A&M bio of Gregg I've never read before
bought a copy of Michigan Rain on vinyl and it came with this bio of gregg which i have transcribed below for all you lovely fans. correct me if i'm wrong but i'm pretty sure i've never seen this on the net before. MAY 1989 GREGG ALEXANDER "There's times when you're down, and times when you're up/And there's times when you've had enough of sipping, and you just wanna drink from the cup..." Singer/songwriter/guitarist GREGG ALEXANDER knows exactly what he's after with his music. "You can be, say, in a car with your friends, acting crazy and in a great mood," he says. "Then a slow song will come on the radio - say, 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' - and everything stops; you go off to a different world. I want to write songs like that." At 18, the Detroit-based musician has already gone a long way toward that goal. With "Michigan Rain," his debut album for A&M, Gregg Alexander established himself as an unusually original voice. As producer RICK NOWELS writes in his album liner notes, "Michigan Rain" plays like "the soundtrack to Gregg Alexander's home movie" - and it's quite a ride. "A vacant playground brings back young memories while driving by/I grab my umbrella - God sold my rainbow to the cloudy sky/Well who am I to make you so depressed? You squeeze my hands - then hold them to your breast/And I feel lonely - I'm calling out for help/Come - save me from myself." Gregg was in fourth or fifth grade when he got his first electric guitar and drum kit; he taught himself to play piano as well. From the start, he showed a certain precocious ingenuity; at age 14, he took the money he'd made shovelling snow and bought a four-track to make song demos, playing all the instruments himself. Then, "If there was an attorney in Detroit who represented a baseball player or something, I'd find out his name and try to play him my tape, just assuming he had something to do with the entertainment business or knew someone who did." At 16, a year or so after his first visit to Los Angeles, Gregg upped and moved to California by himself. His intention... "writing somet songs with a true desperation of the soul and having some wild gypsy adventures." "I'll walk up and down your block until your neighbours call the cops/But puttin' me in jail won't do no good, cuz it's still in the neighborhood..." In L.A. Alexander began the same process of playing his music for anyone who would listen to it, willingly or otherwise. One of those people was Rick Nowels, a young producer whose resume included gigs with STEVIE NICKS, BELINDA CARLISLE, MARIA VIDAL and others. "I just called his office and I left all these messages about a big business transacation; involving music for a movie soundtrack," Gregg recalls. "I made it sounds like I was some important businessman." When Nowels called back, Alexander stammered out the truth: he was actually just a 16-year-old singer looking for a deal. Nowels ended up listening to the tape over the phone. "I thought maybe he'd hung up, but when I picked up the phone, he said 'Oh my God, I'll be right there!' He drove over a half hour later, and after I played him four songs in the car he said he wanted to produce my album. It's funny, but I'd envisioned myself doing everything on my own: producing, arranging, playing all the instruments. Even after I met Rick, I let him know that I wanted a lot of control, and I did have a lot. What he emphasized to me was the importance of capturing a specific moment in time, a specific performance; the concept of doing live vocals was one of the key things he convinced me to do." "I was dreaming of people with sad looks upon their faces, daggers in their backs/When I heard the train comin', I had to stand up fast, for I was sleeping on the tracks..." Alexander brings a certain passion to his music, a certain abandon, that is rare indeed. And if his approach to the vocals on many Michigan Rain tunes seems spontaneous, that's because it is. "All those little noises, all the one-liners like the 'Kaboom, baby, kaboom' on 'The World We Love So Much', were just made up on the spot," he says. "I don't usually writen down the lyrics to my songs; I just have a raw outline, and make up stuff on top of that." He also puts a premium on emotions, as well as on storytelling; check out "Don't Cry Mrs. Davis" or "Five and Dimes and Petty Crimes" for examples of the latter. "Generally the music I hate is the music that sounds the most calculated," he says. "I like to rock the boat a little bit." "Come walk with me - thru the world we love so much/And we'll kill all the beautiful things we're not allowed to touch/We could fall in love - then hate cuz love NEVER lasts" "Mostly, I write whatever my emotion calls for, whether it's acoustic or unabashed rock 'n' roll. When I recorded "The World We Love So Much," it gave me chills all over the first 20 times I listened to it. I can't explain it, except to say that I was covered in blue. That's what I live for - that's my high. And if I can convey any of that to people who hear the music, I'll have accomplished something." For further information, contact the Publicity Department.
