music professionally. Fortunately, my teachers when I was in my twenties, Michael Cochrane and Art Lande, didn’t set that as a goal for me. They were very unique teachers. John Scofield talked me out of going to Berkeley School of Music, for instance. They all realized and appreciated that I was a songwriter first and foremost, and that I wasn’t going to want to fit into a stylistic format. So they encouraged me to find my own way, and look at styles of music as someone else’s definition of what I was writing, but not defining myself that way.”

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