From Writing Letters to Studios to Writing Hit Songs | Interview with Gary Go

A complete transcription of the interview can be found below:

Warren Huart:

Hi everybody, hope you’re doing marvelously well. Sitting here with Gary Go. How are you?

Gary Go:

Good, thank you, Warren. Good to see you.

Warren Huart:

Good to be seen. So just off camera, we were talking about the fact … Well, wait there. How long ago was it?

Gary Go:

We were talking about a few facts just off camera.

Warren Huart:

Quite a few facts, yes.

Gary Go:

Yeah.

Warren Huart:

When did we work together?

Gary Go:

I don’t know how many years ago it was. Not too many, But we worked in a studio-

Warren Huart:

Three or four?

Gary Go:

Yeah. And we worked in a studio just behind an apartment I was living at in West Hollywood. Really cool little space.

Warren Huart:

Harmony? Yeah.

Gary Go:

That’s what it was called?

Warren Huart:

Yeah.

Gary Go:

I didn’t know that.

Warren Huart:

Yeah, I was there two days ago. Yeah.

Gary Go:

Where I was told Somebody Like You was recorded.

Warren Huart:

That is correct.

Gary Go:

Yeah, yeah, on that beautiful piano. And we recorded a song of mine with Tori Kelly, the great Tori Kelly.

Warren Huart:

Yeah, the rather amazing vocalist, Tori.

Gary Go:

Yeah, and I was grateful that you were there because I didn’t know that I was going to have an esteemed, proper music producer there to capture the moment.

Warren Huart:

And it was a lot of fun.

Gary Go:

Well, yeah, because going into a new studio, I didn’t know the studio-

Warren Huart:

But you know what? I’m going to pause you. You know what made me remember the whole thing? Was not talking about it, it was when you played the song.

Gary Go:

When I played the song, yeah.

Warren Huart:

Isn’t that the way our brains work?

Gary Go:

I love that. So it was a song that she loved and just wanted to try out and record, and we recorded it that day and you recorded her vocal and that song’s now on my new record.

Warren Huart:

And it’s a great song.

Gary Go:

Thank you. Her A&R called me and was like, “She loves this song, we want to do this. We want to do it.” And I’m like, “Well, let’s try it. Let’s just get in the studio and record it and see if the shoe fits.” She sounded great and amazing, but her record, I guess, went in a different direction and I was like, “Well, this is a very personal song as well, to me.” So I’m like, “Maybe this lives on my album”, so it worked out. And then she was happy to still be on the song.

Warren Huart:

I wonder, as a solo artist, she’s done fairly well, but I wonder if a lot of people know her because of the movie, Sing, because that movie was huge.

Gary Go:

Yeah, huge movie. I wrote a song for that movie actually.

Warren Huart:

Oh, you did?

Gary Go:

It wasn’t in it, almost. Got a lovely note from their director at the time thanking me for the song and they were like, the letter was written in crayons, I think. It was super cool and I’ll never forget that. It’s funny even sometimes being told no, if done in the right way, can feel like love.

Warren Huart:

Especially if it’s personal, he’s exactly took some time to do it. Yeah.

Gary Go:

If it’s personal. Still to this day, I always appreciate… If I sent someone a song for something and you just get back… You can have a rejection with love and feel like this isn’t quite right or this wouldn’t… Anyway. Side note.

Warren Huart:

We were talking earlier off camera about experiences of coming up and I was talking about living in the North of England, but I remember exactly the same thing. We sent our demo, our four track demo to… I actually don’t remember the label, I want to say Polydor. And we sent it and we got a letter back and we were borderline depressed until we met an elder statesmen, a guy who was probably in his 30s when we were still teenagers, who said, “No, that’s good.” We were like, “What do you mean?” He was like, “They get hundreds of demo tapes and they never bother writing back. So when they write back and say, “This is promising. We don’t want to sign at the moment, but keep in contact”, they mean it.

Gary Go:

It’s a sign of respect.

Warren Huart:

Yeah.

Gary Go:

Yeah.

Warren Huart:

I think we forget and I think it’s something that should be said, that when somebody… The point is when he wrote you back his crayon letter, what he was saying was, this is a great song, it just doesn’t fit.

Gary Go:

And thanks for giving… Yeah.

Warren Huart:

Yeah.

Gary Go:

Thanks for giving it your time and I appreciate you and the work that you’ve done. Yeah.

Warren Huart:

Yeah. And two great lessons. I think the other lesson beyond what we’re talking about is, if you’re that person, send back that letter because you can-

Gary Go:

Well, I try to remember to do it.

Warren Huart:

Yeah.

Gary Go:

It’s hard, we all miss stuff, but we all do. We’re all inundated and always accessible, but it can mean a lot to someone.

Warren Huart:

We’ve been talking about the song, we actually have the multi tracks here, so we can go and listen to that in a minute. I’d love to talk about the production on it. But let’s get a little bit of background on how you come to do a solo record and get signed to record deals and get in this position. What’s your journey? You started off, you said you were living in Wembley?

Gary Go:

Yeah, I grew in Wembley and I got way inspired by living in Wembley really, more on the music than the football side. But I could hear all the concerts from my bedroom window really. I was just always writing. My older cousin was in bands and gave me my first little Casio keyboard. I remember it. I just got the bug. So I just started writing and sit at the piano for hours and there was a window into the kitchen and my mom was like the A&R. She’d be working on stuff and shout through, “I like that one, play that one again. Play that chorus again.” So it was always… Which is a nice champion to have. I still refer to her as head of A&R.

