Greg Sage is an American songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist, regarded as an important influence on many punk rock and post-punk artists. Between 1977 and 1988, Sage was the principal songwriter of the influential Portland, Oregon-based band Wipers.
Early years
Greg Sage was born in Portland, Oregon, on October 21, 1952. His involvement with music began with cutting records at home as an adolescent, due to his father being involved in the broadcast industry. Sage’s first instrument was bass guitar, because of the low tones that made larger grooves in the vinyl records due to slower modulations. Basses were harder to find and much more expensive when Sage was in grade school, so he used guitar instead. Sage has been involved in music professionally since the age of 17, when he worked on a full-length album by the professional wrestlerBeauregarde. After several years of playing and recording guitar, Sage founded Wipers in Portland in 1977. The mood of Sage's lyrics is frequently dark, and rife with references to confusion and severe alienation. His song structures often take unexpected turns and are typified by fractured melodic passages punctuated by massive, intricate guitar parts, and use of heavy distortion. He usually plays on a 1969 left-handed Gibson SG with attached Bigsby tremolo.
Wipers
In 1977, Sage founded Wipers, inspired to name it so when he was cleaning windows at a movie theatre he worked at; the crystal clear view of the glass when he was done was what he realised what he wanted to do with the bands music. It started as purely a recording project, then Sage planned to record 15 LPs in 10 years without touring or promotion. He believed it would be possible to avoid live shows, press, pictures and interviews, and this – coupled with the mystique of his unorthodox music – would encourage a deeper, more imaginative engagement with the recordings. In 1979, Sage established his own record label, Trap, and asked several Portland punk bands to record singles. Some of those early bands were The Stiphnoyds, The Neo Boys and Sado Nation. Sage later re-released some of the material on a compilation record entitled The History Of Portland Punk.
