Gareth lists many musicians who have influenced his own writing and playing:

“Compositionally, my main influence has always been the music of Charles Mingus, the balance he manages to get between arrangement and improvisation is perfect and something I´ve always strived for in my own writing. I´ve also been influenced by some of the great composers from the Blue Note era like Horace Silver who I believe was one of the greatest ever small group arrangers. Recently I´ve been interested in some of the modern rhythmic composition devices used by, amongst others, Dave Holland.

"As a trombone player I would have to say that my main influences have been Jimmy Knepper and Gary Valente, for me these two play the trombone as it is meant to be played, they play to it´s strengths. It was after hearing a trombone solo by Gary Valente on the Andy Sheppard recording Soft on the Inside that I decided to switch from playing euphonium in the first place”.