bought a copy of Michigan Rain on vinyl and it came with this bio of gregg which i have transcribed below for all you lovely fans. correct me if i'm wrong but i'm pretty sure i've never seen this on the net before. MAY 1989 GREGG ALEXANDER "There's times when you're down, and times when you're up/And there's times when you've had enough of sipping, and you just wanna drink from the cup..." Singer/songwriter/guitarist GREGG ALEXANDER knows exactly what he's after with his music. "You can be, say, in a car with your friends, acting crazy and in a great mood," he says. "Then a slow song will come on the radio - say, 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' - and everything stops; you go off to a different world. I want to write songs like that." At 18, the Detroit-based musician has already gone a long way toward that goal. With "Michigan Rain," his debut album for A&M, Gregg Alexander established himself as an unusually original voice. As producer RICK NOWELS writes in his album liner notes, "Michigan Rain" plays like "the soundtrack to Gregg Alexander's home movie" - and it's quite a ride. "A vacant playground brings back young memories while driving by/I grab my umbrella - God sold my rainbow to the cloudy sky/Well who am I to make you so depressed? You squeeze my hands - then hold them to your breast/And I feel lonely - I'm calling out for help/Come - save me from myself." Gregg was in fourth or fifth grade when he got his first electric guitar and drum kit; he taught himself to play piano as well. From the start, he showed a certain precocious ingenuity; at age 14, he took the money he'd made shovelling snow and bought a four-track to make song demos, playing all the instruments himself. Then, "If there was an attorney in Detroit who represented a baseball player or something, I'd find out his name and try to play him my tape, just assuming he had something to do with the entertainment business or knew someone who did." At 16, a year or so after his first visit to Los Angeles, Gregg upped and moved to California by himself. His intention... "writing somet songs with a true desperation of the soul and having some wild gypsy adventures." "I'll walk up and down your block until your neighbours call the cops/But puttin' me in jail won't do no good, cuz it's still in the neighborhood..." In L.A. Alexander began the same process of playing his music for anyone who would listen to it, willingly or otherwise. One of those people was Rick Nowels, a young producer whose resume included gigs with STEVIE NICKS, BELINDA CARLISLE, MARIA VIDAL and others. "I just called his office and I left all these messages about a big business transacation; involving music for a movie soundtrack," Gregg recalls. "I made it sounds like I was some important businessman." When Nowels called back, Alexander stammered out the truth: he was actually just a 16-year-old singer looking for a deal. Nowels ended up listening to the tape over the phone. "I thought maybe he'd hung up, but when I picked up the phone, he said 'Oh my God, I'll be right there!' He drove over a half hour later, and after I played him four songs in the car he said he wanted to produce my album. It's funny, but I'd envisioned myself doing everything on my own: producing, arranging, playing all the instruments. Even after I met Rick, I let him know that I wanted a lot of control, and I did have a lot. What he emphasized to me was the importance of capturing a specific moment in time, a specific performance; the concept of doing live vocals was one of the key things he convinced me to do." "I was dreaming of people with sad looks upon their faces, daggers in their backs/When I heard the train comin', I had to stand up fast, for I was sleeping on the tracks..." Alexander brings a certain passion to his music, a certain abandon, that is rare indeed. And if his approach to the vocals on many Michigan Rain tunes seems spontaneous, that's because it is. "All those little noises, all the one-liners like the 'Kaboom, baby, kaboom' on 'The World We Love So Much', were just made up on the spot," he says. "I don't usually writen down the lyrics to my songs; I just have a raw outline, and make up stuff on top of that." He also puts a premium on emotions, as well as on storytelling; check out "Don't Cry Mrs. Davis" or "Five and Dimes and Petty Crimes" for examples of the latter. "Generally the music I hate is the music that sounds the most calculated," he says. "I like to rock the boat a little bit." "Come walk with me - thru the world we love so much/And we'll kill all the beautiful things we're not allowed to touch/We could fall in love - then hate cuz love NEVER lasts" "Mostly, I write whatever my emotion calls for, whether it's acoustic or unabashed rock 'n' roll. When I recorded "The World We Love So Much," it gave me chills all over the first 20 times I listened to it. I can't explain it, except to say that I was covered in blue. That's what I live for - that's my high. And if I can convey any of that to people who hear the music, I'll have accomplished something." For further information, contact the Publicity Department.