Gregorythme

Gregorythme makes the unique kind house that sets labels like City Fox, Mutli-Vitamins and Cadenza alight. Adeptly fusing intricate percussion, disembodied vocals and delicate melodies give his tracks a rare quality, perfect for late night druggery, but without losing sight of the dancefloor or falling too far down the rabbit hole. Following his gig at London's lo*kee, Nancy Ieracitano caught up with Gregor to discuss his live sets, musical influences and proudest moments.

Download Pulse.037 - Gregorythme

Pulse: Before we start, I just saw you at Lo Kee on the weekend, how did you enjoy the gig? Gregory: That was a great party. I like this kind of underground location and I liked the room, the huge cellar is really cool. People were very reactive and focused on the music.

So, if you met me outside of a nightclub and I had no idea about dance music how would you describe your work? No idea about dance music? Strange. [Laughs] I would maybe say I am a weird DJ that only plays music I made, but not pre-bounced tracks or pre-arranged, one after the other. If I wanted to do that, I'd start DJing rather than playing live - that would be more fun.

Can you tell us a little about your musical background?  I've always been an autodidact. I used to play the guitar. I was totally into Lo-Fi home recordings, and American indie rock. Then quite early on I developed a taste for all forms of repetitive music: Post-rock, dub, minimalism, some electronica, minimal, house, techno, afrobeat, reggae and so on. Today, at home, I am listening to a lot of pop music, British and American folk and rock. For example Phoenix, who are actually french, are one of my favorite bands at the moment.

Were you inspired by someone to get into music as a career, or was it just your natural passion for it? I would say that my musical life is made of a chain formed by all the musicians I liked, from one to another. I never felt as if I was alone and pure in my own style, devoid of inspiration, but on the other hand, I never felt driven by any creative force, or following one particular artist's steps.  For sure there are some “genius” in every musical style that everybody, at least musicians, need to know and get inspired by at a certain time of their life and I am always looking forward to finding the next one. Music is what I do and what I think of everyday for such a long time now. Other things have changed and keep on changing in my life except that. Today I feel like an “artisan” who “makes” tracks and that is what I do for living. I really love my job!

What your major influences are at the moment? Any particular artists? No particular artists. In the techno-house scene I just try to be careful with all trends, all the top 10, 50, 100, charts and the internet business of this community that often overrate some artists and labels, and sadly underrate others. I mean, it is obvious that the more visibility you get, the more successful you become, some labels clearly understand this concept too well. That ends up saturating the web, which is not good for any curious listener. 
So I just try to go my own way into past and present electronic music and I am still surprised by so many good things I am discovering or re-listening to with fresh ears. For example recently Lone, Recloose, Reboot, JOY, Confession, Luft, Robag, Oasis, Actress, Vakula, Oslunlade, Dollar Mambo's next album will be hot and so on.

What is your creative process for creating a track? It's hard to explain it from the very beginning. Speaking theoretically, I first try to make simple grooves, with drum machines and find a bassline that fits. If that works then I start working on melodies and sound textures. Voices and “soloist” instruments samples are coming in next (and only if needed). I wish all my tracks’ construction was as simple as that, but most of the time I get lost on the way and what was present at the beginning has changed forever.

What’s more important, melody or lyrics? No hesitation, Melody! I recently made a track at the studio where I was singing without any “real” words, just a spontanous language that came out, at that moment, on that beat. I was thinking about rewriting a text fitting to the melody, but I found no words, in English or in French, that worked well. I decided to keep the original voice. If I am ever asked about the lyrics, I would have to say that it's a very rare dialect known by a few people only [laughs], so yes, melody!



What images and emotions do you want your music to invoke in the listener? Happiness, colors, innerspaces, being alone and together, wide open ears, patience, being comfortable and being ready to be disturbed, dance, trance, past and future mixed together.

Is there anyone you would like to collaborate or gig with? So many. I love making collaborations in the studio. For gigs, it's a bit too much work to get a proper result for a single gig.

Can you tell us a bit about your new EP, Yangango, on Cityfox?  Honestly I would say that Too big to fail is one of the most important tracks in my discography to understand my sound. It's very reduced and it's a very dense architecture. Every element has its own place in the mix, there is no leading element specifically, I see it as a round structure getting bigger and bigger every minute. The B-side Yangango is another story. It shows another aspect of my work, very euphoric. I had to work so much on that track to reach a proper “song”, a story telling, and I would say its very emotional. You need a bit more time to get into Yangango, but its a real 10 minute trip into my universe.

How would you describe the two faces of Gregorythme and Digitaline? With Laurent , as Digitaine, we try to go in one direction with our music, to keep a line, we almost have a concept. We like to play a bit harder, deep techno that fits better to bigger floors and sound systems. 
In parallel, I really enjoy playing as Gregorythme, and my music is closer to the people, more adaptable, more intimate. Most of the time I try new sounds and grooves in my solo live sets and transpose some of them into the Digitaline set, the ones which fit to that concept.

What does the remainder of 2011 hold for you? I am working on the next EP's for my own label Raoul Records. I started the label in October 2010, with three EP's released so far and I would say that things are going pretty well, with good feebdack and already a distinct audience. The next releases will be from Liviu Groza, Digitaline, Luft, Ly Sander and Michael J Collins as well as myself. With Gregorythme, I have a few remixes to come out, on Rebirth, also Silicone Soul's label Darkroom Dubs and some other projects to confirm.

My next scheduled release is a release from Left (my other duo with Ariel Garcia from Luft). It's a single track EP called Please don't come alone. A first version of it will appear on Damian Lazarus' Get Lost compilation and the EP with a club version and a so called “radio edit” will be out on Cityfox in September featuring a remix from M.A.N.D.Y. With Digitaline we plan two releases in the end of 2011 or beginning of 2012. 

What do you listen to first thing when you're up?  No music in the morning...

What was the greatest experience you have had so far during one of your livesets? My craziest liveset experience happened in a very small party in the woods near to my hometown Lausanne. Some guys had built the craziest decoration I've ever seen at a party, the atmosphere was unreal and people got crazy. Freaky!

What’s your proudest moment as a producer? One of my favorite tracks from myself is a remix I did for a band called Larytta (the track is called Promises). Something magic happened, I made it very fast and there is a special energy coming out of this one, positive, spontanous. Unfortunately it's hard to find it today. It's on Youtube actually, if you want to give it a listen. I am thinking about releasing it again with other remixes on my own label Raoul.

Nancy Leracitano

Gregorythme on Pulse