Originally hailing from New York, he has worked with, among others, Kesha, Kelly Clarkson, Jessie J, Adam Lambert, Chaka Khan, Charli XCX, Meshell Ndegeocello, Green Gartside (Scritti Politti), Sheila E., George Benson, Luther Vandross, Donny Osmond, Miles Davis, Al Jarreau, Tony LeMans, Roger Troutman, Eden xo, Quinn XCII and Hannah Diamond.
He spent his infant years in Italy, where his father ran an opera company, and in the mid-1960s the family returned to the US and settled in Westchester County, New York.
[6] Despite his classical training, Gamson had always listened primarily to pop music - as a child to the Beatles, and in his high school years he moved on to progressive rock[7] and the Canterbury scene (an appreciation shared by his future bandmate Green Gartside).
[6] In his late teens he became interested in funk and soul through the music of Chic, Leon Sylvers and Bootsy Collins/Parliament-Funkadelic - styles that were the primary influence on his own work as a composer, arranger and producer.
[8] Despite his success in securing funding and distribution for his music while still in his teens, Gamson was not planning a career as a pop musician: "Up until the time I got involved with Scritti Politti, I thought I was going to be a serious composer.
[5] In 1982 Geoff Travis put the young Gamson in contact with one of Rough Trade's most prominent artists, Green Gartside of Scritti Politti.
[7] The two found that they worked well together ("we were symbiotically insane about pushing each other", Gamson noted),[7] and decided to release their collaborations as Scritti Politti, a name which already had an audience.
However, Gartside was negotiating a new deal with a major record label, and due to the legal battle with Rough Trade, the songs were never released.
The band remained in New York and recorded three songs with producer Arif Mardin: "Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)", "Absolute" and "Hypnotize", all of which would become singles from their album, Cupid & Psyche 85.
Cupid & Psyche 85 came out in June 1985 and marked a sharp shift in Scritti Politti's style, moving from indie aesthetics to a sleek funk-induced sound, largely due to Gamson's arrangements and synth work.
In 1986, he and Gartside co-wrote "Love of a Lifetime" for Chaka Khan, and their unreleased "L Is For Lover" became the title track for Al Jarreau’s album.
[11] After a long promotional tour for Cupid & Psyche 85, Gamson and Gartside immediately started working the band's next album, Provision, co-writing and co-producing all tracks.
His crisp, jabbing patches have a poke-in-the-ribs feel that hustles Scritti songs along, and his intricate sequences have established him as one of the most inventive architects on the current dance-pop scene".
[5] Gamson appeared pleased with Provision at the time of its release, saying it "worked much better because Green and I developed our collaboration...I think things are much better placed on the new album...first off, it isn’t so busy".
Bitter did not meet the record company's commercial expectations, and the Gamson-produced Peace Beyond Passion remains Ndegeocello's best selling album to date.
[15] The following year, Green Gartside resurfaced from his exile in Wales with new material, and reached out to Gamson in an attempt to mend their professional and personal relationship.
Gamson brought in musicians he had previously collaborated with, including Meshell Ndegeocello, Wendy Melvoin and Paul Riser, and recording took place in LA and New York.
[16] Anomie & Bonhomie largely eschewed the synth-heavy sound of Cupid & Psyche 85 and Provision, and included strong hip hop and grunge influences.
During that time Gamson saw a need to adapt to the changing music business and started focusing on composing songs, which became more lucrative than production.
[6] Kesha and Gamson developed her song drafts which were initially guitar-based, and created a synth-heavy sound which "wasn’t a million miles away from Scritti Politti".
Ultimately Kesha was signed to Sony and three of Gamson's co-written and produced songs made their way to her debut album Animal + Cannibal: "Stephen", "Backstabber" and "C U Next Tuesday".
Kesha told Rolling Stone that "Stephen" was one of her favorite tracks, and that Gamson "...does all the keyboard stuff, he's amazing, a crazy cynical genius guy".
In 2011, a Scritti Politti greatest hits compilation titled Absolute was released, featuring two new songs - "Day Late and a Dollar Short" and "A Place We Both Belong" - co-written by Gamson and Gartside in their first songwriting collaboration in over 20 years.
[19] The success of "Stronger" brought on a resurgence in Gamson's career, and in the years following he wrote and produced for Jessie J, LP and Charli XCX.
A.G Cook, Charli XCX's creative director who was not yet born when Cupid & Psyche 85 and Provision came out, collaborated with Gamson in writing and producing the track "Femmebot", and singled out Scritti Politti as an example for "extreme pop music".
Inspired by their contemporaries The System, D Train and Kashif,[6] the band created a unique fusion of funk and electropop, with their distinctive sound carrying through to Gamson's independent projects.
A column in Vinyl Me Please describes his work as "fast-paced and packed with techniques known for accomplishing clear sonic pronunciation, such as hocketing and counterpoint.
No prior pop album had integrated the techniques of sampling and sequencing to such a great degree, and the technology of that time was both expensive to use and barely up to the task Scritti Politti demanded of it.
[23] Artists who cite Scritti Politti as an influence include Kurt Feldman of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart,[24] Kylie Minogue,[25] Max Tundra,[26] A.G Cook[20] and The 1975.
[30] Perhaps the most well-known Scritti Politti enthusiast was Miles Davis, who covered "Perfect Way" on his 1986 Album Tutu and played a solo on Provision's "Oh Patti (Don’t Feel Sorry for Loverboy)".