Greg Wells

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Greg Wells
Greg Wells at Rocket Carousel Studio, Los Angeles
Background information
Born	September 21, 1968
Origin	Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
Genre(s)	Rock, Pop, Classical, Jazz,
Occupation(s)	record producer, songwriter, musician, mix engineer
Instrument(s)	piano, drums, guitar, bass, Hammond B3
Website	GregWells.net

Greg Wells (born September 21, 1968) is a Canadian musician, record producer and songwriter.

1 Biography
2 Partial discography
3 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Career overview

Stewart Copeland of The Police dubbed Wells the "studio Swiss Army knife", a reference to his talents as a record producer, musician, mix engineer, and songwriter.

Wells' work is highly varied, as heard in Mika's #1 worldwide hit "Grace Kelly", Timbaland's Timbaland Presents: Shock Value, Otep's death metal "House of Secrets", Rufus Wainwright's rendition of "Across the Universe", the guilty pleasure of Paris Hilton's "Screwed" and the dramatic piano-driven "Confessions Of A Broken Heart (Daughter To Father)" for Lindsay Lohan.

Greg has songs on over 50 million CD sales and has produced Mika, Otep, The Deftones, Pink, Timbaland featuring OneRepublic, Rufus Wainwright, Natasha Bedingfield, Pussycat Dolls, Team Sleep, Jewel, Belinda Peregrin, Michelle Branch, Jesse McCartney, Sarah Bettens, The Veronicas, Hilary Duff, Alex Parks, Paris Hilton, Hanson, and Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame's Carole King.

[edit] Early years

The son of a United Church of Canada minister, Greg hails from Peterborough, Ontario. A child prodigy on several instruments, he played piano, drums, and guitar with local rock groups, jazz big bands and choral ensembles. His mentors were his first piano teacher, Marjorie Engels, and Fredrick Pritchard (advanced piano studies). He attended two years at the Humber College Jazz Studies Program outside of Toronto. In his teens, Greg joined Juno Award winner Kim Mitchell's band and contributed to Mitchell's multi-platinum "Rockland" record.

Wells traveled to Los Angeles for studies with composer/pianist Claire Fischer, Prince's string arranger and renowned jazz composer. Early work in the mid 1990's includes being k.d. lang's multi-instrumentalist, Hammond B3 for Elton John's "Duets" CD, drums for Ozzy Osbourne, jazz piano for producer/Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun, and bass guitar and drums for Jars of Clay on their platinum record "Much Afraid".

[edit] Miles Copeland

Manager Miles Copeland began hiring Wells to produce acts for IRS Records and invited Greg to a songwriting event at Copeland's castle in France. At the castle, Wells wrote with John Parish (PJ Harvey), Pete Shelley of The Buzzcocks, Irish singer/songwriter Paul Brady, The Police drummer and Miles' brother Stewart Copeland, and Carole King.

King, Mark Hudson, and Wells penned "The Reason", a song written for Aerosmith, eventually recorded by Celine Dion, and sold 31 million copies. Wells later met and married Carole's daughter Louise Goffin and they have two children. Greg and Louise often collaborate musically, as on Louise's "Sometimes A Circle" CD for Dreamworks and the theme song for the hit TV show The Gilmore Girls.

[edit] Today

As of March 2007, Wells is producing, mixing, and writing for artists as diverse as new Universal Music pop sensation Mika, Natasha Bedingfield, and death metal outfit Otep. Greg just produced a song on Timbaland's latest release Timbaland Presents: Shock Value, and an urban/reggae track "No Work, All Play" for Hilary Duff's latest album Dignity. He works out of his private studio Rocket Carousel Studio in Los Angeles, often collaborating with Matt Chamberlain on drums, A-list songwriter Kara DioGuardi, and string arranger Paul Buckmaster. He is managed by Steve Moir at Moir Entertainment, Los Angeles.