Guy Gerber

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Guy Gerber

With a over a decade of involvement in the music scene, Guy Gerber has become a real treasure in the electronic world. His refined, contemplative and at times triply production style exemplifies how being an outsider can also equate to being the best at what you do. And for all the fans who know him already, let’s just face it, the man knows how to delve deep. It’d be only natural to want to know exactly what is going on in his head, and most of the time it’s a lot… and not always in a logical order. But after catching up with Guy, it can be said with confidence that there are some exciting things to come in 2014. Here he lends his perspective on music, socialising and not taking yourself too seriously.

In high spirits, Guy kicks off with this announcement: Best day of my life! Changing management… Not for good reasons. OK are you ready? Are you sitting? Lie down!

Let me present to you my new label/party/ everything that people want, ever! It’s called ‘Rumours’ It’s my new label and the first release is going to be by me and Dixon, which is already kind of epic. And the name ‘Rumours’, already saying a lot of things. Rumours are like my favourite thing. Now it’s going to sound like I’m reading this, but I’m not. The best thing about rumours is- it takes a minute to start one but a lifetime to stop it. If someone says that you’re gay, even if you get married and divorced 5 times everyone is still like “Well yes, but he’s gay”.

The track with Dixon is called ‘No distance’. The concept is that everything that people should be and will be talking about, true or not, as long as they have to talk about it.

Today I got fired by the people I tried to fire for a long time, so I look like the bad guy! So I know there will be lots of rumours about me, like how difficult I am to work with etc. But the more people talk shit about you, the less you have to care. It’s a lot freer because you don’t have to worry about this ‘image’ to live up to. This was the better part of my day! I was like ‘Yessssss’.

SR: Looks like a round of drinks are in order! What’s your favourite? We’ll get it going.
Ok, so I was in Boston and all I did was post a status saying “Hello rainy Boston” and this guy posted a comment saying “Who do you think you are? Some sort of floating Messiah? All you do is play other peoples music to a bunch of teenagers.” So all this guy knows is that I’m definitely in Boston. I was actually involved in the opening a club so I thought we should have some sort of cocktail called ‘The Floating Messiah’ because that would be an amazing drink. Wouldn’t you want two Floating Messiahs, please?

SR: Yeah, I would! What’s in it?
I’m working on it. I’m thinking Rosewater… and Mezcal. So that’s my favourite drink but I don’t know what’s in it yet.

SR: So when you’re not making music, or cocktails, what are you doing?
Mmmm… I’m stalking people on Facebook, like everybody else! That’s what people do during the day, they stalk.

SR: Oh absolutely! We know so much pointless shit about people, including what they had for breakfast most days. But I feel as though there is an unwritten agreement between all of us it stays within the confines of the web. You don’t mention it if you see them because then it’d just be weird.
Yes! People know too much about each other. Like even people that you don’t know, you kinda know! Facebook has become the collective subconscious of the world. Before it was all books and movies, but now it’s the newsfeed and everyone goes into it. It’s very easy to inject rumours into Facebook, people don’t do it enough, because they just like fake truth. But still Facebook has become the real truth, if it’s not on there, it’s like it doesn’t exist.

SR: Your Facebook is probably filled with plenty of interesting people now as well. Who has been the weirdest/ most interesting/ memorable person or people you’ve worked with over the years?
Besides myself? Um, because most of the time I was somewhere and I was the most interesting guy, that’s the problem. But next to me, and then maybe 10 empty rows… (Guy laughs) But seriously, I always enjoy working with Seth Troxler. Once he came to visit me in Tel Aviv while I was working on the 11:11 project with Puff and even though it was his first time there, he stayed in the studio with me for a few days. But he wasn’t used to such intense studio time, I never leave. He ended up having a little freak out on the piano in the recording room… He doesn’t play, but it was a great moment between us.
But the most interesting people I ever worked with, by far, was dOP (Parisian band). I learned a lot from working with them, a lot. Like how to record, how to get into the mood, that you can do whatever you want. It was just a very, very inspiring experience.

