Bruce Gordon (born 1968 in London,
England) is a Canadian rock
musician, best known as the bassist for I Mother Earth.
He was born to parents of Scottish and German heritage. He immigrated to Canada with his family at the age of
six. They first moved to Edmonton, Alberta but after only a
year relocated to Oakville, Ontario, a suburb of
Toronto.
His exposure to bands such as the Dead Kennedys, Black Flag and Bad Brains inspired him to pick up the
bass guitar at the age of fifteen. He quickly took to the instrument and within a few months
had joined a Toronto punk band called Intensive Chaos. Primarily self taught, Bruce continued to play in a string of basement
bands and soon graduated to the independent scene where he started playing local gigs with Jonathan Cummins (Bionic, Doughboys),
and Cam and Brad Maclean in Circus Lupus.
After finishing high school, Bruce enrolled in the jazz program at Humber College to
further his musical knowledge. Around the same time the demise of Circus Lupus led him to join the newly formed Rocktopus.
Rocktopus released several independent cassettes and an EP on Lone Wolf Records. The band toured regularly across Ontario and
Quebec and successfully completed two cross Canada and one North American tour before finally
calling it quits.
In 1993, only one month after Rocktopus split, Bruce joined I
Mother Earth, who had already signed a worldwide deal with Capitol records. A few short weeks after Bruce joined the band
they embarked on a pre-album release tour across the United states. Over the
next ten years Bruce would release five multi-platinum albums with I Mother Earth, be presented with MuchMusic and Juno Awards and tour relentlessly around North America and
Europe.
In 2003, the band parted ways to pursue different projects. Bruce expanded his teaching practice
privately and at the Twelfth Fret and began to explore new musical endeavors. He tried his hand at as many different musical
styles as possible, including various jazz and blues artists, and for a year worked with songwriter Alison Maclean in her band
Fourstar. He also performed with the funk improv band Hot Fo Ghandi and the lo-fi jazz combo the Tiny Specks.
In early 2005, Bruce was hired by Blue Man Group to help
open up a new Toronto-based show. He continues to perform with the eclectic ensemble on a variety of instruments that include
electric zither, chapman stick and talking drum.
Earlier this year, Bruce joined with fellow Blue Man musicians Dave Steele and Steve Ballstadt to form the instrumental
spy-go-go-surf-noir trio Experiment In Terror. His newest project is the live electro groove collective called Ostrich.
External links
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