Gary Husband News

So a friend alerted me to something the other day. The Google Knowledge Graph. Not the sexiest title for what I presumed would be another social media platform, but then again – the name by implication, suggested hardcore facts and well researched information. I was duly intrigued. Until I realised my friend was actually alerting me to a problem!

Now call me old fashioned, but I think ‘knowledge’ is a word you should have to use wisely in your branding? To me, knowledge implies academia, relevancy and accuracy, especially if you are one of the world’s biggest brands using it. There’s kind of a responsibility, right? In other words – it should not all be about the speed of returning search results, but more importantly about the accuracy of those results.

So, alarmed, I ran a Google search on myself. And according to Google’s Knowledge Graph, I am responsible for a good fifteen songs! Level 42 songs in fact. Good songs and big hit songs too, but, wait for it… they’re not actually mine! And with the exception of two of the listed titles, I had no part in writing them, didn’t record on them, and in the case of the majority of the remaining others, didn’t even perform them!

So not only do I feel like a complete fraud for being listed with the credit for songs I had nothing to do with, it’s embarrassing, disrespectful to the real writers and recording artists involved.

Then I appear to be listed as being affiliated with three music groups – one band I played with and haven’t had anything to do with for several years, another I played one(!) gig with as far back as 1983 (subbing for their regular drummer) and one other I made a couple of studio albums with as a guest sideman years back.  In another category – “Abums” – an actual title of one of my solo album catalogue appears. Hallelujah! But are people (who may be new to what I do) to believe I have only one album release to my name, out of the nine or so that exist?  Infuriating.

So it’s the case the information the Google Knowledge Graph pulls up is not even an overview of my career that would I consider suitable for a mildly interested fan to peruse. However for journalists referencing me, or for people that are instrumental – sometimes crucial – in the promotion and marketing of my (actual, real!) ongoing work, or who are independently involved in my career progression, there’s nothing more presented there than a garbled mishmash of random, irrelevant and non-factual information, (and likely the result of Level 42-related search terms and SEO results for a very successful band that, yes, I have historically worked with. Keywords: worked with.)

This is something I actually strongly consider to be counterproductive to my efforts, and yet, it doesn’t look like I have any choice but to allow it to loudly take pride of place at the head of any search anyone does for my name on the Google search engine.

So this is a shout out to ask you, my fellow artists and friends to kindly hit FEEDBACK, then to please WRONG the categories SONGS and MUSIC GROUPS in my ‘graph’ on my behalf. It’s also a shout to you to please spread the word around the creative industry at large, that Google is preventing us musicians, photographers, dancers, actors etc from curating our own legitimate biographies and work portfolios, and, is highly likely to be completely misinforming the public in the process.

It’s been a while since any kind of update! Sorry! Lots of things been happening… but not so much from me in the way of updating the website!

Except(!) for the LIVE/TOURS page, which I do diligently make sure is up to date the moment events or tours become confirmed.  Featured there presently are new dates I am delighted to be performing again with the composer Maria Schneider together with that great NDR Big Band in Hamburg.  Preceding that is a small European tour with the group UK, featuring Eddie Jobson, John Wetton, guitarist Alex Machacek, and myself stepping in for drummer Terry Bozzio.

Please continue to visit this page regularly as it will be frequently updated!

Another update I wanted to offer concerns the website itself.  As you can see it’s still far from finished.  I’ve been so busy with other things and haven’t managed yet to find a replacement for Nadja von Massow (who originally built this website and designed it around my specifications) to help me develop it fully.  Nadja’s too busy to continue with it now, but I am optimistic I will find someone to take over in due course.  The message here, though, is that you will see some good changes and developments around the website once this work takes place.

A new inspiration of mine is to put in motion some online “lessons” and set up another website specifically for that.  Again it’s going to take the right people to recruit to help me set it up properly, but I do intend on pursuing this avenue and setting it up.  There’s a contact for me on this website, and it’s reliable.  If any of you would like to send me a notification that you may be interested in hearing more about this please let me know.

Of course, my newest album “Dirty & Beautiful Volume 2″ is out everywhere now, and I’m so delighted to see it’s generated some really wonderful reviews and press already.  Here is a very brief selection of current ones.

Walter Kolosky’s Review

John Kelman’s Review at All About Jazz

Ian Patterson’s Review at All About Jazz

In addition to these, there’s a new “catch up” interview with me on the same website also by Ian Patterson here.

As a special bonus, I received two beautiful, captivating videos (to accompany two of the tracks from the new album) from a dear and talented friend of mine, Sturla Nøstvik.  View for yourself his great creations for the pieces Fuguie and Rain.  Another new friend I made recently is at the moment looking at some crazy ideas for a video of the Wayne Krantz feature track from the album; East River Jam.  I’ll keep all news updated about that.

