When asked about his musical sojourn he simply says, “I was born to be a musician. If I didn’t want to sing then too I would be singing because nature has decreed it so.”
But Gary Lawyer’s tryst with music essentially began in New York in the 80s where he was given a platform to showcase his talent though remuneration was very modest. He performed at nightclubs and did a lot of corporate events. He had to come away to India due to personal reasons. Needless to say his talent hardly went unnoticed in the music industry. In his early days in India in a particular concert Gary gave an impromptu performance on stage and the day after he made it to the headlines of the newspapers as “the man in the red shirt” since nobody really knew his name. Of course after offers from the advertising world started pouring in he made it to every Indian’s living room with hits jingles for Close - Up Toothpaste, Harry’s Collection, Palmolive Shampoo, Yamaha motorcycles, 7 Up, McDowell’s Vintage, Tata Sierra, Trigger Jeans, etc. The ‘Bajaj Sunny’ commercial, for which Gary did the soundtrack, won ‘The New York Festivals Finalists Award’.
Gary Lawyers has worked with the likes of Kenny Rogers, Gordon Lightfoot and Don Williams. His album High Standards is an album of jazz standards recorded with Indian jazz great Louis Banks. His first album This Cannot Wait established his musical genius and varied musical influences but it was really his third album The Other Side Of Dawn which catapulted him to fame. But his fourth album Arrow in The Dust is the one closest to the singer’s heart. Since it died out before receiving a proper response Lawyers is planning to re-launch it in the market.
On being asked about the future of the upcoming western music bands and artistes he candidly said that it is difficult for these bands to make it big due to lack of talent but more importantly due to the fact that India does not nurture musical talent in the western front. The music in India is almost completely dominated by bollywood fever. There are no record companies to promote western music or any radio station. VH1 is the only channel which promotes western music by Indian artistes but only to a very limited extent. However, this attitude of the Indian crowd does not stop Gary Lawyers’ scintillating live performances from enjoying a full house audience because as Lawyers says, “When people come to watch a Gary Lawyers gig they know exactly what to expect.”
While drawing a lot of inspiration from singers like Elvis Presley, Nat King Cole, Bon Jovi and the Legendary Jim Morrison Gary Lawyers is also a big fan of Indian musicians with a good grounding in classical music education like Hariharan, Shankar Mahadevan and Kailash Kher.
With five highly well received albums under his belt Gary Lawyers is perhaps the only music artiste in India making a living wholly out of western music. Given his euphonious voice he has often received lucrative offers from Hindi producers and composers but Gary Lawyer has refused to compromise musically and remained true to western music or what can only be called as his ‘calling’! After his performance in Hyderabad at the Hard Rock Café he is set to perform in a string of other cities like Kolkata, Bangalore and Mumbai.