Gorgon City

Gorgon City released their debut album “Sirens” at the end of 2014. They immediately became the new hope of electronic music. We met up with the band to ask about their adventures in Russia, influences from The Chemical Brothers and the second album that the guys are working on right now.

What do you remember the most from your performance in Moscow?

It was great for us to come to Moscow, we played with Kiesza who we had been touring with quite a bit. We’d worked with her on her record as well as ours so it was a cool experience to hang out with her. Neither of us had been in Moscow before and the crowd was really great. We had a press conference before the show, and that was pretty crazy. We landed in a country we’d never been to before and the first thing we did was the press conference. We loved the experience though.

Did you go on any excursions in Moscow?

The people who picked us up and took us around. The problem with touring is that sometimes we only spend one night in a city, sometimes less than 24 hours. When we get somewhere new however we try to do as much sight seeing as we can while we are there. We’d love to come back to Russia and hopefully we will, especially seeing as our album is going so well. We really want to come back.

That’s great. We are just waiting for you. Did you taste Russian cuisine while you were here?

Yep, we went to a local Russian bar and had some caviar, but I’m vegetarian so I didn’t try that. We definitely tried some Russian drink, especially vodka.

Gorgon City

Can you give us an update on the new album?

We are working on the new album at the moment. We have just released the new single “Saving my Life”. That’s the first single from the album. We’ve been working in LA with American artists. We love discovering new artists and working with them. Its kind of our favourite thing to do – to work with undiscovered people. So a lot of the people we are working with aren’t big names but hopefully will be soon.

You produced your debut album by yourself. What about the new one? What will be different about it?

Yes, working on the first record was a new experience for us with songwriting because we grew up as club music producers, mainly making instrumental music. Making the album was the first time we got busy with song writing rather than just producing. The album will be more of that and I think just experimenting more. The second album will try and have different tempos, and different styles of music. I think it will be a little bit more experimental and push the boundaries, expanding on we did with the first album.

Your debut album “Sirens” reached no. 10 in the UK Chart’s. Are sales and positions in the charts important to you?

When we write music we don’t think too much about how it will go commercially and if it will get in the charts. We don’t want that kind of thinking to affect how we make music. We don’t want to make music just to sell it, as we want to be creative. So we try to put that all to the back of our mind and just make music. But at the same time it is amazing to know that people like our music enough to buy it, and its getting in the charts. Especially finding out how well our album has done in Russia, particularly the track “Imagination”.

Yes, people in Russia love “Imagination”, its like a national hit.

That’s great news for us, as we didn’t even release it as a single. But people just loved it, especially in Russia. It seems to be bigger there than anywhere else in the world. That’s why we are keen to come back to Russia at some point.

As representatives of British electronic music, I wanted to ask – do you like the new albums released this year by the Prodigy and Chemical Brothers.

Yeh I do, especially the Chemical Brothers. I think they were probably the first electronic music I heard when I was growing up. My parents used to play Chemical Brothers really loud in our house. They will always be a big influence on me. I love the new album, its classic Chemical Brothers but it’s got a new twist on it and there are some great tracks on there. I really love “Radiate”, that’s a cool one and obviously the single “Go”, that’s wicked. It’s just a really solid album.

The UK is famous for rock stars, who is your favourite rock band?

I was always more into electronic music. I always loved Radiohead growing up, but I suppose they are not your typical rock band. But I really loved them. I never really got that into rock music generally. But I do love the personality of rock stars and the way its so over the top.

And lastly, what music influenced you creatively?

We have a collection of musical influences growing up and now. So we grew up listening to people like the Chemical Brothers, Massive Attack, The Prodigy and Basement Jaxx. Then we both got into jungle and drum and bass. We spent most of our teenage years listening to drum and bass and that’s been a big influence on us. Also all the UK underground music like garage and grime. We later discovered house music after going to Ibiza a lot. That’s been a big influence.