Gary Jules

About

With 1998's Greetings from the Side, Gary Jules emerged as one of the most gifted songwriting talents to surface during the decade. The album was ultimately sunk by poor record label handling and, as a result, sadly neglected by an unknowing public. It would be three years before he resurfaced with the independently released Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets, an album that was even more stunning and advanced on all the promises of the first. San Diego native Gary Jules Aguirre -- professionally shortened to Gary Jules to honor the Texan grandfather who called him that -- first began playing acoustic guitar as a child at the instigation of his parents. Unsatisfied with lessons, he quit shortly after his first recital, only to rediscover the instrument in fifth grade on his own, this time taking up electric guitar with John Lennon as the primary catalyst. By the time high school arrived, Jules and childhood friend Michael Andrews had formed an early incarnation of the Origin. (The band eventually signed to Virgin and put out two early-'90s albums, though after Jules had left the group and moved to Los Angeles.) In 1987 he began a yearlong stint at UCLA during which he started the band…