By Eleni P. Austin

The Prince Of Pico Blvd. has returned. If you’re not familiar with this nom de Rock, perhaps he’s better known to you as Gary Calamar. Chances are if you found a new favorite song on a television show like Six Feet Under, True Blood or Dexter, you have Gary to thank.

First and foremost, Gary has been a music aficionado since childhood. He grew up in New York but moved to Los Angeles at the tail-end of the ‘70s to jump-start a career in the music industry. Something of a renaissance man, he has managed bands, managed music stores, became an influential DJ first at KCRW and more recently at 88.5 The SoCal Sound (KSCN). He also began an award-winning career as a music supervisor with the 1998 film Slums Of Beverly Hills. Over the years, he has been nominated for five Grammys, and toggled between curating music for films and television series. Gary co-wrote the book Record Store Days with Phil Gallo and for several years coordinated The Mimosa Music live performance series at the Federal Bar.

Beginning in the late ‘80s, Gary played his own music, gigging around town at venues like Largo and Alligator Lounge. In 2014 He released an EP, You Are What You Listen To,” to rave reviews and has released several more singles since. Despite a very busy music supervisor schedule that has him juggling season two of Netflix’s 3 Body Problem, the Farrelly Brothers film Drivers Ed, and the HBO Max series Somebody Somewhere, he found time to debut a new single, “Distractions.” A tensile and buzzy Garage Rocker that addresses these turbulent 21st century times.

On Saturday, July 12th, Gary will be opening for legendary troubadour Dirk Hamilton at McCabe’s Guitar Shop. He took some time out of his very busy schedule to answer several burning questions.

ELENI: What is your earliest musical memory?

GARY: I remember hearing songs on cartoons when I was a tot, but then my parents took me and my brother to see the West Side Story movie when it came out, and it had a big impact on me. I was dancing around my Yonkers neighborhood snapping my fingers, and I was a Jet all the way.

ELENI: Do you come from a musical family?

GARY: My mom and older brother were big music fans but there were no musicians in the family

ELENI: Who were your first musical influences?

GARY: Around the house, I would hear the Four Seasons and we did practice the Twist with Chubby Checker on TV….but it was The Beatles and the British Invasion in the mid ‘60s that really caught my ear. I loved watching Shindig and Hullaboo and all the great Rock & Roll on Ed Sullivan, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Dave Clark Five, The Animals…great stuff. The American bands were good too. I was also glued to my AM radio listening to WABC and WMCA in New York. I mark seeing The Beatles on Ed Sullivan as the start of my career in music. I wanted to be a Beatle! And if I couldn’t be a Beatle, I wanted to be a DJ playing The Beatles on the radio.

ELENI: When did you begin playing music, and what was the first instrument you learned to play?

GARY: I began trying to play chords on guitar in junior high school, but it was difficult. It still is. To be honest, I don’t really consider myself to be an actual “musician.” I have seen, heard and worked with many musicians, and they have a special talent. Yes, I can play a few chords on the guitar, and I can write some lyrics I feel good about on top of those chords, but I consider myself to be more of a songwriter than musician. These days, I play guitar about as well as I did when I was 15. But I rock those chords!

ELENI: How old were you when you wrote your first song? Do you remember the title?

GARY: The first song I remember making up (I wouldn’t call it writing), was about my brother Ronny. When we were very young, he had a weird habit of twirling his hair around his finger and then pulling a strand out, and it was beginning to show. When my parents got wind of this, they firmly told him not to do that anymore and scolded him a bit. I, being the bratty little brother, decided to tease him about it and I made up this song: “Begins with a B, ends with a D A L in the middle, Ronny’s bald, yeah, yeah, Ronny’s bald, yeah, yeah, Begins with a B ends with a D, A L in the middle,” I do want to say that brother Ronny was the major influence in my life, as well as my love of music and my music career.

ELENI: I know you haunted record shops as a kid, do you remember the first record you bought on your own?

GARY: The first record I bought on my own was The Kinks’ “All Of The Day And All Of The Night,” at The Spinning Disc in the Bronx. The intensity of that song drove me wild. Again, another Ronny story: Ronny loved riding the subway to the Bronx or New York. My mother thought the subways were not safe and I, as a young kid was not allowed to ride the subway, even with supervision. My brother knew I wanted that Kinks 45 and one day Ronny whispered that he was taking me on the subway and not to tell our mother. We headed to The Spinning Disc, and my record collecting began.

ELENI: Were you ever part of a band as a teen?

GARY: Once, me and my cousin started a duo. He played piano and I sang. Our repertoire was Beatles covers and some show tunes. I came up with our name, The Marshunz!

ELENI: You left the East Coast in your early 20s, and moved to Los Angeles. Did you have a specific goal to be a performer?

GARY: I had no career goal as a performer. I never thought about it. It didn’t cross my mind, it was not some secret desire. Of course, everybody wants to be a rock star, but I didn’t have any real plans to do that. My goal was to work in the record business, to work for a record label. My first job in L.A. was as a manager trainee at Licorice Pizza is Pasadena and I loved it!!! I went on to work at Moby Disc and Rhino Records stores.

ELENI: How did you wind up becoming a band manager, first for The Balancing Act and later, Eggplant?

