Greg Jarvis (musician)

Greg Jarvis
Born Toronto, Canada
Genres Space rock, post-rock, classical, experimental music, rockabilly, northern soul, reggae
Occupation(s) Musician, record executive, professor
Instruments Guitar, keyboards
Years active 1990s–present
Labels Optical Sounds, Earworm Records, Shifty Disco, Benbecula
Associated acts Flowers Of Hell, The Red Stripes, Merzky Beat

Greg Jarvis is a Toronto born musician and composer best known for his work leading the orchestral rock group the Flowers Of Hell.[1][2][3][4] Jarvis’s compositions are largely informed by timbre-to-shape synesthesia, a neurological condition which causes him to see all sounds as layers of three dimensional shapes.[5][6][7][8]

Biography

Early life

Jarvis was raised in Toronto, Ontario where he was a Royal Canadian Air Cadet band leader and served briefly in the Canadian Army reserve forces.[9]

Career

Jarvis worked in marketing in the 1990s at the major label BMG in Toronto, Prague, Moscow, and Warsaw, and later for Universal International in London,[10] handling acts including Nirvana,[11][12] David Bowie, Patti Smith, Dolly Parton, Beck, Sonic Youth, Aerosmith, Malcolm McLaren, KISS, Deep Purple, and The Moody Blues, along with Death In Vegas, Spectrum and Spiritualized with whose members he would later collaborate as an artist.[13][14] Jarvis also worked as an executive at the BBC’s Top Of The Pops.[10][13][14]

He is currently a professor at Durham College’s Media, Art, & Design School where he teaches about music history and the music industry.[10][14] Previously he worked as a lecturer in the United Kingdom at London Metropolitan University, and Buckinghamshire New University.[13][14]

He writes music related articles for the Huffington Post.[10]

Musical History

Prior to the Flowers of Hell, Jarvis played on Prague’s underground music scene,[11] in Moscow rockabilly group Merzky Beat,[9] and in the The Red Stripes, a London based comedy-reggae White Stripes tribute act he formed with drummer Guri Hummelsund.[15][16] “We stopped (The Red Stripes) when it started getting crazy big with Peel, the NME, BBC6, The Face, Duran Duran and some peripheral members of The Clash and The Sex Pistols getting into it. We signed to a Universal imprint, met The Wailers in a medieval fortress in Serbia, shot a video in Africa and felt we had to kill it before we became too known for it,” Jarvis said in a 2015 Irish interview.[17]

Jarvis produced and performed on an album of Northern Soul covers and originals by Emma Wilkinson, whom he managed after she won the 2001 Stars In Their Eyes TV talent series performing Dusty Springfield’s ‘Son Of A Preacher Man’.[18]

He founded the Flowers of Hell in London, England in 2002 as a studio project, growing it into a live group in 2005 recruiting bandmates Abi Fry (later of British Sea Power and Bat For Lashes), Guri Hummelsund, Ruth Barlow, Steve Head, and Owen James.[19] He returned to Canada in 2007 and formed another branch of the group, expanding its line up to encompass musicians living in both Toronto and London.[8] He composes many of the pieces performed by the band,[20][21] and is its main guitarist.

Highlights of the group’s career include collaborating with members of their major influence Spacemen 3, Lou Reed of the Velvet Underground praising their artistry and commencing his final radio show by playing three of the groups recordings in a row,[22] being asked by Kevin Shields to open for My Bloody Valentine during the band’s 2008 reunion,[23][24] and NASA’s mission control staff declaring their enjoyment of the group’s ‘space rock’ with the shuttle launch team syncing footage of a Discovery mission to the Flowers Of Hell’s ‘Sympathy For Vengeance’.[25]

Synesthesia

Jarvis has auditory-visual synesthesia which causes him to see all sounds as abstract shapes surrounding him.[26] In 2013 he founded the Canadian Synesthesia Association as a way of meeting other synethetes and raising awareness of synesthesia.[27][28][29][30]

Education

Jarvis did summer studies under the octogenarian beat writer Bobbie Louise Hawkins at The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics in Boulder, Colorado.[31][32]

He also completed a master of arts in higher education teaching for which his thesis focused on how the mind processes music and holds an Arts & Media MBA.[13][14]

Personal life

In 2010, Jarvis was chased by a group of protesters in West Papua New Guinea after photographing their activities. He played a ukulele to convince rebel soldiers from the Organisasi Papua Merdeka that he was a musician, not a government spy.[33][34][35]

He crossed the Atlantic Ocean as a lone passenger on a working cargo freighter in 2013, intending to complete the mixing of the Flowers Of Hell’s ‘Symphony No.1’ at sea.[17]

