From NYC House Music studio engineer to Boise-based Physical Therapist

I'm in Boise, Idaho talking with Gavin Morrison, Class of 1982. We've been looking at Overlake yearbooks and all the pictures of us when we both had long hair. (Laughter) Gavin, after you left Overlake, where did you go to college? 

UC Santa Cruz. 

And what did you plan to do at UC Santa Cruz? 

Start a band and play music at dorm parties, right. And go to school. At the same time. 

I think that was a dream I shared. Did you finish at UC Santa Cruz, or did you go on to something else? 

I did two years there. It was time to declare a major, and I wanted to pursue music seriously. So I left and I found my way to recently established Guitar Institute of Technology (GIT) located in Los Angeles, California. Hollywood, to be specific. 

And who were your teachers there? 

Howard Roberts, Pat Martino, Paul Gilbert, Tommy Tedesco...It was in an old performance hall when I went there, on Hollywood Boulevard. And there were smaller performance halls in there. I was definitely being supported in this by my parents, which looking back now is something I'm very grateful for. 

And then you made the leap to New York City? 

I found a recording arts school there called The Center for Media Arts. It was in the Garment District, in Manhattan. They had small classes, no more than 10 people. 

And you were performing on recordings? Or were you just really working on the engineering and producing side?  

I had my little Fostex four-track deck then in my apartment. So I was working on my own songwriting and guitar playing on the side at that point. The classes were for learning how to engineer and produce sound recordings in a professional studio. 

Were you a better engineer at the end of that training?  

I was no engineer before that. That's for sure! (Laughs) 

When you were still living in New York, I came out to visit you. I remember you took me to a studio in Times Square, then known as “Crime Square.” And we listened to this new style of music. What was that called? 

House Music was invented while I was an intern at this studio. And I became a full-time engineer there and worked on lots of early House Music records. I was working in New York for nine years, from ‘86 to ‘95.  

Did you get any credits on the records?  

Yeah, there's a number of underground House Music records that are still circulating today. And DJs who like to sample that classic House Music sound.  

You can hear some classic House Music including a track Gavin worked on at these links:

Whistle Song | Push the Feeling On | The Warning

Is there a particular style of House Music? Does it have a name? Is it sub-genre? 

At that point, it was just considered New York style House because it had just arrived in New York, having started in Chicago. Everybody thinks it came from New York. But it started in Chicago, and became really big in New York. So it's where the clubs were.  

Working with some of the artists early on, I was scratching my head. Like, “That's your drumbeat?” Yeah. Okay. All right. If that's what you want. I'm getting paid to make it and I'll make it as best I can. But then after a while it caught on and became a standard thing. And then at some point it gravitated into more like of a jazzy kind of instrumental thing where there's actual real keyboard players playing talented solos. Eric Kupper was one, he did a record with Frankie Knuckles called The Whistle Song.  

It's like an ecosystem that was initially for people who didn't play instruments.  

Definitely sampling old records! Yeah. Grabbed before there were sampling laws. They would just grab this record and take a little vocal piece, take a drum beat, take it there. We called them sample tracks. 

I remember the first time you played me House stuff in the studio, I was just stunned by the fact that the drumbeat was completely artificial.  

That's the bread and butter of the studio I was working in. It was a very small niche studio, the name of it, MPC Productions.  

You mentioned to me earlier that you happened to find your first apartment in New York through a guy who was a Tai Chi instructor. And Tai Chi really influenced your path over time.  

By the time I retired from the music business at 32 I was ready for a new career. And I moved back to Seattle, and I was scratching my head about what the next move was. And somebody mentioned physical therapy and I had started teaching Tai Chi at that point. Actually, that's an interesting thing. Roger Fisher, the lead guitarist from Heart. I was looking for an engineering job because that's what I knew. And he had a little home studio and he called me up and said, I really like your resume. And he's like, I'd like to learn Tai Chi. Yeah. I've been wanting to learn that for a long time. I have a studio. I can give you a job if you teach me Tai Chi on the side. And simultaneously I was thinking about going back to school and I was asking myself, can I parlay this knowledge of Tai Chi into something?  

When did you make the decision to get trained in Physical Therapy? 

It was the summer I was working at Roger’s place. I'd run into an old friend of ours (and former student), Tim Skeith (’82) from way back when we were in Middle School at Overlake. And he mentioned he was interested in physical therapy. He looked into it and he had all the textbooks, and his dad was a doctor. And he told me about the program the University of Washington was offering. And another old friend (and Overlake alum) Gordy Hawkes (’81) told me he knew a physical therapist. “He plays guitar. He went to GIT just like you did. And he's got a therapy practice now in Kirkland - you should meet him.” 

There’s the old network coming into play! 

Gordy took me out to meet him. I got a visual on the clinic. Super nice guy. He's a good friend to this day. He became my mentor in a way. And he said, yeah, it's a great career. He was a cheerleader for the whole career. He said, you know, I think you can do it! 

Now you have built a practice here in Boise. 

Just by word of mouth and Google! 

Do you work on your own or do you have other practitioners you work with? 

I'm sole as a sole practitioner can get! Just me and my iPhone. I just have my own little space in a small professional building. Twenty-one years this year. Is that right? Holy smokes! 

How did COVID impact your practice? 

I consider myself pretty fortunate. Boise was not hit hard compared with other cities, in part because it is so physically isolated, and doesn’t have an international airport. And my practice was slowed, but it never completely stopped. Other practitioners (such as personal trainers in the same building) were completely shut down.  

You have a daughter in high school. How has she coped with the pandemic? 

I’m so grateful that my daughter thrived in the hybrid environment, the online environment, right back to school. And she has friends and she likes it. It was her first year in high school here, which starts in 10th grade. I'm just so glad she did not collapse academically or personally. 

Not all kids thrive in the virtual school environment. 

I’m grateful for that, yeah. And it was a good year other than the pandemic. Business-wise. I feel very fortunate. 

Thank you for your time and hospitality, Gavin.  

My pleasure!  

Interview by Christian Fulghum (’77)