Gerry Leonard | |
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 Leonard with Spooky Ghost in 2023 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | (1962-02-26)February 26, 1962 (age 63)[1] Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland |
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| Years active | 1989–present |
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Gerry Leonard (born 26 February 1962) is an Irish guitarist known for his harmonic and ambient guitar style, and for his work withDavid Bowie,Suzanne Vega,Rufus Wainwright,Laurie Anderson,Duncan Sheik and many others. He has a solo project called Spooky Ghost. He lives in New York.
Leonard was born and raised inClontarf, Dublin. He played in bands as a teen and was influenced by a mixture ofLed Zeppelin,punk,post-punk, and whatever was playing onTop of the Pops.[2] He worked as a tape operator inLombard Sound Studios; one of his jobs involved recording ademo tape by a 16-year-oldSinéad O'Connor.[1]
As a producer, Leonard has also worked on albums forDonna Lewis (In the Pink),Ari Hest (The Fire Plays), Donnie Mortimer (Ten Eventful Years), Czech bandČechomor (Mistečko), and Pamela Sue Mann. When discussing Leonard's contribution to her albumL'Oeuf, Laurie Anderson said, "I've always been a fan of Gerry Leonard's lush and groovy parts, so that makes the listening experience even deeper."[3]
Leonard has worked in film and theatre, with his guitar playing featured on Peter Nashel's scores forThe Deep End andBee Season,Trevor Jones's soundtrack forCrissCross, andRoger Waters's song forThe Last Mimzy.[4] He wrote and performed the score for the Irish independent movie32A, directed by Marian Quinn,[4] and for Quinn's earlier short filmCome To (1998). He has also been involved with some of Duncan Sheik's theatrical works, includingWhisper House, staged in San Diego in 2010.[4]
Leonard worked extensively withDavid Bowie,[5] featuring on the studio albumsHeathen (2002),Reality (2003) andThe Next Day (2013).[6] He toured with Bowie on theHeathen andReality tours and was musical director for theReality tour and DVD.[4] He has the only original writing credits other than Bowie onThe Next Day for the songs "Boss of Me" and "I'll Take You There."
Bowie and Leonard were introduced byMark Plati, and Leonard first worked with Bowie on a track from the abandoned albumToy, which Plati was producing.[7][8] He was able to cover the more unique guitar parts on older Bowie songs, such as those initially played byRobert Fripp orAdrian Belew.[8] Leonard's first live appearance with Bowie was for the straight-through performance of the entirety of bothHeathen andLow at theRoseland Ballroom in 2002.[8]
In 2013, Leonard participated in anApril Fools' Day spoof involving an announcement that Bowie would be representing Germany inthat year's Eurovision Song Contest.[9]
From 1987 to 1994, Gerry Leonard and Donal Coughlan worked together in Dublin, under the name "Hinterland". As a solo artist, Leonard works under the name Spooky Ghost, inspired by Coughlan's description of Leonard's guitar sound. Leonard worked on the first Spooky Ghost album from 1996 to 1998, recording it in his East Village apartment.[10] The album, also titledSpooky Ghost, was primarily an exploration of ambient guitar atmospherics.[4] A second Spooky Ghost album,The Light Machine, was released in 2002. On this recording, Spooky Ghost expanded to a trio, featuringJay Bellerose (drums, percussion and tabla) andPaul Bryan (bass, keyboards and production). Both musicians had already contributed toSpooky Ghost and the trio is the band's live configuration.[10] Bowie describedThe Light Machine as, "Quite the most beautiful and moving piece of work I have possessed in a long time."[4] Frank Goodman called it a "sonically brave, and innovative, and challenging" work that enables the jaded listener to hear music again.[10]
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