Words: Jemima Panjaitan
Photo: Yis Kid

The much-anticipated solo album of Geordie Greep ‘The New Sound’ is set to release this Friday, 4th October 2024. Having released singles such as ‘Holy, Holy’ and ‘Blues’, Greep has displayed the essence of freedom in making music. “It’s iver” told Greep on an Instagram livestream comment. Just in the middle of summer this year, the frantic end of black midi unrolled suspicion and confusion among listeners—with many of the admirers watering it down as a joke as many memes circulated on the net.

‘The New Sound’ allows Greep to achieve his extended musical abilities, with no one to be responsible to, he invented these sonic soliloquies with the narrative of modern times. Listening to the album felt like reading an anthology, an understanding of characters in each track. In a conversation with Geordie Greep, we talk about the recording process with musicians from Brazil and his perspective of being a new solo artist.

---

How do you feel about branching out as a solo artist?

Very excited. It is much more in line with what I want to do for a long time, so it’s really exciting. I can’t wait to see what people think, and I hope everyone’s into it. It’s going to be cool.

Compared to your time performing in black midi, how does the creative process differ as a solo artist?

The creative process is kind of similar with black midi—especially with the second and third album. Most of the songs, I would do it at home and then just bring it in, and then I would say, “this is a song,” and try keeping it as similar to the original idea as possible. Keeping it in a way that I would want it. It was the same starting point with this album, but I didn’t have to convince anyone, “oh, this is the way the song has to be,” it was just all like, “okay, it’s all on my back. It’s this freeing thing of there’s no one to answer for, there’s no one to blame. If it’s really bad, it’s my fault. It’s a really nice feeling, I like that feeling.

How does your relationship with literature guide the narrative and inspiration for your music?

In terms of my relationship with literature, I guess I’ve always been very inspired by it. 

In music, you’re trying to do a song, trying to keep it concise and have verse, chorus, keeping it relatable and kind of normal. Whereas in books oftentimes you get deep into it and these characters are really saying all sorts of wild stuff, you’re really getting into their heads, really understanding them on a deeper level. That’s harder to find in music, so that’s always been my plan to try and get some of that across to the listeners.

The album involved over thirty session musicians across two continents. Can you share more about the challenges and rewards of working with such a diverse group of artists?

The challenge is more in the planning of it and more in the expectation of hoping that it’s going to be okay. You have to commit to paying these musicians, commit to having these musicians before you’ve even heard them play the song. So it’s like, in theory, in your mind, it will work. You think, okay, that guy will sound good, or this guy is going to play your song well, but you will not know until the recording day. Then if it doesn’t work, it’s too late, you already have to pay them, you are already committed to this day of recording. That’s the challenging part. It’s mainly just having the courage to trust that  it will be good and it’s going to be alright. In terms of the rewards, it’s about having these songs that you have worked on and hearing them be played by world-class musicians. It’s just amazing.

With lyrics that came to you on the way to recording sessions, how do you balance spontaneity with the need for a coherent narrative in your songs?

That’s the thing. There’s always got to be balance. I don’t like albums that sound like it’s already panned out like years ahead of time, so organized, so put together. I think every truly brilliant album needs to have a little bit where it sounds like they’re playing it for the first time—but it can’t just be that either; it can’t just be impromptu. It needs some kind of form or structure. That’s the balance really; it’s about having confidence that the song has enough of the through line or thread—and has enough consistency and quality at least. Also, not being scared to take risks of saying, “yeah, I’ll come up with something on the day, on the way there.” Not necessarily improvising. Another thing is to not be so adamant. A lot of time in the studio when you’re recording, and it doesn’t sound right; you’re a bit too cowardly to say something is wrong. It takes confidence and fearlessness to change it all around.

Talking about the theme of desperation which surrounds this album — I found it heavily ingrained in the song “Holy, Holy” (which is going to be released next week). Does the desperation in the track reflect your own personal experience?

No, not really. No, never my personal experience. I guess personal experience of people that you see around you. When you’re going out, you know going to bars, going to clubs, and stuff. You meet these people, and you’re saying this guy is really strange or there’s something going on here. Who are these people? This is the inspiration for a lot of the songs. It’s kind of like trying to imagine—when this guy leaves his bar, what does he do? Then, what is the rest of his life like? It’s a hypothetical scenario sort of thing.

The instrumental title track is a jazz-funk workout that could double as a soundtrack for a TV series. Do you have an all-time favorite TV series?

The wire… maybe? Oh, there’s this thing called The Decalogue by Krzysztof Kieślowski; there are 10 parts to it. It’s not really a series; it’s more like short movies—or maybe The Simpsons, you know, classic.

Since the album explores a wide range of fantasies, do you think relatability is important in a song?

Not necessarily. The thing is, I don’t think the song has to be relatable in terms of the actual situation or story of the song. But it should be relatable in the emotion of the song. That’s what I’ve tried to do here, where there is all this outlandish stuff going on, this kind of absurd, desperate, or funny situation going on, but the passion is palpable, and I’m actually feeling the emotion of the song. That’s relatable, I think. No matter how desperate or how disgusting these characters are in the songs, I hope at some point, people at least feel sorry for them or feel a similar feeling as them. Also, how they’re presenting it with the music is important, as well as how the music sounds. With lyrics, it’s all about how it works with the music. There’s no point in doing lyrics that are really good if they don’t work together with the music. All the best lyrics have this thing that they work together with the music to make something that’s better.

If you could share a stage with anyone (doesn’t have to be a musician), who would you choose? Anyone alive or dead.

There was a percussionist called Nanà Vasconcelos, a Brazilian guy who did one of the best albums of all time. He made this album called Solo Dashes. And that was just, that’s a brilliant album. He was a percussionist. He did this thing called the Berimbau. He was a real virtuoso. I would also really love to play in the backing band for James Brown—that would be so fun. You know, imagine you’re just there chillin’, it would be hard work because he was really strict with them, but it would be a really good experience. I think you would learn so much. And to be honest, you have to say, Jimi Hendrix. Who would turn that down? It would be like, “oh tomorrow night, you want to go on stage with Jimi Hendrix?” Who’s going to say I’d rather do that with Liam Gallagher? Nah, man, it’s Jimi Hendrix. It would be kind of sad because he would just be so much better than you. So you just have to chill there.I think that would have to be the answer, you know? Let him take over the stage, yeah. Just chilling. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have the guitar, and I wouldn’t play; I’d just be chilling.

Throwing back the time to your visit to Joyland Bali, is there anything you particularly like about performing in Indonesia?

It was a really good reception. The audience was really good. The festival was cool. And the whole thing was a good vibe, man. It was a nice place. Good weather, nice food, all the seafood, and everything. I love it, man; it’s a beautiful country. I’m going to come back to Indonesia as soon as possible.

What do you wish people knew about you that they don’t?

I just wish they knew that I’m a positive guy. Everything I do and everything I want to do. Even though I can be cheeky and sometimes make silly jokes or be over the top, everything I do has a positive spirit. I’m not a negative guy; I’m not a pessimistic guy; I’m a very positive guy, so that’s mainly the only thing I would hope everyone knows.

What is your expectation with this album? How would you expect people to react to your album that’s going to be released soon?

Um, it’s quite different from black midi, but it has a lot of the same characteristics. To be honest, all the stuff that people like about black midi—I think is more diverse here and is better executed, so I hope that people will share the same opinion basically. I hope people will be into it, but I don’t know for sure. Either way, this is my thing now, so I’m just going to keep doing it, but I really think people are going to like it.