Interview With Derek Shulman of Gentle Giant (Part One)
by admin on Oct.27, 2009, under Interviews, Podcasts
I was talking to a music journalist friend of mine recently about fandom and how sometimes we - as jaded journalists that get to speak to rock stars all the time - can conduct an interview with a big-name celebrity and remain unphased, then turn around and get excited about an interview with a personal favorite that might not seem as important from an outsider’s point of view. This interview with Gentle Giant singer/front man Derek Shulman is a perfect example of that. I suppose in the vast pantheon of the rock and roll galaxy some people might not regard Gentle Giant as big stars; the band struggled commercially during its ten-year run and never achieved the kind of sales and mainstream recognition of other genre bands like Yes, ELP, Jethro Tull or Genesis, and the members haven’t worked together since 1980.
But when I got the news recently that Gentle Giant was finally releasing seven of its titles through digital formats, I was ecstatic. With the advent of the Internet there has been a steady groundswell of interest in Gentle Giant, and there is a cult-like, surprisingly large and very fanatical audience for the band that has been waiting for this to happen for some years now. I happen to be one of those people. On November 3rd Gentle Giant will release In A Glass House, The Power and the Glory, Free Hand, Interview, Playing The Fool, The Missing Piece, and Giant For A Day through all digital channels. The albums are re-mastered and each one features several bonus tracks from either live concerts or live radio sessions.
After Gentle Giant folded in 1980, Derek Shulman went on to a very successful career as an executive in the music business, and for many years he spoke very little about his experiences in the band. In the last few years he has given a few sporadic interviews about Gentle Giant, but when I saw that he was to be available for interviews in support of these digital releases I jumped at the chance. I have only interviewed guitarist Gary Green before, for a book entitled Unsung Heroes of Rock Guitar, and I was very interested to see what Derek would have to say about Gentle Giant, its music, and the resurgence of interest in the group.
I interviewed Derek Shulman on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 by phone from New York City. I knew this was to be a shorter interview than I am used to doing, as there is a lot scheduled in support of these releases. Hence the relatively brisk pace of this interview. I found Shulman particularly interesting because he is an artist from a particularly uncommercial band who then went on to a career in the business side of music, and as such he has an informed take on the business and Gentle Giant’s place in it. I appreciated the fact that he seems to look back on his career with the band with pride for what it was, rather than bitterness for what it wasn’t. As Shulman readily acknowledged during this interview, Gentle Giant was a band of such umcompromising musicality that it would have been virtually impossible to make it into a mainstream pop success. Thankfully, the band left a rich legacy of music that has earned it a unique place in the hearts of its like-minded fans.
In this first segment we talk about why it took so long for these releases to come to the digital format; how people are re-discovering the band through re-releases; the band’s years at Capitol; why a label chose not to release In A Glass House in America; the challenges of working with old analog source tapes for digital re-masters; challenges of singing difficult melodies and harmonies in Gentle Giant’s music; and comparing the commercial fortunes and music of Gentle Giant to others that were also marketed as progressive rock.
http://www.blazemonger.com/GG/Gentle_Giant_Home_Page
Thanks to Anne Leighton for arranging this interview, and to Derek Shulman.
Stay tuned for Part Two of this interview, which I will post on Friday.
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2 comments to “Interview With Derek Shulman of Gentle Giant (Part One)”
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November 22nd, 2009 on 11:39 am
I remember seeing DS on VH1 a few years ago when the GG catalog was being re-released on cd. It seemed as though he was straddling the fence about the band’s music at that time since he said that he was proud of their work as a whole but as a record exec himself, he would not have signed them to a contract. He also seemed somewhat mystified as to why there was still great enthusiasm about the band’s work so many years later. My own opinion is that it all has a timeless quality about it, the same as a well-played Beethoven or Bach piece. Great music has no expiration date.
January 29th, 2010 on 3:52 pm
[...] I have been lucky enough to interview both Derek Shulman and Gary Green from Gentle Giant previously, so I was very happy to get the opportunity to [...]