Born on May 11, 1962, in Port Dalhousie (a lakeside subdivision of St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada), the seeds of Greg Critchley's career as a songwriter/producer and multi instrumentalist were sown in his pre-teen years. AT 9 years of age, not long after the death of his father, Greg's mother relocated he and his 3 siblings to a small town called Beamsville, in the rural farmland area now known as The Niagara Wine Region. It was here, via the occasion of his mother's re-marriage and newly merged step-family, that Greg was first exposed to piano lessons. Drum lessons quickly followed when a broken finger (a playground football injury) necessitated a switch to drums for an early church "gig" with his first band, a 6 piece combo aptly named "Band Six." Greg was hooked instantly, and quickly became obsessed with the rock drummers of the day, especially Neil Peart (Rush), John Bonham (Led Zepplin), Alan White (Yes), and Phil Collins (Genesis).

At 16 years of age, Greg co-founded an all-original progressive-rock group called "Metrognome" with his brother, Robert Critchley (now a successful Christian songwriter/worship leader), and together they composed original songs and performed at local clubs in the Niagara Region to a growing fan base. During these formative years Greg also played in his high school concert and stage bands, learning mallets, timpani, percussion, and small trap jazz drums, and often performing drum solos as a feature of school assemblies.

After completing secondary school, Greg decided to further music as his sole career focus, and he left home to spend 3 years of formal training at Mohawk College (Hamilton, ON), where he deepened his skills at drums, piano, jazz theory, harmony and arranging, and honed his music sight reading and writing skills.

At 21 years of age, Greg moved himself to Toronto, Ontario, where he was quickly added to the list of "go-to" A-list drummers in Canada. Over the next two decades, a growing who's who list of gigs followed: of mention are records/tours with Canadian icons (Alfie) Zappacosta, (Lawrence) Gowan (now the lead singer in Styx), Rik Emmet (guitarist from Triumph), and legendary Max Webster frontman and solo artist, Kim Mitchell (with band mate Greg Wells). During this time Greg, along with co-writer/producer Matthew Gerrard, co-founded Sony/BMG AOR rock group, Regatta. Together they penned 2 top-20 hits in addition to a full debut record, which was produced by David Bendeth (Paramore/Breaking Benjamin/Elvis re-issue). Despite the band's burgeoning success, however, Greg soon felt moved to leave the band and the road life in general to focus on his passion for writing and producing music out of his own growing project studio. Although his touring schedule now took a major back seat to his growing writing/production endeavors, Greg’s drumming career could hardly be defined as "moonlighting."

During this time Greg joined the R&B/jazz/psychedelic rock group "The Dexters," who along with Canadian rock guitar legend and "5th Dexter" Alex Lifeson (from Rush), and leader B3 organ/piano player Lou Pomanti (Blood Sweat and Tears/Michael Buble/James Taylor) performed most Fridays and every Saturday for 8 years running at Toronto's "The Orbit Room," co-owned by Lifeson. This rhythm section became the core foundation for a host of recording and artist projects, live televised award shows (Juno and Gemeni Awards), jingle sessions, recording sessions, and the famous "Craven A Today's Country" radio show, which featured a live audience in Toronto's Manta Sound Recording Studio, broadcast live across the nation. It was on this gig that Greg played drums behind Nashville stars The Dixie Chicks, Tim McGraw, Deanna Carter, Mila Mason, Keith Urban, Martina McBride, Jo Dee Messina, Trace Atkins, Ron Hines, Don Neilson, Chely Wright and Toby Keith.

Since The Dexters had now become "the band to see," for any touring band or musician passing through Toronto, guests and audience members grew to include Radiohead, Alanis Morrisette, The Tea Party, Jose Feliciano, and even Geddy Lee (Rush), who on one memorable occasion, (along with Alex Lifeson and a very disbelieving "I'm-not-worthy" Greg Critchley on drums), broke Rush’s long hiatus as a band one fateful time to perform a song ("In The Mood") for the screaming crowd of ubiquitous Rush fans. Greg took this as a sign that he should continue to trust his vision and calling, since a lifelong dream (playing with Rush) had just come true.

By this point Greg's old band mates Matthew Gerrard (from Regatta, mentioned earlier) and Greg Wells (from Kim Mitchell, mentioned earlier) had found international acclaim after relocating to Los Angeles, CA, and both continuously urged Greg to come and join them. Greg Wells (Katy Perry/Adele/Timbaland/Pink/Aerosmith) and Matthew Gerrard (Kelly Clarkson/Miley Cirus/Hannah Montana/Highschool Musical) proved by their respective success that moving south of the border into the US was an effective strategy to bypass the glass ceiling; that frustrating "can't quite rise to the success I want" issue that so often plagues Canadian artists living on Canada soil. Greg decided to take the same leap, follow his dream’s next step, and join his friends in LA.

