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hplandmark.com life & Arts
the highland park landmark | January 24, 2019 | 21
HP native branches out
after pop music success
Erin Yarnall, Editor
After performing to a
sold-out crowd at Madison
Square Garden, and then
performing on “Saturday
Night Live,” Highland
Park native Greg Spero
felt he had reached “a
plateau” in his career.
“I took that as the point
where it was a peak of
what we had done so far,”
Spero said.
Spero was performing
synthesizers as a member
of pop star Halsey’s live
band for three years, in
which he toured throughout
the world.
He joined Halsey’s live
band after moving to Los
Angeles from Highland
Park and coming across
the project at the beginning
of the singer’s career.
“Our first shows were
about 80 people when we
started out, so it was very
small,” Spero said. “She
didn’t have much of a following.
Gradually, after
being on the road for three
years, we built it up.”
Spero said that his years
of touring as a member of
Halsey’s band were unrivaled
in providing him
with knowledge on how
the music industry works.
“Seeing the inner-workings
of that was sort of like
getting a PhD in the music
industry,” Spero said.
But in early 2018, Spero
left Halsey and her live
band to branch out on his
own.
“I thought to myself at
that time that I could either
continue to grow with that
operation, or I could consider
that a chapter of my
life and move on to the next
Highland Park native Greg Spero poses for a photo with
music producer Quincy Jones. photo SUBMITTED
steps, which were basically
starting from ground zero
again,” Spero said.
Since then, he’s started
his own project. Namely,
“Tiny Room” — a studio
in Los Angeles, which also
serves as an audio and video
recording suite. Spero
has been posting videos
online as part of his “Tiny
Room” project since early
2018.
“[It’s] where I can bring
in any projects that I’m
working with, or other
ones that I’m not even
working with — I’m just
interested in helping,”
Spero said.
With his new project,
Spero is hoping to intertwine
his experience working
in pop music with his
love of jazz music.
“My idea with that was,
I saw a need for something
more creative in the pop
world, and for something
more acceptable in the jazz
world,” Spero said. “There
is a scene of young creative
instrumentalists who are
doing really cool, interesting,
innovative things with
music, that incorporate the
language of today.”
In addition to working
with “Tiny Room,” Spero
has been creating his own
music with his band Spirit
Fingers. The band recently
wrapped up a tour throughout
Europe.
“It was a lot more
grueling than the European
tours that I did
with Halsey,” Spero said.
“With Halsey we were
playing maybe three
nights a week and traveling.
We would have off
days. When you do jazz
work, you’re playing for
much smaller audiences
and you’re playing every
single night.”
Spero is grateful for the
experience that working
with Halsey gave him, but
is looking forward to continuing
to share his own
music in the future.
“When there’s so much
music that is made purely
for commercial purposes,
it’s very important that
this music that is purely
from the part of the soul
with no compromises, that
that exists and that is out
in the world,” Spero said.
“I think people are seeing
that more and more now.”