SR: It seems like your affinity for music goes beyond electronic sounds as well, you’ve had a lot of experience with acoustic music in the past. Can you tell me how the partnership between electronic and acoustic is important to you?
I would say in general anything that’s acoustic also has the sound of the room it’s been recorded in. So it’s already got a lot of characteristics in the spectrum of the track. But there is an acoustic sense in analog synths. It’s electronic but I see it as acoustic because I usually don’t use the computer to sequence them, I just play everything by myself. This means later everything needs to be slightly corrected. So it’s not always very accurate but from the beginning the entire groove sounds alive.

SR: There’s always a lot of shit talk about how electronic music isn’t real music, what do you think about that?
I think there is a lot of shit in it! I mean, I can’t understand how DJ’s can have groupies. I get it with David Bowie or Jimmy Hendrix, but DJ’s? With electronic music it can be hard to create emotions, but it’s not as difficult as playing in a band. Of course there is some music made on a computer that is amazing, much more amazing than normal music. But it is easier to make. You have to have the talent, but it’s easier. Because when you’re in a band even the recording process is a challenge. Just to get something to sound out loud they way you hear it in your head. In electronic music, the sounds are already in the shape of how you want them to be listened to. But emotionally, you can’t compare touching something and feeling something and moving what you feel into a recording by sequencing to playing it yourself. Of course, a lot of emotions can be created when it’s been sequenced, I’m not against that. I’m just saying it’s easier to create it when you can actually play it.

SR: Your work has always been very emotive, it’s probably one of the most definitive things about you. It seems as though it comes from a very thoughtful place, like it has a story. So when you’re producing or putting a set together, what’s going through your mind?
I would say the most difficult part is getting through the second and third track. If I compose a track it’s kind of easy because I already have so much in me, so the difficult part is actually to fight with ideas and the story. I have to create a lot of music in a short amount of time, for whatever reason. But if I run out of energy it takes more time to make them connect in a way that does them justice.
For a set, the first track is always the easiest. It’s always like ‘wow’ or an intro. But the second track is more definitive, you pave the way with it. The third track has to continue this without giving too much away. So I work on those two forever! But once I have them I just let everything flow and later there can be more curls. When I play, I play live and I play my music. So it’s always the same tools but I try to find ways to change it… I’m actually not that good at closing… But by then there’s Floating Messiahs.

SR: And then there’s the difference between settings! You have smaller clubs and then the larger scale festivals like Future Music, where you’ll be playing soon. Do you have a preference between these?
I think most artists prefer small places. People think that playing in a small place is easy, but it’s actually the opposite. When there’s lots of people in a room the crowd kind of becomes one entity. But in a smaller place you can see the faces of everyone you’re playing to and everything that you do people listen to, they actually hear it.

SR: I read that with Wisdom of the glove you tried to freak people out by bringing the most cutting edge artists into the most commercial environment.
When this happens sometimes we can see these crowds really come to love these artists, but I’ve also seen artists change their style to suit a more mainstream audience before. The results can sometimes be disappointing… What are your thoughts on this?
That’s gross. And it’s stupid because usually it doesn’t work anyway and if it does, it’s just not good.

SR: And how is WOTG going? Will you be continuing that this year?
Actually I just started a new residency in Miami! At the moment we are trying to decide whether to continue WOTG or go with Rumours. At this time it has to be something I am passionate about and that I have fun doing. Pacha is a little bit stressful, so I have to see.

SR: We have Pacha in Sydney too but I guess we can put aside hopes of you visiting there. It’s pretty different to your style anyway, very electro [Guy ooh’s] Yeah, not everyone’s cup of tea but some people really enjoy it.
A lot of people really enjoy it! I don’t know, but they seem to have more fun! With our music you kind of see weirdos at the side moving with their eyes closed then going to do some lines in the toilet. But with electro parties, you go and the people are fucking exploding! Best time of their life all the time. I don’t know, but we are trapped in our worlds already I guess.

SR: And if that weren’t the case, even If there were something you’d like to do other than music, what would it be?
I want to become an Artist (like with paint) maybe not me doing the painting…

Before you see him in a gallery, be sure to catch the Floating Messiah himself while he visits Australia. Guy will be performing at Future Music Festival in March: see www.futuremusicfestival.com.au for tickets while they’re still going around!

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