GARY: I was managing the Licorice Pizza in West L.A. and Jeff Davis applied for a job. I liked him right away, but he was wearing some weird rubber shoes so I wasn’t sure, but I hired him anyway. He had a band called The Art Students and I offered to help out, and I became their manager. The Art Students and Jeff evolved into The Balancing Act, who I continued to manage, and they had a few critically acclaimed albums on IRS Records. Eggplant came a little later. As I recall, they were fans of The Balancing Act and they reached out to me to work with them. I am still very friendly with Jeff Beals from Eggplant. In fact, we’re working on a song together.

ELENI: It was during this era that you began playing around town as Gary Calamar And His Imaginary Friends. How did that come about?

GARY: Actually, I can thank The Balancing Act for giving me my first taste of performing. The Balancing Act were performing at a birthday party and the birthday girl asked if they would do Bruce Springsteen’s “Hungry Heart.” The band were not big fans of The Boss, and were not excited about doing it. They knew I was a fan and asked if I would sing it, and I nervously jumped at the chance. After that, I wanted more. I started to finish the songs I had been playing around with in my bedroom. I became friends with Mike Randle when I was managing Moby Disc, and we started Gary Calamar and His Imaginary Friends. Soon we began playing a few small shows around town. Mike was young, but he’s one of those great musicians I was talking about earlier.

ELENI: By the mid ‘90s, you had your own radio show on KCRW, How did you wind up becoming a music supervisor at the same time?

GARY: When I was at KCRW, I worked with music director and DJ Chris Douridas, who had just finished working as a music supervisor for (the 1999 Academy Award Winning film) American Beauty, and I was impressed. Liza Richardson, another DJ there had also begun branching out into music supervision. I decided I wanted to be a music supervisor too. My mentor was G. Marq Roswell, who I met through a mutual friend, and he was a very experienced music supervisor (The Commitments, Wild At Heart). We had a few lunches and got along. I had a friend who worked at Fox Searchlight and she was trying to get me the gig on the movie Slums Of Beverly Hills. The only problem was that I had zero experience. I was able to bring in Roswell and we did it together. He showed me the ropes, and we went on to collaborate on the film Varsity Blues.

ELENI: When you were working as a supervisor for the HBO series True Blood, you wound up writing a song that Iggy Pop performed. How did that come about?

GARY: Each episode of True Blood was named after one of the songs that was used in the episode. One of the show’s writers wrote a script entitled Boot And Rally,” and earmarked a song with that title to be used in the episode. But it turned out that the song she suggested wasn’t working in the show. So, I said we could change the title of the episode, or we could find another song called “Boot And Rally,” Meanwhile, Iggy’s manager had reached out to me and said Iggy was a fan of the show and offered his songs to be used in the show. I got together with my friend and colleague, James Combs, who is an excellent songwriter and we decided to write our own song called “Boot And Rally,” something that perhaps Iggy would want to record. A long shot, but we went for it. James and I wrote the song and it came out pretty good. The show’s creator, Alan Ball gave it the thumbs up and we pitched it to Iggy. He dug it and he was all in. The only problem was we were on a tight schedule and Iggy was on tour. We recorded the backing tracks here in L.A. with producer John Would and Iggy recorded his vocal in a small studio in Seville, Spain. I invited Bethany Cosentino (Best Coast), to add some backing vocals and they both killed it….in a good way.

ELENI: What has been your favorite music supervisor job thus far?

GARY: Six Feet Under. I was still learning the ropes and I co-supervised with my good friend Thomas Golubic, and we had a beautiful, creative time Plus, working with Alan Ball is a dream. I was fortunate to continue to work with Alan on True Blood, which was a highlight as well.

ELENI: In the last decade, you have returned to performing. You have recorded an EP, You Are What You Listen To, and released some assorted singles. Is there a full-length album in your future?

GARY: I’d be up for it, I am not very prolific. I am good for one or two songs a year. But I’d love to see a compilation of my songs come out with a couple of new ones.

ELENI: You’re playing at McCabe’s on July 12th. What can we expect? Is it just you alone with your guitar? Will you be going electric, like Dylan in ’65? Any surprise guests sitting in?

GARY: My good friend, Willie Aron, formerly of The Balancing Act and Mike Randle, who currently plays with LOVE (Revisited) and Baby Lemonade, will be joining me and making it sound legit. I’ll try and come up with some good jokes. The patter is important.

ELENI: What inspires you these days, be it music, books, TV or films?

GARY: Mmmm… music always inspires me. A great new song or live performance inspires me. When I put my together my weekly radio show, The Open Road, on The SoCal Sound, I love to find new favorite songs every Friday as I go through the new releases online. Seeing Bruce Springsteen rocking as hard as ever at 75 years old inspires me. My superstar wife and brilliant daughter inspire me. There are some great documentaries, movies and TV shows that inspire me. I don’t want to sound arrogant, but I inspire myself. When I write a song that I am proud of, or I put a good set of music together on the radio show. I’m not sure if that qualifies for inspiration, but it gives me a good feeling.

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Gary Calamar and Special Guests, Saturday, July 12th tickets available at www.mccabes.com.