Now Spinning Music Magazine - Artist Interviews and Music Reviews · Phil Aston

From Gentle Giant to Bon Jovi - Derek Shulman Interview

·53 min·3 clips

Derek says he signed Pantera after three songs because he knew they 'had it.'

1. Now Spinning Music Magazine focuses on Derek Shulman and the book Giant Steps, which connects Gentle Giant, the music business, and later executive work. 2. Phil Aston hosts the interview, and Derek Shulman matters because he was a founding member of Gentle Giant and later worked behind the scenes in the record industry. 3. The episode asks how a musician from Gentle Giant ended up signing and shaping acts from Pantera to Bon Jovi. 4. Derek says his father's death at age 16 was a trauma that he later linked through therapy to health anxieties. 5. He describes hearing 'Love Me Do' on the radio while attending grammar school and realizing that music could change his life. 6. He recalls school days in Portsmouth, forming early bands with friends, and even using pots and pans before he had a real drummer. 7. Derek explains that Simon Dupree and the Big Sound came up in a different era, before the internet and iPhones, when bands could still be found locally. 8. He says Elton John, then still Reg, depped on keyboard for a UK tour and urged the band toward Spirit and other heavier influences. 9. Derek and his brothers then moved toward Gentle Giant, bringing together classical training, saxophone, soul, R&B, bebop, and blues. 10. He says that mix of influences was stirred together until 'Gentle Giant' came out of it. 11. Derek describes Jerry Braun backing the band, Tony Visconti loving the first album, and Visconti teaching them at the mixing desk. 12. He says the band produced Three Friends themselves after watching Visconti work in the studio. 13. Derek recalls supporting a film of Jimi Hendrix on early tours and playing for audiences that ranged from 10 people to several hundred. 14. He emphasizes that Gentle Giant played live versions differently from the records and tried to entertain with smiles rather than overwhelm audiences. 15. He says Phil Shulman left after an Italian tour, forcing the band to regroup as a five-piece and make In a Glass House under pressure. 16. Derek adds that he is now remixing In a Glass House in Brooklyn with high-end AI that separates tracks in ways the original session tapes could not. 17. He says the band later tried to chase commercial success, but he prefers that they never became a tribute act to themselves. 18. The tone is conversational and detailed, with Phil Aston prompting long, reflective answers and Derek mixing memory with practical studio detail. 19. Listeners interested in classic rock, progressive rock, and music-business stories will get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners wanting a brief, purely technical music analysis may skip it.

As heard by us

A fan-led interview linking Gentle Giant to a long music-business career.

This episode keeps Derek Shulman at the center, tracing Gentle Giant, his father’s death at 16, and the long move from progressive rock player to someone who helped find, sign, redevelop, and relaunch bands.

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Why you'd press play

You want Derek Shulman's Gentle Giant story and the personal loss that shaped his career.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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