In the 18 months since I last talked to him, something crazy’s happened to Giom (facebook, twitter, soundcloud). Always a favorite of mine and at this magazine, the French-born, UK-based producer, DJ and sometime-session drummer has become as close as the underground can come to a household name. In Deep House, his mixes are coveted, his remixes prized and his original productions held as something like the best that the new generation of Deep House producers have created.
Not that this was unexpected: even early in his career, Giom’s tracks had this strange habit of getting licensed and appeared on comps from the likes of Mark Farina, DJ Heather & Colette and Juan Maclean. Much of his recent work has been collected on Clips & Space, a new mix CD from Lost My Dog. Which served as a point of departure for this interview …
A lot of things have been happenin’ for you since we last talked a year ago: tours, releases, a lot of people who had no idea who you were are now hangin’ on every new release. How has the experience been for you and will you still remember us little people when you’re lighting cigars with hundred dollar bills?
It’s been awesome, I got to do a lot of good gigs and travel to places I’d never been before. I’ve also been offered a lot of interesting projects. I’m a really lucky guy, and I’ll certainly never forget those who supported me in the early part of my career. 5 Mag isn’t little anyway, you guys are some of the biggest supporters of our scene!
I’m looking at the tracklisting of Clips and Space and the combination of artists from different genres is fantastic. How much liberty did you have to put together something that matched up with what you conceive of as your own sound?
Thank you. The boys at Lost My Dog gave me their entire catalog as wav files and told me I could do whatever I wanted with it, so I had a listen to every single track and made my own selection in order to create something that sounded like me.
They also encouraged me to rework as many tracks as I wanted to make the mix a bit more special, so I went ahead and did it. I recorded the mix exactly how I wanted it to be, sent it to them and luckily they loved it, so that was it!
From what I gather there are four unreleased tracks on this that you had a hand in. First, what’s a “Pezzner Redo/Giom Reversion” – a remix of a remix?
I think it should be called a “remixed Re-edit of a Remix”. I originally just wanted to re-edit this awesome Pezzner track for my own sets, but next thing I know I was adding extra drums to it, FXs etc… and turning it into a new version, which I thought was the perfect opener for the CD.
And what can you tell me about the others you remixed or reworked?
I’d never heard of Jake Childs’ “Paradise” track before I got the files from LMD but when I heard it I loved the sound of it, the chords and melodies. I also found the vocal really charming. So I started reworking it straight away and took it somewhere slightly different.
I think YSE is one of the most underrated House Music producers out there – he’s incredibly musical and talented, and a bit of a mad scientist when it comes to music production. The first time I heard “Guessing Games” I called the boys and asked to remix it almost immediately. Frank’s vocals alongside YSE’s production just works.
“The Jam Part DEUX” is a trackier version of my own track which came out last year on LMD. Again, it was originally just for my own sets.
You’ve been doing a ton of remixes – a couple every month – but have been more sparse with the original productions. As someone that loves music, I approve of this. How do you keep from spreading yourself too thin and suffering that dreaded over-exposure and, not least of all, burn-out?
There’s no formula or special way of planning things, I just generally tend to spend a lot longer writing originals. When I do a remix for someone, I’m given all the music parts so all I have to do is put all these onto Ableton and have fun and see what happens.
With originals I need to find and create all the music myself and it just takes a lot longer. I wish I could release more to be honest.
So you started working with Lost My Dog Records a little over a year ago and it seems like their profile has gone up at the same time yours has. What other stuff have you got going on with them and other releases?
Lost My Dog are hands down the best House label I’ve ever worked with! They have a great team of dedicated people and we have a good relationship.
With my album, we actually were #1 on the electronic singles download chart on Amazon.fr a couple of weeks ago, which was absolutely amazing…!
I’ll have a brand new EP out with LMD in a few weeks time, which is a co-venture with Joshua Heath. It’s a three-tracker that is quite different from what I usually do – a bit more techy but I believe it’s also one of the best things I’ve ever done. I’m very happy about this collab and hope people will like it too.
Next I have an original track coming out on Drop Music as part of their upcoming Housebound compilation. I also have a handful of remixes prepared for the likes of Untitled Music and Vernon & Dacosta’s Homecoming Music.
Clips & Space is out now on CD and as a digital download from Lost My Dog Records. You can check out Mr. Giom at giom.co.uk.
