Gary Wehrkamp

Gary Wehrkamp was born May 11, 1970 in Butler, New Jersey. Gary made his foray into music as a self-taught drummer and vocalist at the age of ten. He took up guitar and bass in his teens and performed in various bands for local dances and private parties. He began performing regularly as a drummer with the band Blak Sox in 1981, playing covers and originals at numerous camps in New Jersey.

At age 18, Gary won a piano and found himself improvising for hours each day, crafting his talent of composing music. Since then he has only worked as a full time musician, performing with many New Jersey and Pennsylvania bands playing originals and covers. In 1992, Gary toured the U.S. with the band, The Boxtops.

In 1993 Gary joined Shadow Gallery when they were preparing to record their second record on the Magna Carta Record label. Gary has been a composer, guitarist, keyboardist and vocalist in the band. He also manages the day-to-day affairs for Shadow Gallery.

Since that time, Gary has been a producer, musician, composer, or engineer on over fifty albums. Some of the other more notable projects he has worked on:

Along with other Shadow Gallery members, he was on various tribute albums for Rush, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Yes, etc.

Gary has been a guest keyboardist or guitarist on three Arjen Lucassen albums: Ayreon - Flight of the Migrator (2000), Ayreon - Ayreonauts Only (2000), Star One - Space Metal (2002). He also provided his engineer skills for the Ayreon Human Equation album (2007).

In 2002, he was a guest guitarist on Explorers Club’s second release Raising the Mammoth, which also included other prog artists such as John Myung (Dream Theater) and Terry Bozzio.

In 2005, he was involved in Prog-Aid, a charity release by various artists from the Progressive Rock world to raise funds for the survivors of the Asian Tsumani disaster.

In 2006, he co-formed a project under the name Amaran’s Plight with D.C. Cooper, Nick D'Virgilio, and Kurt Barabas. 2007 saw the release of Voice in the Light. Along with providing the guitar and keyboard work on the album, Gary also acted as composer, producer and recording engineer for this album.

In 2008, Gary was a guest musician on Srdjan Brankovic’s Expedition Delta music project. That same year along with progressive music publicist Jill Hughes, and Pocono-area businessman Brian Schmidt and musician Kristi Bronico, Gary formed the charity group The Wishmakers whose slogan is, “Musicians making a difference...harnessing the power of music and art to foster the spirit of giving.” He produced the single “Christmastime in the Poconos” which successfully raised money for the Christmas Fund for local children in need.

In 2009, Gary was a guest guitarist on the album based on International bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson’s book “Terra Incognita: Beyond the Horizon”, under the band name Roswell Six. It also featured other guest musicians such as John Payne (Asia), Erik Norlander (Asia Featuring, Rocket Scientists), and Lana Lane. The same year, Gary also was a guest guitarist/producer for up & coming prog artist Doug Rausch's album RAUSCH.

Gary's personal music influences are Pink Floyd, Rush, Yes, Kansas, Van Halen, and Queen. He also draws inspiration from guitar virtuosos such as Yngwie Malsteen, Eddie Van Halen, Chris Alia and Steve Vai.

He currently performs throughout the East coast, playing over 100 shows per year, with the Pocono-area cover bands The Maybabies and The JR Trio. When he is not working in his new recording facility, New Horizon Music Studios, teaching students, or booking artists and setting up publishing and licensing contracts for clients through Wasabi Brothers Management, he is spending time with his son Gabriel and wife Ginger.

Links:

Gary's MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/garywehrkamp

Gary's Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/gary.wehrkamp?ref=ts

The Wishmakers: http://www.thewishmakers.org

Gary's Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Wehrkamp