Greg Wells Greg Wells hails from a rural farming factory town in Canada. Or in his own words, “I grew up by a cow field”. A preacher’s child, he became obsessed with the church organ at just two-years-old, and was playing it by three. His grandmother would let him tinker with pots and pans on the kitchen floor when he went to visit, but his parents weren’t so keen on the noise, so decided not to buy him that drum set he so desired, “which is probably why I give away a set of drums every three months now on Twitter, some crazy overcompensation,” Wells jokes, with a smile. Although he never saw himself as a songwriter, many a Grammy-winner would beg to differ. In the last decade alone, he’s penned some gems with some of the industry’s most acclaimed songstresses including Katy Perry and Adele, and he was effectively the whole band on Mika’s stunning debut record, Life In Cartoon Motion, which sold close to six million units. So how did that happen? And when did he realise he could write songs just as well as he could play piano (and guitar, bass, and drums for that matter)?
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Greg Wells photographed in the studio
Adele. Katy Perry. Mika. Just three of the superstars that Greg Wells has written songs with. We sit down in New York to hear his story. Word s PAUL WATSON
“I think I viewed the church as a stage, with my dad being the star of the show,” opens Wells, with a half-smile, 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 the time he entered his teens, he was fortunate enough to find an amazing music teacher in his hometown, who 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 with some badass teachers there. My heart was never fully into classical, and I had already become a church organist, bought myself a bad drum set, and not received much encouragement from anyone, so everything felt like a ridiculous pipe dream, to be honest!” Did this make him rebel against the cause? In a word, yes. “It was my rocket fuel,” Wells confirms, eyes widening. “And in retrospect, I’m glad, because it built a weird monster, too – one that I had to keep in the cage [smiles]. We’re all plugged into our own roots, and I wanted to become a musician, and to get out of my hometown. I didn’t know what to do, until this one high school student, four years older than me, told me about this modern music school in Toronto called Humber College. She saved my life - and not just once. When I joined Humber, she was already in her third year, and she told me over lunch about this thing called the Canadian Government Arts Council, where you can apply for a grant for almost anything; and if they think it’s a good idea, and you’re good enough, you might get it.