British singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Gary Numan is a synth-pop trailblazer who helped push the genre into the mainstream with his shimmering 1979 hit “Cars.” Born on March 8, 1958, Gary Anthony James Webb grew up in Hammersmith, West London. After moving to a village in Surrey, his brooding teenage shyness eventually became the catalyst behind his paranoid yet theatrical productions. Liberated by music, Numan broke out in the late ‘70s as the frontman of New Wave band Tubeway Army, before releasing his solo debut, The Pleasure Principle, in 1979. The album was loaded with bangers like “Cars” and “M.E.”—the latter becoming a recognizable sample in Basement Jaxx’s 2001 dance anthem “Where's Your Head At.” Numan has remained an avid experimentalist over subsequent decades, delving into industrial music and darkwave on 1997 LP Exile, and remaining an influential force in synth-pop and ambient with albums like 2013’s Splinter and 2017’s Savage.