Gavin Sutherland

Hola, Ciao, Bienvenue, Wilkommen . . . .

Hey. How's it going? Welcome to my window on the world. If you're looking for a classical conductor or a champion surfer, you're in the wrong place. If you're looking for the guitarist songwriter guy who used to be in a band with his brother, you're bang on the mark.
So what's new? I'm living by the sea, enjoying making music, yeah, life is good! I just finished another solo album and decided to call it THE DEAL. This one's a real solo album. I didn't set out to, but I did everything on it - wrote the tunes, played 'em, sang 'em, made the tea, you name it. The only other person involved was my old pal, Jim Hunter. He's a recording engineer and one of the few people out there who understands what I'm doing, which is handy, cos I don't! He also knows what he's doing and what we're not doing. All these things are important when records are being made.

My World . . .

A lot of water's gone under the bridge since I first came face to face with a Neumann U87. I remember it well. The band set up in a cosy little semi-circle in the middle of Island's Number One Studio, the big one at their HQ in Basing Street. Armed with a Fender Jaguar and the raw valve power of my AC30, I was ready to take on the world! What a glorious feeling it was. Could there be a better job anywhere on the planet? No, I don't think so! London was the coolest music town in the world, Notting Hill was the coolest place in London, and there we were, right in the middle of it all. Awesome! In the 1960s and 70s it was straight forward. You learned how to play, got a band together, gigged around for a while and then went off to the big city to look for a deal. The last bit was pretty random, a game with no obvious rules. After trying our luck with a couple of A and R guys in the West End (still waiting to hear from those dudes) Muff Winwood gave my brother and I our first real break. He signed us to Island, produced our first records and taught us loads about the record bizz. Not sure if I ever said thank you. So, if you happen to be reading this Muff, thanks very much!

It's great that the internet has given us all a meeting place but have the techno advances taken a lot of the skills and craftsmanship out of record making? Maybe that doesn't really matter? Like the man said, the show must go on!

You can listen to some music and meet some of my friends at My Space