Warren Huart:

Yeah. That’s good.

Gary Go:

I just kept writing and fell in with the good musicians at school and put a backing band together and just started doing it. Started doing shows and playing around London and trying to get taken seriously.

Warren Huart:

Did you do all The Mean Fiddler and Bull and Gates and-

Gary Go:

I did The Barfly-

Warren Huart:

Barfly.

Gary Go:

Yeah, The Water Rats.

Warren Huart:

Water Rats. Yeah, that’s a good one.

Gary Go:

And a lot of the other famous haunts, I guess.

Warren Huart:

Water Rats was great.

Gary Go:

Yeah.

Warren Huart:

When I was there in the mid-90s, I remember playing there. That was like a hang, you’d go to the bar and it’d be like all the Brit-Poppers were there. It was like-

Gary Go:

Right.

Warren Huart:

Just hanging out in a bar.

Gary Go:

Yeah. But I actually had my worst show ever there.

Warren Huart:

Oh, I’m sorry. Sorry to bring it up.

Gary Go:

Yeah, yeah. The show I did there was the end of the beginning of my career. I had done a great first show at the Barfly and then my second show was at that club, The Water Rats, and the whole industry showed up because they had heard about the first show.

Warren Huart:

Yeah.

Gary Go:

And I had sound problems and I was late for sound check because I had a day job in a studio and it took me time to get there and the house lights didn’t go down. It was like everything that went wrong, it was a nightmare. But yeah, so I don’t have fond memories of that venue.

Warren Huart:

But did-

Gary Go:

But we clawed it back in the end.

Warren Huart:

I was about to say, yeah. What was the phrase, this is not the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning?

Gary Go:

Right.

Warren Huart:

Yes.

Gary Go:

Yeah, I like that. Yeah. So-

Warren Huart:

Answers on a postcard, please, if you know who said that.

Gary Go:

We actually have a… There’s a song on my new record that’s coming out called Start In Disguise. So it’s like the lyric is that the end is a start in disguise.

Warren Huart:

Yeah.

Gary Go:

Which is… Yeah, which that was, I guess, in a way. Well, because off the back of that gig, I thought I was going have a record deal the next day.

Warren Huart:

Sure.

Gary Go:

And this show-

Warren Huart:

Million pound cheque?

Gary Go:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it was clear that this was second show ever, I was still at the beginning of the journey. And I had to go back in tool up and get-, which was good for me.

Warren Huart:

Yeah.

Gary Go:

Because now I’m sitting here talking to you and still making records.

Warren Huart:

Amazing.

Gary Go:

And I had the wherewithal I think to carry on a keep doing it.

Warren Huart:

So were were talking earlier about how now we all have like five careers, where, when we grew up there seemed to be this idea there was a rock star, there was a producer, there was an engineer, there was a songwriter, there was all these clearly defined paths and each one of them lead to ultimate mansions and Ferraris. Now the reality is that to get a decent living now for most of us, we’re like you. You’re a musician, singer, songwriter, producer, you’re multitasking.

Warren Huart:

So you’re starting off as an artist, you’re working in a studio full-time.

Gary Go:

Yeah I was working full-time. Well my first job was at a record company, like as in in the mail room.

Warren Huart:

Oh, how did you get that?

Gary Go:

Writing letters.

Warren Huart:

You just wrote letters saying-

Gary Go:

I wrote a letter to every record company in London and every studio in London.

Warren Huart:

Wow.

Gary Go:

I wanted to work in the studio, but I got rejection letter from Abbey Road, I got a rejection letter from Olympic, I got a rejection… I still have all the letters.

Warren Huart:

Wonderful.

Gary Go:

I got a rejection letter from Chappell’s of Bond Street, the music store.

Warren Huart:

Oh I remember that, yeah.

Gary Go:

Yeah. I just wanted to work. I would have taken a music shop gig. But I got an interview at this record company. I was in the mail room and an assistant in the studios and just learning from the ground up really. They had studios there. They had production music. They had some producers on site. So I got to see… It was like my university, it was my university.

Gary Go:

I knew what I wanted to do. And I was looking at unis but I was just like, I know what I want to do. I just want to do it. I just want to start learning. Taking this job at the record company was hopefully going to lead me into the studio, which it did. So, from being there.

Warren Huart:

How?

Gary Go:

Because they had Battery Studios on site, which was a famous recording studio where Matt Lang had come up and recorded a lot of those famous records and it was a cool place and they were still making a lot of records there. And it was on in this campus, so I was like, look, once I’m in the front door, then maybe I can get in the studio. And I would just hang out there. Just hang out in reception, until one day it was like, “Oh the assistant’s not here, can you come in on this session?”

Gary Go:

Which was a Coldplay session.

Warren Huart:

Nice. Was it an overdub or was a complete tracking-

Gary Go:

No, that session was Chris Martin coming in on his own to demo up songs for their album at the time. You know things are going well when you go into a proper studio just to do-

Warren Huart:

Just to do demos, yeah.

Gary Go:

Just to do acoustic demos with the producer. But it was cool to see.