The instant Greg touched down on US soil it was career chaos. Matthew Gerrard, anticipating Greg's arrival and desperately needing trusted talent to help with the overflow of projects now rolling in, immediately enlisted Greg to provide him with drums and drum programming, piano, keyboards, string arrangements, guitars, vocal production, general arranging and co production. They worked together on records for Jesse McCartney, Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus, High School Musical 1&2, Camp Rock, Everlife, and other Disney projects, as well as countless demos for bands/artists like Smash Mouth, Richie Sambora, Nick Carter (Backstreet Boys) and others too numerous to mention. High School Musical 1&2 and Hanna Montana went on to 3x platinum status, selling over 15 million copies and receiving industry accolades: BIllboard awards (2), Emmy Awards (2), American Music Awards (2), and a Teen Choice award. It was also during this time that Matthew and Greg resumed co-writing, and they quickly had success with a song cut in Japan by R&B/pop artist Kumi Coda ("Just The Way You Are") which Greg co-produced. Matthew also enlisted Greg to provide pre-production, engineering and rehearsal MD (musical director) services for KSM (his female band project for Disney), for which, along with Matthew and Robbie Nevil (Earth, Wind And Fire, David Lee Roth, Babyface) Greg co-wrote the awaited completing cut called "Crazy Over You." Immediately upon the release of their debut CD, KSM was front page artist of the week on iTunes and quickly rose to the #7 chart position n sales and downloads.

It was after a painful divorce and during a period of re-evaluation that Greg took a brief sabbatical in Beamsville to recharge with his family. One day Greg felt inspired to write a song by himself (for the first time), on his Grandmother's piano in his Mom's farmhouse, and his resulting honesty and soul searching produced "Forget I Ever Knew You," a song of pain and renewed hope that has since resonated with thousands. Shortly after his return to LA, the song fell into the hands of David Foster's A&R partner/sister Jaymes, who left it in her CD player where it was accidentally heard by American Idol runner up and multi-platinum seller, Clay Aiken. Clay instantly fell in love with the song, and it was soon recorded for his new album "On My Way Here," produced by Kipper (Sting, Mary J. Blige, Jeff Beck). Shortly afterward, David Foster (Celine Dione, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Barbara Streisand, Josh Groban, Seal etc) summoned Greg to a meeting at his Malibu studio to connect him with a young folk/rock artist named Allison Geddie and to enlist Greg's newly discovered services as producer for her debut album, "Everything I Don't See."

Los Angeles also brought success and a renewed focus to Greg's drumming, and (along with Greg Wells on guitar), he replaced Kenny Aronoff (Mick Jagger, Bon Jovi, Elton John, John Mellancamp) in Michelle Branch's new band for her tour to Japan, Guam and Hawaii, where they were the opening act for rock icons The Who and Aerosmith. Greg also played drums locally at The Agape Spiritual Center, where, as a regular member in the Southern Baptist style house band, he performed alongside Agape's own Rickie Byers Beckwith, Verdeen White (Earth, Wind and Fire), Brenda Lee Eager (Prince, Dianna Ross, Aretha Franklin), Chaka Kahn, and the Agape International Choir. Also from behind the drums, Greg musical directed a local Blues Brothers Show (under the employ of Dan Akroyd and Judy Belushi), with his own hand picked 7-piece horn band.

Now firmly established in LA, Greg’s songwriting and producing success continued. His song “Good Day” was recorded by Australian Idol runner up, Hayley Warner (Greg also co-produced), and it became a top 10 hit in Australia. “Good Day” was then recorded a second time by US artist Kaile Goh for her debut record on Lava/Universal. Also during this time, Greg penned the anthem “Answer To The Call,” which became the theme for the Childfund global relief organization, and is a feature of their television ad campaigns. The list of Greg’s TV clients began to grow as well, and soon his music would appear in a growing list of TV shows: Extra, TMZ, Glenn Martin DDS, Smallville , Megaworld 2, Xtremely Wild, America’s Best Dance Crew, Forensic Factor, Latest Buzz, Bratz series, MTV CRIBS, Modern Marvels, Melrose Place, Tyra Banks, Bonnie Hunt, Ellen Degeneres, Megaworld, MTV News, Judge Mathis, Guiding Light, Osbournes, Elimidate, Etalk and many others.

Currently, Greg works out of his state-of-the-art Los Angeles production studio, equipped with Pro Tools and Logic 9, the newly released and highly acclaimed Apogee Symphony I/O, API, Neve and Millennia mic pres and EQs, Distressor, DBX and UREI 1176 compressors, and a collection of Telefunken (ELA-m251), Royer, Neuman, Rode, AKG and several classic Sure mics, many of which surround his vintage '68 Ludwig drum kit, along with a computer software library of synthesizers, samples and sounds for his composing and production palette. He also has a baby grand piano, a collection of guitars, and world percussion instruments.

Greg also has an on-site mix room, operated as “The Bear’s Lair” by veteran producer/engineer/mixer Howard “The Bear” Willing (Mute Math, Smashing Pumpkins, Sheryl Crow, Gen Campbell) who lends his experience and golden ears to Greg’s projects as both an engineer and mixer.