Gavin Harrison

Gavin Harrison is a drummer, composer, and author from England. The founding (and current) drummer with <a href="spotify:artist:5NXHXK6hOCotCF8lvGM1I0">Porcupine Tree</a>, he is also a member of <a href="spotify:artist:4lrBMUSk8PiNnCEZfsmPAk">Pineapple Thief</a> and a former drummer with <a href="spotify:artist:7M1FPw29m5FbicYzS2xdpi">King Crimson</a>. Harrison's credits number in the hundreds, and they include work with <a href="spotify:artist:4MERAVAHX04B50JOnasmWf">Renaissance</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:33EUXrFKGjpUSGacqEHhU4">Iggy Pop</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0L9xkvBPcEp1nrhDrodxc5">Level 42</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:5k5yIvxtsqHqWrRBF3nhSY">Kevin Ayers</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0y7YMwALNf8gEfFTbs065M">Jakko M. Jakszyk</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:2jS7I1u7BpgWT9ssG62Zr1">Lisa Stansfield</a>. His leader debut, Sanity & Gravity, appeared in 1997. In 2007, he issued Drop, the first of three collaborative albums with guitarist <a href="spotify:artist:6lIWNPhgnGo6i1q5QZA1z5">05ric</a> (Ric Byer). 2009's Circles and 2012's The Man Who Sold Himself followed. From 2012 to 2022 he was one of <a href="spotify:artist:7M1FPw29m5FbicYzS2xdpi">King Crimson</a>'s drummers. In 2015, he issued Cheating the Polygraph, covering <a href="spotify:artist:5NXHXK6hOCotCF8lvGM1I0">Porcupine Tree</a> tunes with a large jazz band. He joined <a href="spotify:artist:4lrBMUSk8PiNnCEZfsmPAk">Pineapple Thief</a> full-time in 2018. In 2020 he and fusion bassist <a href="spotify:artist:1YOhfBQ05p8mgILwtvCiu7">Antoine Fafard</a> released Chemical Reactions. In 2021 he joined a re-formed <a href="spotify:artist:5NXHXK6hOCotCF8lvGM1I0">Porcupine Tree</a> on Closure/Continuation, and in July 2024 Harrison and <a href="spotify:artist:1YOhfBQ05p8mgILwtvCiu7">Fafard</a> re-teamed for Perpetual Mutations.

Harrison was born in North Harrow, Middlesex, in 1963. His father Bobby was an established jazz trumpeter and part-time drummer. Gavin began playing drums at age six. At 16, he left school and began his professional career; three years later he was touring North America with progressive pop group <a href="spotify:artist:4MERAVAHX04B50JOnasmWf">Renaissance</a>.

At 19, Harrison became a full-time session and touring musician. He worked on records by <a href="spotify:artist:3bhCWiE3xoIbH70zy0nj7c">Gail Ann Dorsey</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:6DwtKOBE3ubTsXyRX7wiUz">Tom Robinson</a>, and others. In 1988 he co-founded the global jazz ensemble Dizrhythmia with bassist <a href="spotify:artist:1sLxxwNgZ9Yy7ENUbGfP3q">Danny Thompson</a>, guitarist Jakko Jakszyk, and percussionist/vocalist Pandit Dinesh; they released a widely acclaimed, eponymously titled jazz/world fusion album on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Island%22">Island</a>/<a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Antilles%22">Antilles</a>. The following year, he played on <a href="spotify:artist:2k0CTSpfHwzEfYnQwNIiHq">BJ Cole</a>'s Transparent Music and <a href="spotify:artist:7g6rQ236kj9vrXWdGyiC8o">Sarah Jane Morris</a>' self-titled debut. He also toured with <a href="spotify:artist:33EUXrFKGjpUSGacqEHhU4">Iggy Pop</a> during the mid-'80s.

