Background
He was born in Adelaide, South Australia, and grew up in the working class suburb of Klemzig.
He was born in Adelaide, South Australia, and grew up in the working class suburb of Klemzig.
In 1975, he purchased his first electric guitar, an Ibanez Les Paul copy, then graduated to a Gibson Les Paul Custom, and began playing in rock bands around Adelaide and Australia.
Gary Turner was on born 22 June 1954 in Adelaide, Australia. Gary picked up his first guitar at age fifteen, and began studying classical guitar in 1974 under John de la Torre at Flinders Street College of Music. In 1979, Gary and fellow Adelaide guitarist Brenton White founded Koala Music Publications (now LearnToPlayMusiccom ) and together they wrote and published their first music education book, Progressive Rhythm Guitar, then followed up with, Progressive Lead Guitar and then, Progressive Guitar Method Book One which has sold over six million copies.
Since 1979, Gary has written and produced many music education books, CDs and DVDs for Koala Music Publications.
In 1982, Gary and Brenton expanded Koala Music Publications into the United States market, setting up in Costa Mesa, California. Gary traveled extensively throughout the United States, and the world, promoting and building the Koala brand and business.
When Brenton left Koala Music Publications in 1989, Gary became sole owner of the company. In 1999, Gary rebranded Koala Music Publications to LearnToPlayMusic.com as part of his strategy to expand the company into new media products and software.
From 1990 until 2002, Gary founded and managed the indie music label, Krell Records, and produced and released albums by notable Australian indie bands Testeagles, Honeyfix and The Violets.
He also founded the music recording studio, Krell Studios, which was most notably used by Ben Folds to record tracks for his first solo album, Rockin the Suburbs, as well as The Mark of Cain, Embryonic Soul, and the Australian World Music trio, Thinking Aloud"s album, Shanti. The name Krell was chosen by Gary as a tribute to the classic 1956 science fiction film, Forbidden Planet, as illustrated by the company logo created for Krell Records by Australian artist, Glenn Lumsden. In 1992, Gary founded Australian Compact Discs, one of the first two Compact Disc production facilities in Australia, and managed the company until he sold the business in 1997.
In 2004, Gary founded the film, television, book and new media development and production studio, Angel Phoenix Media.
Working as manager, producer and conceptualist at Angel Phoenix Media, Gary created and co-developed the Angelwitch illustrated fantasy novel series with writer, Pat McNamara, and illustrator Michal Dutkiewicz, and the science fiction novels, The Pandora Sequence, and Venus Iowa, with writer Alex James. Gary is developing Angelwitch, Venus Iowa and The Pandora Sequence and a number of other properties he has created for television