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Lawrence Gowan was 12, and two years into his keyboard coaching, when his dad and mom lastly bought a household piano. As he sat on the bench and ready to boost the roof on his Canadian dwelling simply outdoors of Toronto, his father requested him to slip over.
“He riffed into about three hours of music,” Gowan says. “I used to be shocked. I had no concept he may play. It seems, he was a pure ear-trained musician. He had no clue what notes he was hitting. He may simply make music. It was a outstanding second in my life.”
It wouldn’t be the final.
Three a long time later, the vocalist/keyboardist, who had developed a robust following in Canada as a solo artist, discovered himself in a Hollywood, California, front room awaiting the decision on his future. Would he could be the latest member of a traditional rock band— one which, at its peak, launched 4 consecutive albums licensed multiplatinum (a minimum of 2 million bought) between 1977 and 1981?
By 1999, nonetheless, Styx seemingly had misplaced its manner after a extremely publicized break with Dennis DeYoung. The query was whether or not the band that broke enormous with hits like “Come Sail Away,” “Fooling Your self,” “Renegade” and “The Better of Occasions” may rediscover an viewers for its progressive sounds and energy anthems with out its founding member.
Twenty-three years and greater than 1,500 concert events later, Styx continues to reply that query in emphatic trend. Together with guitarists Tommy Shaw and James “J.Y.” Younger, Gowan has helped to introduce Styx to new generations of followers along with his dynamic vocals, classically educated keyboard enjoying and high-energy showmanship on his spinning piano.
Gowan spoke to Life-style a few rock journey that brings him again to South Florida with Styx later this month.
You earned an instructional diploma (ARCT) in classical piano on the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto earlier than turning 20. Did piano come as naturally to you because it did on your dad?
A few of it for certain. I began after I was 10. They used to offer you this cardboard foldout of a keyboard for apply. I needed to memorize the place my fingers went and be taught to play the piece on the cardboard. Then, on the finish of the week, I’d go to apply and eventually hear what it was that I used to be engaged on.
In the future, my piano trainer requested what sort of piano we had at dwelling. I instructed her we didn’t have one. She known as my dad and mom and mentioned, “Lawrence is doing remarkably properly for somebody who by no means performs at dwelling.” My father instructed her they had been ready to see if I caught with it. However that’s what lastly acquired us the household piano.
Later, I learn that Rick Wakeman [the keyboardist for the band Yes] and Elton John went to the Royal Academy of Music in England. So, I spent two years doing nothing however enjoying the piano—and diving as deep as I may into classical music—on the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. That diploma nonetheless serves me properly. It gave me the musical background, and, to today, I’m by no means brief on method.
Was Styx in your radar as a younger musician?
I used to be enamored with progressive rocks bands of the Nineteen Seventies—Genesis, Sure, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Jethro Tull. What I observed about Styx was, right here’s a band not from the UK that’s doing progressive rock—they usually’re profitable at it.
The distinction I observed with Styx was that that they had a large musical vocabulary. You could possibly hear the progressive affect, however additionally they had this nice pop and rock sensibility. So, I admired that.
Because the story goes, you get a name from guitarist Tommy Shaw in 1999. That is two years after you had opened as a solo act for Styx on the Montreal Discussion board. What led to the decision?
In 1997, I had the identical promoter as Styx. I had a high 10 file on the time in Canada, and I used to be enjoying theaters. Simply me on the piano. The promoter known as Styx’s supervisor and mentioned he needed me to open for Styx on the new Montreal Discussion board.
It went very well with the viewers. After I got here off the stage, I met the blokes from Styx. Humorous sufficient, Tommy Shaw mentioned to me that evening, “Now we have to do extra sooner or later.” Speak about prophetic phrases. The next evening, we performed Quebec Metropolis, after which I didn’t hear from them.
In 1998, I performed on the opening for Princess Diana’s Memorial at her Althorp Property in England. I had executed a music known as “Therapeutic Waters” that her household favored, they usually requested me to carry out it. I labored with the London Symphony. Duran Duran additionally was on the invoice. On the rehearsal, Todd Sucherman [drummer for Styx] re-introduced himself, talked about the present we did in Montreal, and we chatted a bit.
Now, it’s 1999, and Styx has come to the choice to work with anyone new within the band [because of the backstage drama that had unfolded with Dennis DeYoung]. My identify got here up, and Sucherman tells the blokes that he simply noticed me in England on the Princess Di occasion.
So, Tommy Shaw known as me. “We actually need you to tour with us once more,” he mentioned, “however we wish to know when you’d be concerned with being a part of the band.”
I requested him to offer me an hour. I instantly acquired a duplicate of The Grand Phantasm [Styx’s classic album from 1977]. I performed the primary two songs—“The Grand Phantasm” and “Fooling Your self”—to see if I may deal with the vocal vary. And I noticed, yeah, this feels proper.
I known as again, and James Younger invited me to Tommy’s place to see if we may [capture] that quintessential Styx three-part concord collectively. The subsequent day, I used to be on a airplane to Los Angeles.
Again then, Tommy’s home confronted the “Hollywood” signal, proper throughout the canyon. He was in all probability one of many 4 or 5 homes closest to that iconic signal. After we practiced a number of songs, I walked out of the room whereas they mentioned if I handed the sniff take a look at. I keep in mind staring on the “Hollywood” signal and considering, “That is so movie-like. I ponder if it should have a cheerful ending?”
It did. I’ve been with Styx ever since.
Styx/REO in Live performance
When: June 19
The place: iThink Monetary Amphitheatre, West Palm Seaside
What: Styx co-headlines a night of traditional rock that features two different bands from the Nineteen Seventies and ’80s with multiplatinum-selling albums—REO Speedwagon and Loverboy. The summer time “Stay & UnZoomed” tour marks the fifth time that REO and Styx have hit the highway collectively since 2000. Final yr, REO launched into a post-Covid fortieth anniversary tour for Hello Infidelity, the 1980 album that spent 15 weeks atop the Billboard 200 chart. Styx, again in South Florida after opening the revamped Pompano Seaside Amphitheater in February, is celebrating 50 years since forming in 1972.
Tickets: livenation.com
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