WCA #024 with Gary Philips

Gary Philips is a talented multi-instrumentalist, producer, songwriter and mix engineer. During his college years at University of Pennsylvania, Gary realized his life would follow a musical path. This path soon led to a life as a touring musician. Touring led Gary to New York, where he quickly found himself in studios playing guitar and bass for artists both up-and-coming and legendary, including Carole King, Cyndi Lauper, and Arrested Development. Many of these tracks have found placements on albums such as the Orange County soundtrack, the Super Size Me soundtrack and the Lizzie McGuire Movie soundtrack and on national commercials for clients such as Verizon and Budweiser.

New York session work soon plunged Gary into production and writing. He co- produced, with the PopRox production team (Sam Hollander, Dave Schommer), Michael Tolcher’s debut album for Octone/J Records, which featured ?uestlove and Warren Haynes, cuts from which were heard on Scrubs (NBC), Life As We Know It (ABC) and the feature film Wedding Crashers.

Since then Gary’s produced more than 15 Billboard Top 10 albums including the Kidz Bop series (which has yielded just as many #1 albums on the Children’s chart) and a cut on the Now That’s What I Call Music series with indie-rockers Born Cages. His original songs and compositions have been featured on TV in diverse settings – from Late Night with David Letterman to Pretty Little Liars, from The Hills to So You Think You Can Dance?, from Pawn Stars to NFL Football and many more.

Gary talks with Matt about Kidz Bop, what it takes to keep clients coming back to you, his early days in New york and his recent studio setup at his new home in California after having moved from New York and working in studios. Enjoy!

Gary’s bio.