Warren Huart:

Talking about this the other day is there was actually point probably about 20, 25 years ago where that was really the only options. You either did four track crappy demos or maybe ADATs or you had studios.

Gary Go:

Right.

Warren Huart:

Now we have laptops with I/Os and-

Gary Go:

Yeah, but this was the time where you did still have the laptop and home studio. I had a home studio at the time.

Warren Huart:

Oh you did?

Gary Go:

Yeah, yeah.

Warren Huart:

Yeah, yeah.

Gary Go:

But it’s just, still big acts do come in to the big studio to do simple stuff.

Warren Huart:

Yeah, it’s crazy. Fantastic.

Gary Go:

I remember one of my first assistant jobs was at Townhouse Studios in London, I mentioned to you.

Warren Huart:

Amazing studio.

Gary Go:

It’s not there anymore.

Warren Huart:

I know, very sad.

Gary Go:

And I remember Elton John coming in just to listen to some records with a friend.

Warren Huart:

Yeah.

Gary Go:

I loved that.

Warren Huart:

Yeah.

Gary Go:

You get to a point where you just, I want to listen to some music, play a friend some records, I’m going to rent a control room at Townhouse. Good times.

Warren Huart:

Those are very good times.

Gary Go:

Now we get to listen to music in here, in this studio, which his equally cool.

Warren Huart:

Yeah. Yeah it’s great.

Gary Go:

The Townhouse of the Hollywood Hills.

Warren Huart:

Oh the Townhouse though, what a studio. Some of my records, XTC albums were made there.

Gary Go:

Oh, wow.

Warren Huart:

Yeah. Of course, Phil Collins.

Gary Go:

Yeah. Hugh Padgham.

Warren Huart:

Yeah. Hugh Padgham did a lot of great records in that studio.

Gary Go:

Yeah, famous, famous, drum sound.

Warren Huart:

Very, very sad that that went.

Gary Go:

It kind of hung on. Like all of these places, I think they have the same story. And then they’re going to turn them into apartments. And then they, I don’t know. A lot of great studios we lost in London.

Warren Huart:

Yeah, it’s a real shame. Olympic. That’s a crazy one.

Gary Go:

It’s a restaurant.

Warren Huart:

Olympic?

Gary Go:

It’s a restaurant and cinema.

Warren Huart:

That makes no sense.

Gary Go:

One day I come in and the guy I was working for was like, “Did you play a show last night?”

Gary Go:

And I went like, “Yeah, I had someone calling me saying is that the same Gary Go who works in the studio.” And then my things, I started to come out of my shell as, I don’t know just want to be programming, I’m writing songs as well. And then they started to see me as a writer and then I started helping on projects that we were working on at the studio as a writer. And then got the confidence to leave and go it alone as a writer.

Warren Huart:

That’s a nice transition.

Gary Go:

Yeah. Yeah, so and then I… Yeah, I’ve been doing that ever since.

Warren Huart:

What came first, solo stuff?

Gary Go:

Yeah.

Warren Huart:

For a label before production, before songwriting?

Gary Go:

Yeah it was me as an artist, songwriter. Found an agent and I managed, from having worked at the record company I knew a few people. I could put a little team together. Found a manager and did a few good shows, did a few bad shows. Stuff didn’t happen overnight. So then I was like, I need to make another… I’d made an EP in my bedroom, my first EP and then I’m like, I need to make another one. Found a champion in new york that owned a studio, so invited me to come over there and make… I just kept making music and learning as I went. Recording, trying to meet other talented people that new how to record.

Gary Go:

And I always had good Spidey-sense for finding good musicians and good engineers and that always made things go a little smoother.

Warren Huart:

That’s fantastic.

Gary Go:

As far as making records. But also hindered me becoming a great engineer, a great guitar player.

Warren Huart:

Sure.

Gary Go:

Because I always just found, I gravitated towards great engineers, great musicians. I surrounded myself with them

Warren Huart:

But I’ve said this quote a hundred times so people watching will get bored of me saying it. But the Tom Petty quote where he said if he had been a good guitar player he wouldn’t have been a very good songwriter.

Gary Go:

Right.

Warren Huart:

So it’s a give and take I think.

Gary Go:

I like that, I don’t know if I’ve heard that before.

Warren Huart:

Well I think for creatives, if we do anything, we get obsessed. And if you’re going to be a songwriter, you want to be a songwriter. You start throwing in, learning five other trades at the same time. Something is going to suffer.

Gary Go:

Maybe, yeah. Some people are good at everything. Or a lot of stuff. I always just loved, yeah I loved songs Still, that’s what drives me.

Warren Huart:

Yeah. I think some people are good at everything to a certain perception. Like early on in Ryan Tedder’s career we did quite a lot of stuff together. I cut vocals with him. And he’s definitely one of those people where everybody’s like, He’s a top songwriter. But he did not like engineering whatsoever. Like he doesn’t want to set up the recording chain or whatever. He wants everything to be taken care, just so he can be a creative.

Gary Go:

Yeah.

Warren Huart:

So I think it makes perfect sense.

Gary Go:

That does make sense to me yeah.

Warren Huart:

Yeah if you want to communicate with the artist and get a result and work on a song with them, do you really want to be the guy that is editing the vocal at the same time.

Gary Go:

I like to be able to fly the plane.

Warren Huart:

Right.

Gary Go:

If and when I have to.

Warren Huart:

I understand that.

