Kevin Garant returns to Nashua

From the Telegraph's Encore magazine, 12/31/09:

by George Pelletier

NASHUA – Multi-instrumentalist Kevin Garant grew up in Nashua, moved to Manhattan and then to Melbourne, Australia, where he continues to live today.

I know a great deal about Kevin; he’s my first cousin. As we used to joke as kids, and to coin a Three Stooges’ phrase: “My mother and your mother are both mothers.” (In fact, our moms are sisters.)

These days, Kevin is on a stateside jaunt, touring and playing and visiting family, as well. I had a chance to catch up with him, both as a journalist and as his cousin.

I asked him what is different now – not including the 16-hour time difference.

“Well, two things,” he said. “My sort of musical stuff is not necessarily commercial. It’s more instrumental, as opposed to the music that I played with other artists.”

By other artists, Kevin is talking about mainstream acts such as Sting and Hall and Oates, with whom he has performed in the past.

“Americans are more appreciative and more aware of their music,” he continued. “Australia is smaller; and in the States, acts (such as these) are more familiar, and they are more nostalgic.”

Today, Kevin is an active musician, but, as he noted, “not of the singer-songwriter variety.”

“I write my own electric music/guitar thing. I have an audience and here in the States. I’m playing in the West Village, as well as gigs in Boston, Los Angeles and even here in Nashua.

“But my stuff is more esoteric. I wouldn’t consider myself an entertainer. I’m more of a sidesman.”

Back in Australia, Garant owns and runs 555 Music Co. (555music.com.au), a studio and guitar boutique that he described as eclectic.

“People walk in here and seem really excited about it, you know, to see something other than just Gibsons and Fenders.”

As for growing up here in Nashua, Kevin laughed as we discussed our childhood and upbringing.

“We always liked creative things and sporting things, remember?” he asked me.

“We really weren’t into mainstream stuff. We had a good, intelligent family and we were nurtured in that sense.”

Kevin and I continued to chuckle about the games that we created on our own.

“Remember SPY?” he asked. “You and I would spell that out S-P-Y!” The game he referred to involved the two of us running about the yard, he typically doing the hoisting as I did the peering into a window of my parents’ house, for example, and then relaying back to Kevin what the family was doing. We thought we were so clever. But we were just children.

“You and I were way before Twittering and Facebook and Wii and Atari, for that matter,” Kevin laughed. “And we both played keyboards, except that you played drums and I did guitars.”

As for life down under, Kevin remarked, “I really like living in Australia, and don’t get me wrong, I like America, as well.”

Kevin noted one of his earliest gigs was working at Progris Music on Lake Street in Nashua and studying under teacher Nick Bird. “He was amazing.”

Beyond that .Kevin said he does miss NYC and Boston, but added, “You and I have come full circle. You write words, I play music. We both lucked out.”