WG is Detroit's best kept secret, but that's getting ready to change. He's been working as a staff producer with Web Entertainment, a new record label/production company started by Jeff and Mark Bass, the Oscar and Grammy winning duo behind Eminem and his hit 'Lose Yourself'. WG has worked on projects for Madonna, Garbage, Dr. Fink, Pitchshifter, Bob James and Dr. Fink from Prince's band. Currently Wayne is writing and producing on Web Entertainment's flagship release CDs, the first being a blistering rapper called King Gordy and a hip hop/jazz group called '8 Mile Style'; working w/ Bob James as well as writing and producing for many rap and electronic acts worldwide. Wayne has also formed a media prduction company called Hedrock (http://www.hedrock.com) which will focus on music for new media (cd-roms, dvds, film and broadcast, web and kiosk application) and traditional composing, arranging and production. History- An artist from the breeding grounds of Hip Hop and Techno, Wayne has had varied success while flying under the radar. His style is a collage of Hip Hop, 70's funk, breakbeat, and rock. It's been described as 'a cross between Prince, Dr. Dre, MJ Cole and 'every David Fincher movie you've ever seen!'. The producer/remixer/composer made his name as a hired gun guitarist playing for artists as varied as Bob James, Patti Smith, David Sanborn and Wayne Kramer. His intriguing mixture of styles would serve him well, as he would later find out, although at first he had a hard time. "I went to Wayne State University for jazz studies but I grew up listening to Prince, Kraftwerk, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Miles so I was labeled as 'too eclectic'. But my gift is being able to draw on many influences to make a cohesive whole. I may have been ahead of my time!" The faculty must've have seen something in Wayne because he was awarded the prestigious Liberace Scholarship for composition. "I think because I was playing professionally and attending classes, I was their poster boy. I made a good showing." In 1996, he got tired of the road and started doing computer programming. "I was part of the web in it's heyday. I loved the web, but I always knew the computer and music would play a role somehow". And as fate would have it, an assignment came through where the client wanted custom-tailored music for an interactive presentation. "I volunteered and all of a sudden word spread. I started composing and recording for clients such as Ford, Chrysler, the Weather Channel, Pulte, Michigan State Lottery and The Detroit Tigers". Wayne eventually got the "artist itch" once again and recorded a CD's worth of contemporary urban jazz. He couldn't get a deal and found he had no outlet. "I was out of the music biz loop for a few years so most of my contacts had dried up and moved on. I was an unknown and no one wanted to take a chance". He stumbled across a then-little known music site designed to promote unsigned artists. The site was MP3.com. Wayne signed up and went on to be the #1 Jazz artist on MP3.com in 1998. He is one of only 30 artists out of 750,000 to have gotten a million downloads. His online success, coupled with his computer skills, suddenly made him a hot commodity, especially to the young Techno and Hip Hop community in Detroit. "They wanted to know how I was so successful online and how to use programs like Acid, Reason and ProTools." This exposure also had a profound impact on Wayne as well. "Listening to music that these guys were making got me inspired, just like I was in college! I heard music that had no boundaries; it was groovy and experimental...it was funky and collage-y at the same time. It was the music I'd been hearing in my head all along." Wayne then started producing, remixing and working with many local artists, lending his funky sound wherever he could. Although producing and remixing didn't really pay much in the beginning, Wayne loved doing the work and maintained a habit of taking tracks and working them into something totally different, but preserving the integrity of the original tune. As his name and rep grew, he made contacts at various labels and did remixes for Madonna. Garbage, Dave McMurray, Bob James and others. Coincidentally, he met one of his idols threw a remix he'd done. The tune 'Music' by Madonna. Wayne says "I always thought that tune was kicking! In fact, when I first heard it, I thought Madonna and Prince had finally gotten together. Of course, that wasn't the case so I did the remix in a pseudo-Minneapolis style, with updated production style and hip-hop sounds." Well, shortly after it was done he got a strange email. "It was from Dr. Fink from Prince and the Revolution. He's working on a new CD and wanted a funky remix of the title track 'Ultrasound'. He heard the 'Music' remix I did and tapped me for it! It's done and being printed up for a UK release in the fall." A fine example of Wayne's broad range can be found on his current full length album on Dialekt Records, 'Vision': There's a variety of material on there" reveals Wayne. "There's a mix of commercial and underground material, some typical 'Wayne Gerard' hip-hop stuff, a bit of progressive house-y joints, some hard, almost techno sounding tunes and of course, some F-U-N-K!! I've got a lot of different flavas and I want to represent that". Wayne is doing music for commercials, DVDs, various rap, r&b and jazz acts as well as finishing up a Bob James remix record with the incredible David McMurray, the musical director for Motown phenomenom Kem. Wayne is a heavy Reason user, augmenting his set-up with Nuendo, Acid, Sound Forge and thousands of VST plugins and synths.