Gary Go:

And I can, when I need to. But I more and more enjoy sitting back and being the songwriter if I’m working with other people for sure.

Warren Huart:

Understanding your loves, your passions, your strengths, I think is a big deal. You know Sean Douglas, have you and Sean worked-

Gary Go:

Yeah, yeah, I’ve written with Sean yeah. Super dude.

Warren Huart:

Yeah, Sean I did his band’s album before he went and got into production and songwriting on his own. And he knows his way around Logic like that, he’s like… And then when I interviewed him a few weeks ago, ever since we worked together his career’s gone great as well, like yours. He’s doing amazingly well.

Gary Go:

That’s after people work with you. There’s a pattern there.

Warren Huart:

There’s a pattern there.

Gary Go:

You know what I’m saying, right, I like that.

Warren Huart:

And I said to him, I was like, “Are you doing any production?”

Warren Huart:

And he was like “No.”

Warren Huart:

Anyway, he’s a really talented keyboard player and knew Logic better than anyone else I ever worked with. He would come in after a night off with tons of tracks all built and great ideas. And now he’s like, “No, I let other people do that.”

Gary Go:

He likes being the song guy, yeah.

Warren Huart:

Yeah, I don’t you’re selling yourself short by just focusing on what you’re good at.

Gary Go:

I enjoy it right now. And with my own, I mean it differs. Like my record I’m across all of it. I just like to go in on stuff. So if I’m producing something, I’ll go in. And I mean that as far as like time and commitment to it. Whatever it takes. So it’s not just like… I’m not a quick thing in the box guy.

Warren Huart:

Sure.

Gary Go:

Like I say, if I have to be, I can. But I like to do things that I can get lost in.

Warren Huart:

I mean that’s part of that, we were talking off camera about the old New York days of the 70s and some of the people-

Gary Go:

Which I wasn’t around for but I knew people that were, that’s what we were talking about.

Warren Huart:

Yeah, we were talking about the guys like Shelly, but most importantly Roy Cicala who brings all these together. Those were the days where people would disappear into rooms for months to write albums that we still listen to and still consider to be the greatest records ever made.

Gary Go:

Yeah.

Warren Huart:

So there’s definitely something to be said for time and budget.

Gary Go:

Yeah I think all of that stuff is super romantic.

Warren Huart:

Yeah.

Gary Go:

Just getting lost somewhere and getting lost in a record. Yeah pity it’d hard to be able to afford that kind of time now to work on something but I like to try.

Warren Huart:

Well this song is a perfect example of this.

Gary Go:

Right.

Warren Huart:

So tell us a little bit about this song. What’s the title of this song?

Gary Go:

This is called “The Skin I’m In.”

Warren Huart:

The Skin I’m In.

Gary Go:

Yeah.

Warren Huart:

With Tory Kelly and yourself.

Gary Go:

Well I took over the lead but I just love when the song lifted off, stuff that was in her lead vocal, I got attached to it.

Warren Huart:

I’m not surprised.

Gary Go:

Yeah. Because she soars. And then I was like, this works as this… It’s not a duet but just that it worked with just the presence of her voice and the other character in the story.

Gary Go:

(singing).

Gary Go:

Minimal. You can hear here in there, in that chorus. Super [crosstalk 00:18:16].

Warren Huart:

I love that breathiness when she comes in.

Gary Go:

Yeah it’s all that air it’s beautiful.

Warren Huart:

Yeah.

Gary Go:

(singing)

Warren Huart:

So where’s the piano. Where did you track the piano?

Gary Go:

(singing). I believe this was at the Pool Studios in London.

Warren Huart:

I don’t know it.

Gary Go:

(singing).

Warren Huart:

But it’s real piano.

Gary Go:

It’s a real piano yeah. It’s all real pianos.

Warren Huart:

Fantastic.

Gary Go:

On the record. I’m always up for trying sample pianos but I still come back to that real hammers and, yeah, strings.

Warren Huart:

Yeah, I understand. There’s something about the random that you just can’t do.

Gary Go:

(singing).

Gary Go:

And I think it’s still my demo vocal on this as well.

Warren Huart:

Great.

Gary Go:

(singing).

Gary Go:

You get attached to that stuff sometimes.

Warren Huart:

But you were talking about something like you, that was the demo [crosstalk 00:19:11].

Gary Go:

From a home studio studio right.

Warren Huart:

Yeah it wasn’t Rick Rubin went off a re-tracked it. It still went back to the demo.

Gary Go:

(singing).

Gary Go:

So then we did some drums. This was a lot of programming at one point. But then I replaced. It’s all live, it’s Tim Lefebvre on bass. Aaron Sterling. Cracking. Really…

Gary Go:

My thing was always about people moving air.

Warren Huart:

Sure.

Gary Go:

A lot of these tracks when they were developed, the songs lived in the box for a little time. It really came to life when we brought players in.

Warren Huart:

Who is playing guitar?

Gary Go:

This is old, dear friend of mine. John Shannon, who is one of my favorite musicians I’ve worked with on-

Warren Huart:

Nice lines, really nice.

Gary Go:

On everything I’ve done.

Warren Huart:

It’s a mixture between-

Gary Go:

And this is when Tori shines here.

Gary Go:

(singing).

Gary Go:

But yeah, I just couldn’t take her out.