References

  1. ↑ "Sound Advice: O by The Flowers of Hell". Torontoist. By Alex Nino Gheciu
  2. ↑ Anon. (April 9, 2009). "Hype Monitor: Brajo, Avi Buffalo, Flowers Of Hell". Rolling Stone (Rolling Stone). Retrieved May 28, 2014.
  3. ↑ O'Keefe, Niall (April 3, 2009). "Album Review: The Flowers Of Hell, Come Hell Or High Water". NME (NME). Retrieved May 28, 2014.
  4. ↑ Raber, Rebecca (July 28, 2010). "The Flowers Of Hell, Come Hell Or High Water". Pitchfork.com (Pitchfork.com). Retrieved May 28, 2014.
  5. ↑ The National - Blended Senses (Television news). Canada: CBC. July 30, 2013.
  6. ↑ Everett-Green, Robert (Dec 3, 2010). "For Musician With Synaethesia, The Cello Can Sound Too Fury. Or Too Red.". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved May 28, 2014.
  7. ↑ "If You Could Hear A Book, This Is How It Would Look". The Millions. Buzz Poole, January 12, 2012
  8. 1 2 "The Flowers of Hell". Drowned in Sound by Dom Gourlay November 16th, 2010
  9. 1 2 "Westerners Don’t Get That Russia Needs Putin". Huffington Post, February 10, 2014
  10. 1 2 3 4 "From vinyl to torrents - Who buys music anymore?" Water Buffalo Magazine By Cody Orme
  11. 1 2 "Prague’s Music Scene" March 20, 1994, Velvet Magazine, By Matt Welch
  12. ↑ "20 Years Ago I Watched Nirvana’s Penultimate Show In Slovenia" "20 Years Ago I Watched Nirvana’s Penultimate Show In Slovenia" February 27, 2014, Huffington Post
  13. 1 2 3 4 "Program Guide" Program Guide, 2011
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 "The Sights And Sounds Of Success" Reflections, By Joshua Zarobiak
  15. ↑ w.bbc.co.uk/berkshire/content/articles/2005/03/31/club_v_review_feature.shtml "Review Club Velocity" March 25, 2005, By Emma Hughes, BBC Online
  16. ↑ "LondonNet Gig Review" November 07, 2004, By Steve Marshall, LondonNet
  17. 1 2 "Flowers Of Hell Interview". September 10, 2015, Golden Plec, By Justin McDaid
  18. ↑ "The great pretender; With reality TV and talent shows, 15 minutes of fame is ever more attainable - but what happens when the show is over?". April 25, 2002, Coventry Evening Telegraph
  19. ↑ "Mundo Musique: The Transatlantic Space-Rock Orchestra, Flowers of Hell". The Revue. June 9, 2014 by Ben Yung
  20. ↑ "". November 6, 2012, T-Mak
  21. ↑ "The Flowers of Hell: Shapes of things" by Eden Munro, Vue Weekly.
  22. ↑ Anon. (July 20, 2012). "July 20, 2012 Playlist". LouReed.com. Retrieved September 9, 2012.
  23. ↑ Now magazine Perlich's Picks
  24. ↑ Mondo magazine concert review
  25. ↑ Louche, Liz (March 15, 2010). "Flowers of Hell enlist musicians from Broken Social Scene, Spiritualized, Guided by Voices, and more to join their NASA-approved space rock jam session". Tiny Mix Tapes (Tiny Mix Tapes). Retrieved September 15, 2012.
  26. ↑ Everett-Green, Robert (Dec 3, 2010). "For Musician With Synaethesia, The Cello Can Sound Too Fury. Or Too Red.". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved September 9, 2012.
  27. ↑ "Life with synesthesia: Toronto man who can see sounds shares his story". January 28th 2015, Metro – Toronto Edition.
  28. ↑ "Sound Takes Shape". October 18th 2015, by Allison Shouldice, Toronto Star – Star Touch.
  29. ↑ "Blended Senses". July 30th 2013, CBC The National.
  30. ↑ "Synesthesia". February 6, 2015, CBC Ontario Today.
  31. ↑ "Growing the Flowers Of Hell – An interview with bandleader Greg Jarvis". October 2012, By Daniel Korn, Cadence Magazine
  32. ↑ "The Flowers Of Hell Interview" October 21st 2012, Northern Transmissions
  33. ↑ "Flowers of Hell Leader Greg Jarvis Mistaken for Spy in Papua New Guinea, Forced to Play for His Life". Exclaim!, By Alex Hudson. Oct 12, 2010
  34. ↑ "Flowers of Hell Leader Mistaken for Spy". Pitchfork, By Ryan Dombal. Oct 12, 2010
  35. ↑ "Flowers of Hell Mainman Mistaken For MI5 Spy in Papua New Guinea – Greg Jarvis had to ‘play for his life’ while holidaying". NME, By Adam Bychawski. Oct 12, 2010

External links

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