Wednesday, December 22, 2021

DJ Interviews: Gib

 Here's my interview with singer Gib


How'd you get started in music?

My late brother was the person who kick started my interest in music and got me my first bass guitar when I was 12.
A 3/4 size Satellite bass. Huge thick strings and white!
I learnt how to play bass plugging it into my stereo and playing along with Jimi Hendrix, Black Sabbath, Killing Joke and whatever else I could work out and play along with be it metal, punk or alternative rock.
We played in various bands together until my early 20's. Our first gig was when I was 16 and we played 5 Killing Joke covers and one of our own tracks. Our singer dressed as Jesus with a sheet as a tunic and a crown of thorns. Strange but interesting times!
Whichever band I was in there was always someone who left and any momentum gained was lost. The situation repeated constantly and I got more and more disillusioned with how much time I was wasting joining bands and learning new material only for them to implode.
As a bass player you don't normally tend to write a lot of material for the band but I was writing and developing a lot of my own music with bass, guitars and keyboards and samplers and loops and which was very rewarding but I always took a back seat for whichever ego was in control of the band. I think the final straw was spending months learning and practicing with a bands last CD for a series of gigs as support for the metal band Cradle Of Filth only for the guitarist to not be able to remember how to play his own songs at the first rehearsal.
The gigs never happened and I chose to work on my own music since then which has given me total freed om without genre restrictions and I can write and record what I want when I want.


Who are your inspirations or influences?

I'm a fan of all types of music from metal to electronic music which I like to reflect in my own music. I think that once you find your own identity musically and write a lot you develop your own style and sound which isn't influenced as much by what you listen to.
I take my inspiration from current affairs, a phrase I've read or heard, films, books, culture. Everything around me in general can have an impact if it moves me enough to stimulate me to create something be it a positive or negative emotion.

The Dark Realm album and the Dark Winter album were both an exploration of dark/creepy/horror soundtrack music.

Sometimes I have a clear idea of what I want to write like the album Secrets, with titles like Secrets, Lies, Smoke, Mirrors
which was influenced by the American election campaign, British politics and big corporations avoiding paying taxes.

The track Justice from the Exploration E.P. was as a result of the George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests.
It was a very volatile time worldwide.
 
Most of the time the music and the feel of the track will suggest the title.

The album Introspection was a loose concept album to do with Covid with a before, during and after which is evident if you go through the titles.

I write very quickly and usually have the track written in 3 hours and then a couple more hours for lead riffs and tweaking.

I tend to mainly write on the keyboards at the moment and usually start with a chord or sound or riff which I will develop, add drums,
bass and extra sounds and instruments and riffs.
99% of my tracks even though they are instrumentals are written in the traditional song format of intro, verse, chorus etc.
I may well go back to doing vocals again but enjoy the freedom that instrumentals offer at the moment.

My influences are a mixture of music that I have listened to for years (Slayer, Devin Townsend, Killing Joke, Kraftwerk, Jarre)
and new discoveries through Bandcamp and Twitter (Mike Allen, Garrett Harrington, The Broken Cradle and many more)
but when I write what comes out may have no relation to what I have been listening to.

I love the blank canvas with music. You can do any emotion, as simple or complex as you want. Explore and push yourself, experiment and surprise yourself with a new melody, chord sequence, riff, drum beat or sound. There are no boundaries to stop your imagination and with instrumentals there is no rigid channelling of what this piece of music is about. It can go and travel and transport you with it to some different place and emotional instant moment.
Making music has always been about escapism for me. Leaving this reality behind. It can be an emotional release, a physical freedom without moving, a journey to somewhere new.
Great music should make you feel. It should make you be moved. It should enliven you and make you tingle and awake the senses.
I still love that moment when everything just flows and whatever you come up with works and it enhances the track even more.
That is the magic that makes me not just like making music, but LOVE making music.
Any of the music I enjoy listening to along with soaking up the world has an influence on me as a person and therefore an influence on what I create. 

Here are some of the most important music selections that I have enjoyed and taken inspiration from :

1. Rollins Band - The End Of Silence
2. Yes - Close To The Edge
3. Devin Townsend - Ocean Machine
4. Curtis Mayfield - Superfly
5. Killing Joke - Extremities
6. Billie Holliday - Greatest Hits
7. Kraftwerk - Computer World
8. Prince - Purple Rain
9. Jean Michel Jarre - Equinox
10. Slayer - Reign In Blood
11. Metallica - Master Of Puppets
12. Spiritualized - Ladies And Gentleman We Are Floating In Space
13. Mercury Rev - See You On The Other Side
14. Ultramarine - Every Man And Woman Is A Star
15. Siouxsie And The Banshees - Juju
16. Ween - Chocolate And Cheese
17. Isaac Hayes - Live from the Sahara Tahoe
18. Iron Maiden - Live After Death
19. Dead Can Dance - In The Realms Of A Dying Sun
20. Gorecki - Symphony For Sorrowful Souls

Could choose a different 20 tomorrow!

What advice would you offer aspiring performers?
Don't depend on anyone to do something for you when you can do it yourself.
Use all the tools available to you on the internet and promote yourself constantly on Twitter and other social media platforms.
Internet radio stations and playlists are a good way of sharing your music.
Don't try and follow a trend because they change all the time. Be true to yourself and make the music that comes naturally.
Don't be afraid to ask, experiment, network and share resources with every musician you come into contact with.


How do you set yourselves apart from other bands or singers?
Being a solo artist, I have to work that much harder at self-promotion rather than four people in a band all doing it.
I tend to put out Mp4 videos with my music and own artwork often daily on Twitter so that new people can discover me and followers can have a different track to also discover/listen to that they may not have already heard. I'm constantly sending my music out to various internet radio stations and I create playlists an hour long with the music I like at that moment which with one of my own tracks included which I share. Part of my Eclectic series.
I don't give up or give in with my music promotion and writing and recording even if my numbers of listeners fluctuate either way and I don't say that that E.P. or album was a sucess so I'll repeat it like a formula that established artists do.
I see lots of bands/artists give up too easily at the first knockback or hurdle. I don't.
If you have self-belief and pride in what you create then pushing it to other people is a joy not a chore.

Any new gigs or albums in the future?

I release an album or E.P. a month at the moment so as long as the inspiration is flowing, I will keep doing that in whichever music genre I choose to work in.
I'd like to get back to doing more guitar-based music with vocals next year.
No plans to play any gigs at the moment due to Covid but I'd like to do some in the future.

Thanks for your time!

I live in Sussex, England.


Special thanks to them for this interview, I wish them luck in their music & until then I'll catch you on The Flipside! Stay awesome & rock n roll!
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