Warren Huart:

Yeah, I mean that bridge alone is worth the price.

Gary Go:

Yeah, she just lifts off. So I was happy, yeah, that she liked it.

Warren Huart:

I don’t… With her, when I’ve recorded her, I don’t remember ever tuning her. I think I may have tuned one note on one harmony once.

Gary Go:

Yeah, there’s no tuning on this.

Warren Huart:

Yeah, I don’t remember ever tuning her.

Gary Go:

I’m not a big fan of tuning generally.

Warren Huart:

I mean it’s easy for us to say because it always sounds like one of those stupid conceited things when you watch a video but the reality is when I did that Prof Green track there was 16 passes of harmonies so it was doubled times eight. Like four and four. No, no, eight and eight. And we didn’t tune anything.

Gary Go:

Right, makes it easy.

Warren Huart:

Yeah, there’s something, I don’t want to speculate but I’m assuming she has perfect pitch. I mean she’s insane.

Gary Go:

I wouldn’t be surprised yeah. Yeah. I mean that’s the thing, I was saying earlier, it does make the job easier, like making records and music when you surround yourself with-

Warren Huart:

The best, yeah.

Gary Go:

Super talented people. Same with some of the players on this album, just some of the best. People that I really dream to work with. And it’s just, stuff just takes a big jump.

Warren Huart:

Well give us a bit more background, where did you record the live drums when you did Aaron Sterling?

Gary Go:

So the drums I shared a studio here in North Hollywood with a fantastic engineer/producer called Dan Burns, who I had always wanted to work with because he had produced a girl, an artist called Carina Round. And I got a song called Backseat that I had written with this artist. I had done the demo and then you’re always intrigued when someone, Oh it’s going to be produced up. You’re like, Oh I hope they get it right, hope they serve the song. And you’re always a bit nervous it’s going to come back, This isn’t, the demo is better than the this. And I got sent this record, it was super cool. I was like this is awesome. Who made this. And it was this guy Dan and I had always wanted to work with him.

Gary Go:

Anyway, I put it out into the cosmos. Fast forward, a few years later we end up, he lets me set up my studio in his live room of his… He had a big studio in North Hollywood. And he was like you can… I was spending a lot of time in LA, I needed a space. He was like, “You can set your stuff up in the live room.”

Warren Huart:

Amazing.

Gary Go:

“And when I’m not tracking, that can be your studio.”

Gary Go:

So I did that, and that lead to, “This is the record I’m working on.” And I had done loads of demos, I had loads of stuff in the box. I had a lot of songs, that there was not really much live stuff on but it was all programming and I had done some of that with a friend in London. He was like, “I can finish this with you, we can finish this here, do it.” And he had a great certain of friends and musicians that he was like, “Let’s bring in Aaron sterling on drums. Oh you like Black Star? Let’s bring in Tim.”

Warren Huart:

Yeah, that’s insane.

Gary Go:

And it just started to bloom.

Warren Huart:

I was listening to that when my son was still 12. I remember driving listening to Black Star with my 12 year old.

Gary Go:

Yeah, crazy. I still haven’t given that record enough time to be honest.

Warren Huart:

It’s a tough one to give a lot of time. It’s a very emotional album.

Gary Go:

Yeah, I feel like that’s probably why I haven’t gone deep deep dive on that album.

Warren Huart:

And you felt that before he even died.

Gary Go:

Right.

Warren Huart:

It was just like, it hit you like a ton of bricks. What is he trying to say? And then couple of weeks later he dies. Yeah.

Warren Huart:

Do you remember what you did you demo vocal with, what mic it was? What do you have with your home mic?

Gary Go:

I think, no, that wasn’t at home. That’s the thing, all these… It’s a hodgepodge. That song was written and demoed at the same time I got a call from an old friend that inspired this, immediately the song just came out. And demoed it then and there. I think it was like a 414, AKG maybe on the vocal. I have a Flea 47 for vocals, which I love. A friend had told me that Peter Gabriel uses that mic so then I bought one of them. It’s based on that. And I love that mic. That’s what I try and do all my vocals on. But often you’ll be in a studio, cut something, not even pay attention to how you’re recording it and-

Warren Huart:

Makes me want to ask you all about Real World though, your experiences at Real World.

Gary Go:

Right, well yeah. Magical place, Real World. Yeah, in Bath.

Warren Huart:

I can only imagine.

Gary Go:

Yeah, I actually had a listening session. Was very fortune to listen through this album while I was making it in his writing room there. Which was, I mean, incredible. Yeah, he’s a big hero of mine.

Warren Huart:

Yeah. It’s hard not be.

Gary Go:

Yeah. So and those people I look up, artists like Peter Gabriel or Bowie, I look up to just the way they talk about going in on making a record. It would be like let’s go to Berlin. So, when they’re in the cow shed and everyone’s coming in. It was like they went in. I mean, they never left. It’s like you’re in another world. You become in a bubble. And just how time just passes. Months, months, months.

Gary Go:

So I love making events out of. I see it as an excuse to make an event out of making a record. So writing this album we were invited to this ranch, it’s called the Mermaid Ranch in East Hampton in New York, which is where it all came together as what songs went. It become a story, the record presented itself to me and-

Warren Huart:

I think I’ve been blessed to work on a handful of albums that have had that nine month, year, buckle down, live it and breath it. It’s a combination of the most rewarding and incredible experience and one of the most stressful experiences of my life all at once.

Gary Go:

Super stressful. You lost concept of time.

Warren Huart:

Yeah.

Gary Go:

We finished this record at this old vicarage in Manchester, England. Found this wonderful studio called Eve, which was a residential studio. Just like a basement but cool. Great gear and I just wanted to fine somewhere where I could stay. Me and Thorn, who I made a lot of my record with, an amazing producer. Like somewhere we could just stay, wake up in the studio, no travel time. Work until as late as you want. Go to sleep in the studio. I love that, yeah. But it can send you crazy. You’re in this bubble. But it can be fun.

Warren Huart:

Yeah. Absolutely.

Warren Huart:

You’ve got a lot of cuts with a lot of really great artists.

Gary Go:

I’ve done a lot of good writing stuff as well yeah, which I enjoy too. And that’s a completely different process. When I do my own stuff I feel like I can do it however I want and then sometimes working with other artists that luxury maybe doesn’t exist to spend that amount of time with. I get to spend as much time as I want with myself, which is difficult, but you don’t get to spend that amount of time necessarily working with other artists so you’ve got to do things in a different way. Which is cool to be able to do that too.

Warren Huart:

How did that morph then. You’ve got first solo album comes out. Do people recognize you as a songwriter because of it and then start getting put into situations where you are co-writing with people.

Gary Go:

Yeah, I had already done a bit of… Because I had worked in the studios, like when I was at Townhouse I had already started being a songwriter in situations a little bit and already liked that. And I already looked up to a lot of song writers as well.

Warren Huart:

Did you get some cuts from that situation?

Gary Go:

Then I did yeah, a couple of not particularly noteworthy ones but I did do some songs for a couple of movies, like animated movies, which were really cool for me at the time. I was literally just getting started. So yeah I did, I got some notches on my resume. It started coming together.

Warren Huart:

You have some pretty decent film composition stuff as well.

Gary Go:

Yeah, I’ve been getting more into scoring and love that. I took a bit of time out of songwriting to score a couple of movies and get lost in that. It was always something I wanted to do at some point. And love it as well. So long as there’s noise and sound and chords and feeling, I’m into it yeah.

Warren Huart:

How do you find working to picture. I mean it’s quite a different experience, you’re sitting opposite a young singer or an established singer and you’re trying to find some common ground or something to write about and draw some experiences out of them. And then somebody’s now presenting you with a QuickTime film. Like, here’s my movie.

Gary Go:

Yeah. Yeah, it’s different.

Warren Huart:

And here’s some SMPTE code, off you go.

Gary Go:

But then that becomes like the artist. Yeah, you’re sitting opposite an artist, but then the movie becomes like that. You have to get all that, feed all that information from the picture. I liked it. I love that process. The hardest thing about it is how often things change, which doesn’t happen as much in music production. You’ll score something just perfectly to the scene, the thing will kick off when the action hits, the screech when the monster appears, whatever, exactly to time. And then the edit changes the next day or they do it… And then you’ve got to change this whole thing you’ve crafted to perfection. And if you’re not directing the movie you’re not in charge. So you’ve got to help serve someone to realize their vision, which is fun when you figure out how to do that. Yeah, but it’s definitely, it is a different process for sure.

Warren Huart:

Do you find yourself having long conversations with the director, with screenwriters?

Gary Go:

With the director, yeah.

Warren Huart:

With the director predominantly?

Gary Go:

Yeah, long… Interestingly more on email, which maybe is quite good because you can be really specific and refer back to the notes and the-

Warren Huart:

Right, right, rather than the interpretation.

Gary Go:

Yeah, yeah. But it’s good to speak to people but yeah, usually this time, do this, needs to hit more.

Warren Huart:

That’s actually a good point. I think in general, even with mixing and production, I do like face to face time or phone calls, but you’re right if you can put that information, even if it’s post a phone call, down on an email, it’s pretty good. You can avoid a lot of misinterpretation.

Gary Go:

Yeah it’s like-

Warren Huart:

Oh, I thought you meant.

Gary Go:

Right. Or, didn’t you say.

Gary Go:

Yeah, it’s fun. There’s so many different ways obviously of working with people and I mean I never had the director come to the studio and sit in. I know that happens for a lot of composers and some directors want to be super involved in making then music and it would be fun to do a situation like that as well. But I’ve had so far free reign when I’ve been doing film music, which has been cool.

Warren Huart:

We’ve just talked about it in a video when somebody asked me about working on genres that you’re not used to. I was like, “That’s actually really cool.”

Gary Go:

Yeah.

Warren Huart:

I like it when somebody sends me some hip hop track that I have no idea how they did it and I’ve got to figure out, that’s-

Gary Go:

It keeps you…

Warren Huart:

Keeps your brain going.

Gary Go:

Yeah, yeah.

Warren Huart:

What are you working on next. You’ve got your solo record out, which is coming out the-

Gary Go:

Yeah, yeah. I think it might be out when this is out. February 28th.

Warren Huart:

February 28th. We’ll put links to that.

Gary Go:

Amazing, thank you.

Warren Huart:

Although we have obviously a couple of singles from the album that we link to if the video is coming out earlier.

