For all he has accomplished as a Grammy award-winning producer and musician, Peterborough native Greg Wells has never forgotten from where he came and, in particular, those who fed his youthful insatiable appetite for music and his ability to play it, and play it very well, in all its forms.
Topping that list is the late Don Skuce, the former owner of Ed’s Music Workshop and guitar luthier who passed away in June 2018 at age 66 after a long battle with cancer.
“Don was the only person who would never tell me to stop playing … he’d let me play for hours until the shop closed,” recalls Wells, speaking from his Rocket Carousel Studio in Los Angeles.
“I think about Don often. I have pictures of him hanging in my studio. One that he sent me was taken at the original location of Ed’s on Dublin Street. I’m about 15 years old and I’m playing a Telecaster. In fact, I bought one of his favourite guitars — a 1956 Fender Telecaster, hands down the best guitar I have. It’s the holy grail of twang.”
“I just love the guy. He was a huge supporter of myself and hundreds of other Peterborough musicians. He had a great sense of humour; he was humble but he was confident. It’s hard to find people like that. I’m starting to cry just talking about him.”
With the blessing of Skuce’s lifelong partner Karen Page, Wells has launched the Don Skuce Memorial Music Collective — an opportunity for musicians, either solo singers or bands, to submit up to three simple song demos, in any music genre, to a board of adjudicators comprised of established Peterborough musicians led by musician and songwriter John Crown.
The group will review each submission, choose the song to be recorded, and determine the recording budget and all recording costs including additional hired musicians if needed. After receiving the recording from Peterborough recording engineer James McKenty, Wells will mix and master the finished recording at his Los Angeles studio.
Three winners will be selected every year (one every four months), with the first winner to be announced in February 2021. Application proposals, including song demos in MP3 format, can be emailed to donskucemmc@gmail.com.
“There are absolutely no strings attached,” stresses Crown. “The winning applicant owns every bit of the rights to their song and are free to do with it whatever they choose.”
In addition, each winning entry will receive a free promo shot courtesy of photographer John “Fotojoe” Gearin, another good friend of Skuce’s.
In an Instagram post announcing the Don Skuce Memorial Music Collective, Wells described Skuce as “a wise, warm and generous spirit who loved to support local musicians in their journey. Don’s deep love of music creation will live on through the work of this collective, and will support and document the musical output of the great city of Peterborough.”
When Wells first formed the idea of honouring Skuce and his selfless efforts to give a hand up to aspiring Peterborough musicians, he searched online for a space in the city he could rent or buy to convert into a recording studio. Among the properties he looked at was the former St. Andrew’s United Church on Rubidge Street.
“I called John (Crown) and told him I wanted to do this (open a recording studio) in Don’s honour,” says Wells.
“He immediately got what I wanted to do but then he made it such a better idea. He said rather than go through the hassle and the expense of creating a studio from scratch, why don’t I use a local studio? In other words, don’t create a studio that’ll be in competition with the studios already here. He suggested James’ studio and things progressed from there.”
To say the opportunity being presented here to local singers and bands is of the once-in-a-lifetime variety is as close to the truth as it gets.
Wells is a record producer, songwriter, musician and audio engineer with songs on more than 130 million albums sold and streaming numbers in the billions.
He has produced and written with John Legend, Adele, Rufus Wainwright, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, Pharrell Williams, Keith Urban, Katy Perry, Ariana Grande, Weezer, Aerosmith, Celine Dion, Quincy Jones, Elton John, Burt Bacharach, Andrew Lloyd Webber, the Count Basie Orchestra and many more. In addition he has received three Grammy nominations, winning one in 2018 for best compilation soundtrack for visual media for the 2017 film The Greatest Showman starring Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron.
“It’s so embarrassing, I don’t even want to tell you,” laughs Wells when asked what his services would typically cost.
“I have sliding scale. I go from being grotesquely overpaid to working for free. My interest is not money. I’m interested in working on music I find compelling; music that makes me feel my shirt collar being pulled toward it. That has always been the thing that makes me want to work on something.”
Crown, who worked at Ed’s Music Workshop back in the day, learning how to do guitar repairs, says there’s absolutely no downside to the initiative.
“Even if this is just getting somebody who hasn’t tried it before — to summon up the energy to press the record button and sing into his or her phone — that’s a pretty huge step forward in it itself,” he says, noting that a few submissions have already come in.
“It’s not about winning the contest. It’s that people are creating art and hopefully enjoying the process.”
VIDEO: Greg Wells’ oldest son playing Don Skuce’s 1956 Fender Telecaster
Wells admits to being more excited about this project than his regularly scheduled recording work.
“It means something to me,” he says. “It’s being done for a reason I don’t often find in the cogs of the music business.”
Wells’ ongoing philanthropy also sees him give away a drum set every few months through his social media accounts.
“It’s so much fun for me to get a drum set into the hands of anyone. I get nothing out of it. I don’t do any press. I don’t advertise it. Now I’m partnered with Roland. We give away a Roland keyboard every three or four months. That turns me on.”
As for the Don Skuce Memorial Music Collective, Wells says the plan for now is to do it “indefinitely”.
“There’s no cut-off date as to when this is going to stop, so it could go on forever,” Wells reflects. “I do think we should figure out a way where the public can hear these songs. It would be weird not to share them.”
For more information about the Don Skuce Memorial Music Collective, visit the Facebook page at facebook.com/The-Don-Skuce-Memorial-Music-Collective-101228801782259/.
