“I THINK I VIEWED THE CHURCH as a stage, with my dad being the star of the show,” opens Wells, with a halfsmile, adding that the church organist was particularly encouraging even when he didn’t really know what he was playing. He was only three at the time, after all. “You only get one set of roots, and I remember as I got a little older, dad would sometimes play the radio in the car, and I’d hear Carole King or The Jackson 5, and I’d freak out - start drumming on the car! There was no video taping or documenting of something that was on air back then. If you missed it, you might never hear it ever again.” At this time, Wells had a sense that he was in the wrong place. He craved music, but had no idea where to go, or how to do it – whatever it was - and there was no money to go there – wherever that was. With this in mind, from the age of 10, he joined every band that would have him, and by Adele. Katy Perry. Mika. Just three of the superstars the time he entered his teens, he was that Greg Wells has written songs with. We sit down fortunate enough to find an amazing in New York to hear his story. music teacher in his hometown, who Wo rds PAUL WATSON really set the musical ball rolling. “I got really deep into classical piano around 13-years-old,” Wells recalls, fondly. “Then I remember taking the two-hour bus ride to Toronto, to study GREG WELLS hails from a rural farming factory with some badass teachers there. My heart was never fully town in Canada. Or in his own words, “I grew up by into classical, and I had already become a church organist, a cow field”. A preacher’s child, he became obsessed bought myself a bad drum set, and not received much with the church organ at just two-years-old, and was encouragement from anyone, so everything felt like a playing it by three. His grandmother would let him ridiculous pipe dream, to be honest!” tinker with pots and pans on the kitchen floor when Did this make him rebel against the cause? In a word, yes. he went to visit, but his parents weren’t so keen on “It was my rocket fuel,” Wells confirms, eyes widening. the noise, so decided not to buy him that drum set he “And in retrospect, I’m glad, because it built a weird so desired, “which is probably why I give away a set monster, too – one that I had to keep in the cage [smiles]. of drums every three months now on Twitter, some We’re all plugged into our own roots, and I wanted to crazy overcompensation,” Wells jokes, with a smile. become a musician, and to get out of my hometown. I didn’t Although he never saw himself as a songwriter, many know what to do, until this one high school student, four a Grammy-winner would beg to differ. In the last years older than me, told me about this modern music decade alone, he’s penned some gems with some of school in Toronto called Humber College. She saved my life the industry’s most acclaimed songstresses including and not just once. When I joined Humber, she was already in Katy Perry and Adele, and he was effectively the her third year, and she told me over lunch about this thing whole band on Mika’s stunning debut record, Life In called the Canadian Government Arts Council, where you Cartoon Motion, which sold close to six million units. can apply for a grant for almost anything; and if they think So how did that happen? And when did he realise he it’s a good idea, and you’re good enough, you might get it. could write songs just as well as he could play piano “I’d never heard of it, but I thought it would be great if (and guitar, bass, and drums for that matter)? I could study in LA with this guy called Clare Fischer. He died recently, sadly, but among the many things he did,
Greg Wells
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