Gary Go:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There’s a few songs out already. I’m revealing one every couple of weeks. My favorite song is probably the title track, “Love Lost, Freedom Found” because I just think it’s a great showcase of everyone’s work. From my buddy Carl that helped a lot of the initial demos and programming with me to the musicians that played on here to Andreas, my old longterm engineer that’s mixed it. This is a real meal of everyone this record. And it’s got a killer organ solo at the end. Zach Rae, who I’m sure you’ve worked with-

Warren Huart:

I know Zach yeah.

Gary Go:

Yeah, yeah.

Gary Go:

(singing).

Warren Huart:

It’s funny when you first came in I was like, I remember him, god he looks like Zach Rae’s brother.

Gary Go:

Oh really.

Gary Go:

Good looking brother.

Gary Go:

(singing).

Gary Go:

He was someone I had always wanted to work with.

Warren Huart:

Oh, he’s amazing.

Gary Go:

From Fiona Apple extraordinary machine. Always wanted to work with him.

Warren Huart:

Him and Roger Manning rule Los Angeles when it comes to key playing.

Gary Go:

(singing).

Warren Huart:

Who’s that singing?

Gary Go:

That’s Audra Mae. Again someone I had wanted to-

Warren Huart:

Yeah amazing.

Gary Go:

I knew her but we hadn’t. Yeah, we hadn’t worked together and I was… She’s a great songwriter in her own right. So I was all nervous about asking her to sing on my song.

Warren Huart:

Yeah.

Gary Go:

And she was just totally down. Super cool, came to the studio in North Hollywood and just did it.

Warren Huart:

That’s amazing.

Gary Go:

And just-

Warren Huart:

She’s insane talent. There was a period probably about four years ago. I remember everyone on the planet was just like, “How can we get her in the room?”

Gary Go:

Right.

Warren Huart:

I mean I’m sure she’s still a hot commodity.

Gary Go:

Yeah well because she’s got that, she’s just real. That is a commodity. I think an authentic artist.

Warren Huart:

Well it’s interesting because we talked about her obviously, yourself and Ryan. And I feel like, there’s an edge with people who can sing well. I think having that is quite an advantage because you can get into phrasing with artists and bring that out.

Warren Huart:

I know as a co-writer myself, I’m really strong on melody, I love lyrics, I love production, of course. But when I sit in a room with a really great singer who’s also a writer, it’s just like a little extra edge that they’ve got where they can just twist that lyric and bring a little bit of phrasing out of it.

Gary Go:

Right.

Warren Huart:

Even if you’re not aware you’re doing it. It’s something, being a great singer than you can do that a lot of writers can’t.

Gary Go:

Right. One thing that helps working with singers is you can try and sing an idea, or-

Warren Huart:

Yeah, exactly.

Gary Go:

But yeah, sometimes I worry if I go a bit too hard on singers sometimes when I’m working with vocalists.

Warren Huart:

Maybe, I would do stuff with Ryan where he would literally try and get into trills. And I remember being like… You know what I mean? That’s quite a push?

Gary Go:

But it’s great, when you have someone like Audra Mae behind the mic, behind glass.

Warren Huart:

Oh yeah.

Gary Go:

You just go, okay, we’re done. Well there’s no… She sings the part and it’s already amazing.

Warren Huart:

So much expression yeah.

Gary Go:

My thing, “One for luck?”

Warren Huart:

Yeah, yeah.

Gary Go:

And then you’re done. That’s the thing about…

Warren Huart:

Your voices blend great though together. Really really well.

Gary Go:

Thank you, yeah. She smashed it. I was elevated big time when she sang on this chorus.

Gary Go:

(sing).

Warren Huart:

I like the dryness in your voice because it’s not forced.

Gary Go:

Right.

Warren Huart:

You’ve got that naturally. I know guys who can do it but it’s just… I guess a little exhausting.

Gary Go:

I try-

Warren Huart:

You have the right idea with it. Are you conscious of that?

Gary Go:

I can hear it sometimes and I try and undo it but it’s just the sound of my voice.

Warren Huart:

Yeah but that’s a good thing.

Gary Go:

I sometimes don’t like that. I sometimes don’t like the sound of it.

Warren Huart:

Like Elvis Costello hates the fact that he can’t sing an “h” properly but we all absolutely love it.

Gary Go:

That’s the sound of his voice.

Warren Huart:

Yeah. That’s the sound of his voice, yeah. (singing).

Gary Go:

This is Tim, Aaron, Zach now on organ. I just love this so much.

Gary Go:

It’s cool like-

Warren Huart:

Amazing.

Gary Go:

It’s an excuse, making a record, to just get all the people you’ve wanted to work with together.

Warren Huart:

Yeah.

Gary Go:

And realize some of the stuff you’ve had in your head. So it’s fun.

Warren Huart:

Where did you track the keys with Zach.

Gary Go:

At the same studio, at Dan’s studio in North Hollywood, yeah.

Warren Huart:

Oh, fantastic.

Gary Go:

Valleyheart Studios, it’s great.

Gary Go:

This records been going on while I’ve been working with other people, while I did a couple… It’s been scoring and it’s been there.

Warren Huart:

But this the third or fourth song that I’ve heard because we’re listening on Spotify as well. There’s definitely great continuity there. One of the downsides sometimes, and so many of us make records in bits and pieces, is that you stand back and listen to it and go, “Wow, this is completely schizophrenic.”