In 1990 he played on keyboardist Dave Stewart and vocalist Barbara Gaskin's second album, The Big Idea, and he's worked on each of their albums since. In 1991, he joined <a href="spotify:artist:5moJNCJeiNwuQAhDLJXULs">Incognito</a> and played on the hit album Inside Life that netted the global smash "Always There" with vocalist <a href="spotify:artist:2ga5ADaBpljQ3YrCh99ZMq">Jocelyn Brown</a>. (Harrison was also in the band's lineup for 1997's Blue Moods.) A year later he joined <a href="spotify:artist:5k5yIvxtsqHqWrRBF3nhSY">Kevin Ayers</a> on the iconic Still Life with Guitar. Harrison went to work in Italy, playing on numerous albums and tours for <a href="spotify:artist:4lianjyuR1tqf6oUX8kjrZ">Franco Batiato</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:5zBAb4P2NoTps0shbgZvgj">Claudio Baglioni</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:3rlKqNmhaP9UiC0wFQyFS3">Raf</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:5VxhGHbcuvqTLRUWzBUN8L">Fiorella Mannoia</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:61J0BktHv7PuP3tjTPYXSX">Eros Ramazzotti</a>, and Projeto Cavani. He briefly joined <a href="spotify:artist:0L9xkvBPcEp1nrhDrodxc5">Level 42</a> on what was reportedly their final tour (it wasn't). In 1995, Harrison played on <a href="spotify:artist:3Un3HwgAkcv3McRBMnwytr">Mick Karn</a>'s widely acclaimed The Tooth Mother and <a href="spotify:artist:2k0CTSpfHwzEfYnQwNIiHq">Cole</a>'s The Heart of the Moment. He published the first of several instructional books, Rhythmic Illusions, in 1996. His intense session and touring work continued in 1997 on Soft Vengeance by <a href="spotify:artist:2utNxkLhreF1oIfO8kQT3q">Manfred Mann's Earth Band</a> and Jakszyk's The Road to Bailina.

That same year, he released Sanity & Gravity, his debut long-player as a leader. His large, alternating lineup included future <a href="spotify:artist:5NXHXK6hOCotCF8lvGM1I0">Porcupine Tree</a> bandmate <a href="spotify:artist:74aT58mmwQWq4qUxTE0SDr">Richard Barbieri</a> and bassist <a href="spotify:artist:3Un3HwgAkcv3McRBMnwytr">Mick Karn</a>. In 1999 he appeared with <a href="spotify:artist:2jS7I1u7BpgWT9ssG62Zr1">Lisa Stansfield</a> on her soundtrack for the film Swing and toured with her worldwide on several subsequent tours. His second book, Rhythmic Designs: A Study of Practical Creativity, appeared in 2000, the same year he played on soul singer Lewis Taylor's II and became the musical director for <a href="spotify:artist:4L8MIM7AXmq6jb0tRix4JT">Artful Dodger</a>.

In 2002, Harrison was invited by <a href="spotify:artist:4X42BfuhWCAZ2swiVze9O0">Steven Wilson</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:74aT58mmwQWq4qUxTE0SDr">Barbieri</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:7mAtJ5TYkeV9pBxnavOv0T">Colin Edwin</a> to join <a href="spotify:artist:5NXHXK6hOCotCF8lvGM1I0">Porcupine Tree</a> as a replacement for founding drummer Chris Maitland. Harrison played on In Absentia, XMII, Deadwing, Fear of a Blank Planet, and The Incident, and toured with them relentlessly until they went on hiatus in 2010. In 2007 he and touch guitarist <a href="spotify:artist:6lIWNPhgnGo6i1q5QZA1z5">05ric</a> released their collaborative debut Drop; it was the first year he won Modern Drummer magazine's poll -- he won consecutively through 2010. The following year played in a live, two-drummer incarnation of <a href="spotify:artist:7M1FPw29m5FbicYzS2xdpi">King Crimson</a> on August 07, 2008: Park West, Chicago, Illinois, Mr. Stormy's Monday Selection, and Level Max. He also played on <a href="spotify:artist:4X42BfuhWCAZ2swiVze9O0">Wilson</a>'s solo debut, Insurgentes, and collaborated with <a href="spotify:artist:6lIWNPhgnGo6i1q5QZA1z5">05ric</a> on Circles. <a href="spotify:artist:6lIWNPhgnGo6i1q5QZA1z5">05ric</a>'s and Harrison's third and final collaboration, The Man Who Sold Himself, appeared in 2012, as did his contribution to the Fusion Syndicate's eponymous debut. A studio supergroup, the band featured a slew of first call prog and fusion musicians including <a href="spotify:artist:0IwfuIL3gUJxjzUqY3wJ3j">Billy Cobham</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0TqzaG22tZa4fMpeVM3wBQ">Percy Jones</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0mkcYaXUbJUs5mJointuzB">Rick Wakeman</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:4tnIJlMRllATOXZX2uCogN">John Etheridge</a> and a dozen others.