Gary Husband * Dirty & Beautiful Volume 2 available as WAV and 320 kbps MP3. Get it Here Now!!

Dirty & Beautiful Volume 2 is also available as a CD or download at online Amazon stores worldwide, and through Abstract Logix Records.

View the “Story Behind Dirty & Beautiful” interview at this YouTube link

Thank you everyone though, for all the great comments on the album – for listening – for all the continuing support.  I appreciate it!

One more thing!  We’re all excited about John McLaughlin & The 4th Dimension this year – there’ll be the new album (released around August time) of music we recorded last December in Antibes, and we’ll be touring this October/November.

This picture of us at the recording sessions was taken by John Bouchet.

Best wishes everyone.

It’s been a while since any kind of update on Dirty & Beautiful Volume 2, but here one is!  As an accompaniment to this you are hearing a very, very brief little taster/sampler audio montage of just some of the sounds you can expect on the new album!  (These will be updated here as progress continues.)

I had the pleasure of mixing in Austria (with the splendid engineer Marcus Wippersberg at the helm) two of the feature cuts on the album just recently – one being a real tour-de-force piece written by Alex Machacek, and the other being my piece “Sulley” (which is a tune performed regularly by ourselves in John McLaughlin’s 4th Dimension.)  On the former – which is still at rough mix stage – I am featured on drums, and I feel it’s turned out very strongly.  (more…)

The all-star new album Dirty & Beautiful * Volume 1 (on Abstract Logix Records), featuring John McLaughlin, Allan Holdsworth, Steve Hackett, Robin Trower, Steve Topping, Jan Hammer and many others, is released in the following regions of the world:

• America/Canada:
  16 November 2010
• Australia/New Zealand:
  20 November 2010 (through Planet/MGM Distribution)
• Japan:
  20 November 2010 (with bonus track) on King Records
• South Korea:
  28 November 2010
• India:
  1 December 2010 (through Virgin/EMI Distribution)
• Europe (incl. U.K.):
  28 January 2011

Pre-orders (and audio samples) are available now at Abstract Logix Records

You can also pre-order the CD at:
Amazon U.K. |  Amazon U.S. |  Amazon Germany … and more!

Having completed mixing and mastering of Volume 1 of this exciting new CD venture, a profile of the album is now featured on the Abstract Logix website.

There is a brief audio montage there of many of the featured tracks available to hear, as well as the official Interview / Press Release and CD front cover image.

Dirty & Beautiful, Gary’s eagerly awaited upcoming CD, features John McLaughlin, Allan Holdsworth, Steve Hackett, Robin Trower, Jan Hammer, Steve Topping, Jimmy Johnson, Mark King, Laurence Cottle, Jerry Goodman, Livingstone Brown and others.

The recordings took place at Red Vine Studios (Ternberg Austria), Eastcote Studios (London), Red Gate Studio (N.Y.C), Mediastarz Studio (Monaco), The Summerhouse (Isle Of Wight) , Conway Recorders (Los Angeles) among others.

For those who may wish to pre-order the CD you can also do that at the page.

If you check out the ‘Dirty & Beautiful Sessions’ album in the Photo Gallery here on this website you will hear a slightly alternative brief audio montage of many of the tracks while you view the pics that document many of the recording sessions.

Dirty & Beautiful Volume 1 is released on the Abstract Logix Records label in November 2010

There are now audio soundtracks featured in many of the various photo albums in the Gallery. Click into each album to hear them!

Enjoy!

Hi and welcome to the all new GH.com!  It’s been a while, but with the splendid vision and skill of Nadja von Massow at nadworks we are firmly on our way.  Needless to say there’s still a huge chunk of work and development to be done so please check back with us regularly for exciting new updates and features. If you would like to be kept in the loop about the launch, please feel free to subscribe to “Gary’s newsletter”.

Of the up and coming features I’m looking forward to working towards with Nadja will be a new Downloads section, where I will be able to offer new, rare or previously unavailable music (not featured on any CD releases) as mp3 downloads. There’s also a whole new Press Lounge area that is ideal for visiting journalists, containing hi-res pictures, masses of information and more.  We resisted building any kind of forum or blog area on the website, despite many requests to me over the years, but there is a contact section here that you most welcome to use for comments.  If you do wish to submit any questions or enquiries to me that are related to music, there’s a “sticky” thread over at the Drummerworld forum entitled “Gary Husband here!” which I set up some time ago. A bunch of us look in there, rap and exchange ideas from time to time, and when there’s time permitting, I do answer!

We hope you enjoy your visits to the website, thank you always for your support and hope to see you here again soon!!