Gary Go:

Well that’s super important to me, to have that continuity. So the demos were maybe a little bit more all over the place. But what really brought it together was then working with Dan in the same studio, getting all the live musicians at the same… It was like we finished them all together as a bunch.

Warren Huart:

That’s great.

Gary Go:

Even though the writing was… They were written at different times and demos done in different places and different ways. But they were all finished together. And then Andreas mixes it all together and it brings it all together.

Warren Huart:

Does he still have the studio Dan?

Gary Go:

I believe so yeah.

Warren Huart:

I should go and check it out.

Gary Go:

Yeah, yeah, it’s a great space.

Warren Huart:

What’s it called?

Gary Go:

His studio is called Valleyheart Studios yeah.

Warren Huart:

Valleyheart?

Gary Go:

Yeah, yeah.

Warren Huart:

Fantastic.

Gary Go:

He’s been touring a lot. He does a lot of live sound and production stuff so I haven’t got a chance to catch up with him. But there were some cool neighbors. It was like… Yeah there were some other cool musicians there that probably don’t want me to say where their studio is.

Warren Huart:

Sure.

Gary Go:

But it was like three or four studios in a little block and it was pretty cool. All people I had wanted to work with.

Warren Huart:

That’s amazing.

Gary Go:

Yeah. It’s cool when you’re… If you’re… I’ve always been pretty good at getting studios around people that I’m a fan of. Because it keeps you on your toes. You think, Oh thingy over there is probably working on something super hot right now, I should, just need to step up. It makes you think. Oh Warren’s over there, Warren’s record, he’s just working over the street, his shit probably sounds incredible. It means you’ve got to step up our game. It’s just knowing that you’re there.

Warren Huart:

I know what you mean. But you’ve got to also take some of that responsible. Like you get yourself in that playground. We all create our own playgrounds and you’ve got yourself into that position as well. It’s not by accident. Maybe we can have one accident, but we need the ability to stay there.

Gary Go:

Right. Yeah, yeah.

Warren Huart:

We’ve all found ourselves in rooms at times but being able to stay at that level is a testament to what you do.

Gary Go:

The album’s called “Love Lost, Freedom Found” and it’s about a lot of the stuff that was going on while I was writing and making it. It’s about all of that. This song was a song born actually out of a writing session I did with an amazing composer and producer called Ludwig Göransson. He did the for Black Panther and-

Warren Huart:

Amazing.

Gary Go:

Yeah, amazing composer. But we just did this little piano loop and I just wrote some lyrics and I always loved this song.

Gary Go:

(singing).

Gary Go:

That was, we ran the piano through an H3000 I think. Switching that on and off. That’s like you sometimes hear these harmonics on the piano and-

Warren Huart:

Oh okay, yeah. Love the H3000.

Gary Go:

Love the H3000. So did that demo and then just the verses never left me. The chorus was wack at the time, it wasn’t as good. But I just loved the story and the verses and it tied in to this general story I was trying to tell. So just kept developing it and playing with it and Thorn another producer I worked with tried a bunch of stuff. In a room at the studio in North Hollywood and he just, with loads of different random instruments and he was throwing loads of stuff on it and it got good. And then sometimes, something gets so good I’m like, Okay I’m backing this horse. I really like this song. I’ve got to rewrite the chorus. And then I heard this voice, I was like “Who is that?”

Gary Go:

And it was this duo called Future Studies and they were working or writing on an EP and I was like, This voice was incredible to me.

Gary Go:

(singing).

Gary Go:

I just heard this singer’s voice and I was just like… It inspired me to rewrite the chorus for this song.

Gary Go:

(singing).

Gary Go:

Again, like Aaron on the drums.

Warren Huart:

You let the tom ring.

Gary Go:

Right.

Gary Go:

It’s like a couple of songs on the record have this mad outro where my buddy Thorn had at it with a bunch of synths and it all goes off.

Gary Go:

(singing).

Gary Go:

Harmonium and…

Gary Go:

And then this ending went to a completely different studio with a completely different drummer actually to record drums.

Warren Huart:

Who was the drummer?

Gary Go:

So I was back in London at this point and we got this guy Martin Valihora, incredible Slovakian drummer who played on my whole of my first album bar two songs. He came over to London from Slovakia, Andreas recorded these drums at the Pool but…

Warren Huart:

Yeah, it’s amazing. It’s amazing. Well thanks ever so much.

Gary Go:

I hope that was a good chat.

Warren Huart:

I think it was a fantastic chat.

Gary Go:

Thanks for having me Warren, it’s good to see you again. And thank you for being a part of my record.

Warren Huart:

Thanks. I’m excited. I’m excited.

Gary Go:

Yeah, yeah.

Warren Huart:

Now I wish it great success.

Gary Go:

Right now. Only now. Now you’re a part of it.

Warren Huart:

Only now, yeah.

Gary Go:

Thank you so much.

Warren Huart:

No it’s fantastic.

Gary Go:

Thanks for having me.

Warren Huart:

Thanks. Marvelous.

Warren Huart:

Please leave any comments and questions below. There will be a blog that you can click on and there will be a lot more details on all of Gary’s co-writing and production and everything else. So you can find out more about him. Of course links to the album, the singles and all kinds of good stuff.

Gary Go:

Appreciate it.

Warren Huart:

Have a marvelous time recording and mixing. We’ll see you all again very soon.