Harrison, and <a href="spotify:artist:1YOhfBQ05p8mgILwtvCiu7">Antoine Fafard</a> initially worked together with ex-<a href="spotify:artist:3Ao7NH7lRyQAeKQg2mlTcO">Mahavishnu Orchestra</a> violinist <a href="spotify:artist:1TSEcrPmHaxyeQMcFiKUO3">Jerry Goodman</a> on the bassist/guitarist's classical/jazz fusion outing Occultus Tramitis in 2013. Two years later, on a break from touring with <a href="spotify:artist:7M1FPw29m5FbicYzS2xdpi">King Crimson</a>, Harrison issued his sophomore solo outing, Cheating the Polygraph, on which he arranged <a href="spotify:artist:5NXHXK6hOCotCF8lvGM1I0">Porcupine Tree</a> covers for a jazz octet. It won global acclaim.

Between 2014 and 2020, Harrison worked stages across the world with <a href="spotify:artist:7M1FPw29m5FbicYzS2xdpi">King Crimson</a>, ultimately appearing on more than a dozen live recordings, including 2016's now-classic Radical Action to Unseat the Hold Of Monkey Mind. That year Dizrhythmia reunited for Too. The year also marked his first recorded appearance with <a href="spotify:artist:4lrBMUSk8PiNnCEZfsmPAk">the Pineapple Thief</a> on Dissolution; he also played a European tour with them that resulted in the live album Hold Our Fire. He became a full-time member in time to record 2020's Versions of the Truth. He also re-teamed with <a href="spotify:artist:1YOhfBQ05p8mgILwtvCiu7">Fafard</a> to cut a a co-billed collaborative album titled Chemical Reactions with <a href="spotify:artist:1TSEcrPmHaxyeQMcFiKUO3">Goodman</a> and the <a href="spotify:artist:2YyyRcMjrl3vk2PGrtIOgN">Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra</a>.

<a href="spotify:artist:5NXHXK6hOCotCF8lvGM1I0">Porcupine Tree</a> officially re-formed in 2021 as a trio with <a href="spotify:artist:4X42BfuhWCAZ2swiVze9O0">Wilson</a>, Harrison, and <a href="spotify:artist:74aT58mmwQWq4qUxTE0SDr">Barbieri</a>. In November, they released their first single, "Harridan," to acclaim across the U.K., Europe, and North America. That year, <a href="spotify:artist:4lrBMUSk8PiNnCEZfsmPAk">the Pineapple Thief</a> issued the double-length Nothing But the Truth, which featured numerous compositions from Harrison. The following year, Give It Back, a collection of <a href="spotify:artist:5NXHXK6hOCotCF8lvGM1I0">Porcupine Tree</a> songs reworked, was released.

In June 2022, <a href="spotify:artist:5NXHXK6hOCotCF8lvGM1I0">Porcupine Tree</a>'s Closure/Continuation appeared on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Sony%22">Sony</a>'s Music for Nations' imprint. Each tour date sold out within minutes. In July, they played a gig in Amsterdam that resulted in 2023's Closure/Continuation Live. Two years later, <a href="spotify:artist:4lrBMUSk8PiNnCEZfsmPAk">the Pineapple Thief</a> released It Leads to This, while Harrison and <a href="spotify:artist:1YOhfBQ05p8mgILwtvCiu7">Fafard</a> re-teamed for Perpetual Mutations, a much more jazz-rock fusion-recording. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi