As a kid, Garrett Waite wanted to be a magician. But his interest drifted to music, leading him to study guitar at Berklee College of Music in Boston. After graduating, Waite quickly became a go-to player in Milwaukee, jumping into all kinds of combos while regularly playing in his own jazz jam trio at Bar Centro.
Magic came back into his life professionally two years ago, when he was “serendipitously” hired as a magician-in-residence at SafeHouse, tasked with performing close-up tricks. Now, Waite views both vocations as equally exciting ways of tapping into an audience’s subconscious.
“The music brings people in with the beauty,” he says, “and the magic is like, I get you comfortable, and then I rip the rug out so you can see how mysterious the world really is.”
MilMag spoke with Waite about his dual passions – what sparked them and how he balances the two crafts.
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How did your interest in music start?
My interest in music started with guitar. My training in music started, I think, with violin and piano. I don’t remember which I started first, but my parents were very adamant that I get music education early on and be exposed to a lot of music early on. (My mom) was very into classical, and then my dad was into Elvis, Talking Heads and Steely Dan.
And then in high school, I joined the jazz band just because they were looking for either a guitar player or bass player. I started on bass, and it was a fun activity for a year, and then it wasn’t until I started taking lessons to really get better at jazz and really deeply listening to those records that it kind of jumped out as something that I knew I’d want to spend the rest of my life studying.
What records pushed you on that path?
The very first one, which is the first one for a lot of people, is Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, which is still a record I love a lot. And it wasn’t a specific record, but I got really into Bobby McFerrin my sophomore year of high school. He’s not necessarily talked about as much in the jazz community, but in his early days, he was a heavy-duty improviser. I realized that if I wanted to learn what he was doing, I probably wouldn’t be able to find a voice teacher who would be able to teach me those things. So, I decided to learn on guitar first.
And then, aside from that, the records of John Coltrane. A Love Supreme was one that confirmed for me that there was some real depth here that I could sink my teeth into. And then when I discovered the Mahavishnu Orchestra and jazz fusion – that whole world – that really got me excited.
You studied at the Berklee College of Music, one of the top music schools in the country. How was that? Did you play much around Boston?
Berklee was amazing. … The teachers I got to study with, the peers I got to meet – just to be in an environment where a majority of the people who are there are there because they’re really serious about music – that just energizes me. It just makes you want to be better, and it makes the whole thing more fun.
I didn’t do a whole bunch (of shows in Boston). I was mostly into my studies. When I got there, it was a vulnerable time for me because it was a year or two into me deciding to become a jazz musician, which meant that I was terrible at it. I was very gun-shy about playing in front of other people. Mainly, it was the recitals for classes. I didn’t really start performing again until after the pandemic.
Why did you return to Milwaukee?
I moved back to Wisconsin when the pandemic started, basically right when I graduated. That was about a year and a half of just staying home with no work. And then when things started to open up, I just needed to get out and start playing. Milwaukee was the easiest thing to do because it was still close to my parents’ house. I had a little bit of infrastructure. I knew a few people, and it’s turned out to be a really cool place to play music.
You embedded yourself quickly into the local jazz scene. How did that happen?
Showing up is the secret. It’s a two-pronged approach. You have to go to shows and introduce yourself to the musicians, which I did, and then you have to make your own events happen and reach out to whoever you feel would be willing. As that happens, someone can’t make a certain date, so they’ll recommend another musician. That’s another person that you can add to your list of people you can call.
The wonderful thing about the Milwaukee music community, at least in my experience, is it’s very not competitive at all. Everybody really supports each other. Even amongst guitar players, there are no real rivalries that supersede how supportive everybody is.
You play in a wide range of combos, from salsa to bluegrass. Do you challenge yourself to try different styles?
I have the blessing and the curse that I get excited about a lot of different kinds of music. So it’s not necessarily that I’m attempting to do something really big and learn all these styles, but I hear things and I want to participate. When you learn about bluegrass, you learn about the culture of the people in the Appalachian Mountains, and when you learn salsa music, you learn the different ways that that music is used culturally. For me, I just want to know about these things and have experience and play with the people that do it.
What started your interest in magic?
When I was a kid, I believed that magic was real. I still believe that magic is real, but just in a different way. But I thought that you could actually make things disappear, and you could actually float and things like that. The first trick that I ever learned was making a handkerchief vanish. Somebody showed that to me; they just did it over and over again, and then finally taught me how to do it, and I realized there was like a trick behind these things.
And that just led to me hanging out at the magic store. I got a magic kit. And then it really opened up for me when I started reading books on magic. … In that way, I was introduced to magic as this very serious art form that had scholarship, that had a history. I think I stuck to it a lot because it was a really easy way for me to interact with people, and I was very socially awkward and very strange as a kid.
How did you get back into magic?
When I was a kid, magic was my goal as a career, and music was just something I did for fun. Then I got to a certain point where – this is going to get super dramatic – but I felt like there was something wrong with magic, like it wasn’t being presented the right way for people to really appreciate it. I’d come across so many people who didn’t like it. I decided I don’t have what it takes to bring this art form to the level that I think it’s worthy of, so I’d better just keep it to myself.
I’ve done a couple shows here and there, and I do it for friends and stuff. But two years ago, I kind of serendipitously got the job working at SafeHouse, which I just did for some extra cash and for some experience. And with that, I’ve met some mentors who I think are really great and are basically doing what I would like to do in the art form. I realized I have no excuses for not trying to make this thing as good as I can, and it’s fun. I really love performing for people.
What kinds of tricks do you do?
I would say the best description of what I do is classical-style magic with an emphasis on card magic. I tend to work with smaller objects, cards, coins, cups, string, needles, very small things. Especially at the bar, I’m working more on the emphasis not so much being the props that I’m using, but more the decisions people are making and really trying to make more of the interpersonal drama come to the forefront and what people are experiencing.
What are the differences and similarities between the two mediums?
The difference is magic in general is very controlled, even if it doesn’t feel that way. I don’t have necessarily the same kind of openness and flexibility for myself. Hopefully, the audience feels like they do. At the same time, my skills as an improviser helps me as a magician, especially because I’m working close up with people. Over the course of an eight-hour shift at the magic bar, any number of things can happen, and I feel confident that I can adapt to anything.
In terms of the way that my study of magic affects my music, they’re both very discipline oriented. There are a lot of fundamentals that you have to learn. They both help each other in terms of getting good at technique and learning to transfer technique into expression.
Music is a very soft experience, even if it’s heavy, loud music. It relies on the audience receiving things nonjudgmentally and making what they want out of it. And with magic, it’s more confrontational. I want people to really be focused, really be paying attention, and you can almost say it’s violent, what I’m doing to people’s psyche. You can kind of think of it as two approaches of spiritual intervention.
How do you balance being a musician and a magician?
It kind of oscillates. Usually there will be one that takes over my awareness for a month, and then the other one will take over, but I always keep them both on the back burner. If I’m feeling strongly about magic, and that’s what I want to spend all day doing, I’ll still spend half an hour keeping my hands in shape or listening to music.
What do you see yourself doing next, in both music and magic?
(Magic) has been growing slowly. And I have a couple of private shows that I have lined up, and that’s mainly what I’m looking to do. I’m not trying to get famous with magic, really. Rather be kind of anonymous in a sense. If people are having a family get-together – just to go over to people’s homes and just do magic is my favorite. … But for the most part, I’m very precious about my magic, so I don’t like to spread it around too much.
(As for music), anything that feels like it has some forward momentum to it, I’m really excited about. Right now, I’ve got a record that’s almost finished, and that’s going to be very much harkening back to the jazz fusion of the ‘70s, but there are a lot of different influences, world influences in there.
