Gejius

Ever since.... middle school, I've had an on/off love affair with Huey Lewis and The News. So when a mysterious laptop producer sent me some remix action I had to find out more. Here's a quick Q & A with and aspiring producer... Gejius!

Q: So, what do we in the blogosphere need to know about Gejius? What's with the name?
A: This is a project I began in 2005. I never was a dedicated 'electronic music' kind of guy before starting this project. The tools were given to me by my good friend Grant because, and I quote, "I can see you doing great things with these."

The name was a flub. I was saying something like "oh, Jesus" & "Genius" at the same time, and thus, Gejius was born.

Q: Your productions vary quite a bit from what I've heard. When you begin production do you start with an idea, a sample, a vodka-tonic? Where does the creative process in you stem from? (Man that question is good)
A: All songs start with an idea. Now, whether that idea stemmed from a subconscious idea or melody, a sample I harvested, experimenting with synths or just playing around, I couldn't differentiate which method has more positive end results. And drinking/drugs never bodes well for music creativity for me, personally. You just end up spilling your drink on your keyboard and mixer (done that once) and you kick yourself for it. Not worth it.

Q: The Heart & Soul Remix really stood out for me. Especially since I've been on a disco binge lately. Tell me more about how you went about producing that bad boy.
A: Haha, yeah, Disco has been a fun genre to see reinvented. I love the Italo Disco sound, but fail to reproduce it in the way I hear it in the beginning, but the track always turn out well nonetheless.

The Heart & Soul remix came about after joking about remixing that track. I've loved Huey Lewis & the News for a long time, and I thought it'd be fun to play with that track in particular, since it was dance-y to begin with. The song really developed after I had dedicated it to the Wet Set project with Sean Christensen, where it had purpose, a deeper meaning. It had to relay the emotions in his illustrations and what I saw beyond the neon streaks and star dust, and I feel like giving it a darker, more intense finale was more than fitting for it.

Q: Unlike the majority of the music I feature on my blog your productions aren't really dance-floor ready. But I have this feeling you would hit it out of the park if you tried. I have to admit, dance music tends to follow a cookie-cutter format (ie: intro, buildup, breakdown, build up, outro, all in nice 16-32-64-128 beat-grid segments). Do you follow any format/formula when your producing?
A: Not to knock your question, but I think labels are negative in the creative process. If you feel like becoming a dance producer- great. Do it. But try to innovate beyond the norm. You can't make an impact by following other people.

It's super fun when I write tracks that bust out a solid, continuous groove for people to get down to, but 3/4 of my music wasn't written for the dance floor in mind. I'm writing these for me. If they tend to get dancier, and I feel like that's where it's going, then I go with it. If it's going in a more ambiguous direction, then I see where it takes me.

The only format/formula I follow when writing music is listening. Once I have something that sounds interesting, I listen to what else should be there as well. The music in my head is often much better than what I come up with. The trick is keeping that idea in there long enough to translate it to MIDI or whatever before the original inspiration is lost.


Q: What are your thoughts on the cowbell?
A: I agree with Mr. Walken completely.

Huey Lewis and The News - Heart and Soul (Gejius Remix)

Gejius - Slip 'N' Slide