Gary Wehrkamp

Gary Wehrkamp is a very accomplished and well-rounded musician, songwriter and producer. He started his musical experience with drums at age 10. Playing drums came very naturally to him and after only a few months, he was writing his own music, forming a band and performing locally in New Jersey at school dances and private parties. As Gary entered his teens, he picked up a guitar and began teaching himself this instrument. He continued writing his own music and performing in local bands but was now performing as a guitarist as well as a drummer. At age 18, Gary won a piano and as with the drums and guitar, he began teaching himself how to play.

Gary’s ability to play drums, guitar, bass, piano and keyboards along with his arranging abilities has allowed him to become a professional in the music business. He has been a studio musician, engineer and a teacher for over twelve years, has been performing in bands for over twenty years and has been producing for over eight years. Gary has also toured the U.S., playing to audiences in excess of 40,000 with the band, The Boxtops. He left The Boxtops in 1993 to sign on with Magna Carta Records with the band Shadow Gallery.

Shadow Gallery has released five albums worldwide with CD sales in excess of 150,000. Their 4th album was released worldwide on April 10, 2001 with rave reviews. Gary writes and performs guitar, keyboards and back-up vocals in the band and is responsible for the sound effects, segues and orchestration. The band’s third album, Tyranny, was voted Album of the Year on Perpetual Motion, the web’s largest progressive rock Internet site. Their song New World Order was voted Song of the Year and Gary and band mate, Carl Cadden-James, were voted Producers of the Year for their work on Tyranny. Italy’s Flash Magazine voted Gary as the number five keyboard player of the year in 1996.

Gary has also worked on Sounds Like Christmas (various artists), Raising The Mammoth, Explorer’s Club’s newest album, Ayreon’s albums, Flight of the Migrator, The Universal Migrator & Ayreonauts Only, on James LaBrie’s (Dream Theater) solo albums, MullMuzzler & MullMuzzler 2, an original score for the Steve Coombs film, A Walk in the Park, which premiered in NYC on June 11, 2001

Gary is currently playing bass, guitar and keyboards with a local band, working with many clients as both a producer and studio musician and writing and recording for projects involving DC Cooper of Royal Hunt and Mark Zonder of Fates Warning.

Shadow Gallery's eponymous debut was released the following year in Japan and Europe. On May 30th, 2005 (Europe) and June 7th, 2005 (USA) Shadow Gallery released their fifth studio album (Room V), their first under new record label InsideOut.

Among other projects Gary has also released a new album with AMARAN'S PLIGHT, and the name of the album is VOICE IN THE LIGHT. Voice in the Light was recorded in 2006 at Gary Wehrkamp's New Horizon Studio's and described as textbook Symphonic Progressive Metal. It combines the soaring vocals of DC Cooper with the master riffs and melodies of Gary Wehrkamp, backed by the sonic, dynamic and explosive rhythm section of Nick D'Virgilio and Kurt Barabas.

His inspiration is found easily from all sorts of music, but he favors bands like Pink Floyd, Rush, Yes and the production work of Mutt Lange, Bob Ezrin and Trevor Horn.
www.myspace.com/garywehrkamp