Gary Prince

How long have you been playing guitar?

I've been playing guitar since the end of my freshman year in high school, so between five and six years.

What made you want to start playing?

I started playing guitar because I really wanted to play music and at the time, I was really getting into bands like Led Zeppelin and the Red Hot Chili Peppers and that sort of thing and I found out I was a really bad singer. I kind of wanted to play drums but there were no drums around and my dad used to play guitar back in the day so he said, "Well, you know there are guitars in the basement, why don't you try that first?" And I took to it, which was good. I didn't play sports or anything like that in high school so it was something good to do.

Who are your influences now?

I guess my favorite musicians, in terms of musicians that I haven't met - that I've heard through recordings - are Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane, and Leo Kottke, those are the three that have had the biggest influence on me. I also love, though not as much as I used to, Jimmy Page, John Frusciante. There's also Michael Hedges, Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Eric Clapton. These are all guys who are big and bad. And then there's the people I've taken lessons from, and who I've known or played with.

Are you in a band right now? What groups are you involved in?

Right now I play in several bands. I perform in the Midnight Special, which is a blues rock band and we've been together since the end of my freshman year (at Michigan). And I perform in Groove which is really a percussion oriented band and I play guitar for them. They've been around since about the beginning of my freshman year. I also play electric guitar in the Creative Arts Orchestra which is through the School of Music, through the Jazz and Contemporary Studies Department and directed by Ed Sarath and Mark Kirschenmann. I also have a jazz trio, which sometimes functions as a Funk Quartet that I play in.

What kind of stuff does the Creative Arts Orchestra play?

The Creative Arts Orchestra is a group of people - that is about fifteen plus people - which is devoted to collective improvisation and that's largely what we do.

What is your favorite part about playing guitar?

There are different things. In terms of performing, I love performing because I love causing people to react. I love making people dance. Helping people have a good time. I just love the adrenaline rush of performing and just having a good time with the other people that you are performing with. I love playing guitar because it's something I'm good at and something I get better at and when you work hard it really pays off. It's fun in that way because it's a challenge but it's a very rewarding challenge. It's how I express myself and I really can't picture myself not playing guitar. For me, it's what I do.

What is your favorite style of music and how does this influence what you play?

My favorite style of music is good music. I'm going to go with that one. It influences what I play in that I try to play good music. I don't think I've ever really had a favorite style of music, there are so many that I like. There really aren't any that I dislike either. There's bad music in every genre and there's good music in every genre... I like good music.

Do you write any of your own stuff?

Yeah, I write almost all of my own material. With the Midnight Special, a lot of the songs are written by our singer and then the band does the music. Sometimes I'll write a song, sometimes another guy in the band will write a song. In Groove, most of the time, the drummers in the group will write a song and then I'll write the guitar part to the song which is usually a lot smaller. And a lot of times, they bring in a prearranged song. In the jazz trio, we play a couple songs that I write, a couple songs that the drummer writes. Mostly what we play, though, is standard repertoire. When we play funk, it's all stuff that we've written together. And the Creative Arts Orchestra is just free improv.

How did you get started with composition? Did you take classes or just start on your own?

I've always composed my own music since I started playing guitar and then it's just a matter of what medium you have to write for. When I was in high school, I wrote a lot for solo guitar because I played by myself most of the time and I still do sometimes. But when you're in a band, you want to do your own thing. You want to do what other people have done, too, because it's fun to see what other people have done, but... songs just happen.

How did you decide that you wanted to major in music?

When I was in high school, I played guitar seriously and I took guitar seriously but I didn't necessarily study it seriously. I wasn't in a formal high school band until my senior year of high school and I was never All-State or anything like that and I never took music theory or anything like that in high school. What I knew, I learned myself. And my parents weren't really into me doing it seriously. They wanted me to do a psych major. When I came here, it was what I really wanted to do so I tried to take as many classes in it as possible. So I was taking maybe one or two music classes a semester and it was kind of through taking those classes and starting to take lessons seriously that got me into the idea that doing music as my major in college was what I wanted to do and what I should do and that there would be a good reason for me to do it and that I would get a lot out of doing it.

Do you find it hard to balance all your different bands and activities with your schoolwork?

At this point, my schoolwork is mostly music, so no. I'm taking one psych course this semester so I kind of have to get my act together or else I'm going to really screw up in that. But for me, as my time in college has gone on, as I've gotten more into bands, and playing in bands and busy in that sense, I've also gotten into taking more music classes and being more busy in that sense. As my band obligations have increased, so have my music homework obligations and that's really not a problem. I've always kind of prioritized music over my other classes which may or may not be a good thing but it hasn't hurt my studies too horrendously... yet.

How does your art add to your experience at U of M?

If I didn't do all the music things that I do here at U of M, I would have transferred a long time ago. Doing music at U of M, for me, makes U of M a lot smaller. And not just in terms of being involved in the music program, at the School of Music. Like, in the psych department, my classes have 300 odd people and I couldn't name anyone on the psych faculty list and they couldn't name me. I'm a number, if anything. But in the music department, I know and get to interact regularly with much of the faculty there. It's smaller groups of people and they work with you and they are engaged with it, it's something that they love. And playing in bands around campus, you get the opportunity to meet a lot of people and have a lot more experiences. Or you might not, but I don't think I would otherwise. It's my way to be active and make the community smaller. And also it fills up my time.

Check out Gary's websites!
www.themidnightspecial.org
www.myspace.com/garyprince

Picture taken by Alex Dziadosz