Geordie Greep explains the end of Black Midi

(Credits: Far Out / Yis Kid)

Past glories can often be a musician’s undoing, as expectations and the inevitable comparisons to past achievements often overshadow new efforts. This challenge is especially daunting in a world that remains fixated on what came before. However, in his solo album The New Soundformer Black Midi frontman Geordie Greep deftly escapes the constraints of his recent history, boldly ushering in a new era and redefining his artistic identity.

Releasing a debut solo album within weeks of the news of the London group’s much-lauded break-up was always going to be a risk, given their legions of die-hard fans around the world. However, Greep knew what was going on long before the world outside of Black Midi did. Appropriately, The New Sound is a remarkably accomplished effort, which sees him work with former Black Midi touring member Seth ‘Shank’ Evans, who produced the record, and a host of veteran session musicians in Sao Paulo to stretch the boundaries of his formula and create something that sounds more. like himself than anything before.

While touching on familiar themes, the album is highly descriptive, yet fictional, surreal and darkly comical, with the music visionary borrowing from a wide variety of inspirations. It goes from prog rock twists to Latin and jazz influences. As a testament to the songwriter’s clear awareness, some moments will appeal to fans of his former band, and many others clearly show that he’s unleashed and more comfortable now as the scope expands and the sense of daring grows.

I ran into Greep earlier The New Sound arrived, and the 25-year-old was in a relaxed mood, emitting a sense of creative satisfaction with how the songs had turned out. After completing his August residency at London’s MAP, and a smattering of other shows, the signs were there: people were enjoying his latest project.

“It just goes further in every direction, there’s more to chew on,” he comments.

Although the last record was written the same way he would approach any other song, Greep reached a point where he thought to himself, “If you want to do these songs right, they probably deserve an approach different than just working in a band.” Out of the blue, Greep argued that if he wanted it to sound as refined as ‘Billie Jean’, he had to hire the right musicians to do it quickly.

Greep says that “in the band, they were also great musicians, incredible musicians,” but he needed hardened session players for this project. opening The New Sound to wider horizons than he was previously used to, having different players across the tracks naturally increased his range due to the individual styles present and years of experience gained. The former Black Midi frontman agrees that it’s a similar approach to the end of the Steely Dan era, when Walter Becker and Donald Fagen only worked with labor.

It’s certainly an intriguing approach, especially at a time when few artists choose to take such risks, which highlights Greep’s technical proficiency and deep understanding of music. He explains that the current state of music reflects that of cinema, pointing out that “everything is done so that you can have options”. This mindset underscores his innovative approach to creating music in a saturated industry.

If you choose to create an album with numerous session musicians and record it live, you need to have complete confidence that everything will come together right from the start. There are no second chances; the shots are final. Instead, many modern artists prefer to record their music individually and over an extended period, allowing for overdubs and adjustments as their perspectives on the various elements evolve over the course of the process. Astutely, he notes, “It’s the same thing in movies, where you shoot a scene with four or five cameras and you have options, and when you edit it, it looks a little bland because there’s no clear vision.”

It’s no surprise that the Londoner features heavily in his films and used to visit the cinema almost daily, which explains part of the deeply visual nature of Black Midi and The New Sound On the new album, the lyrics are so descriptive in parts, especially on the crazy lead single ‘Holy, Holy’, you could make a movie out of it, although it would cause quite a shock among today’s highly offensive audiences .

Again, it’s all a matter of perspective when creating. After talking about the ’70s vibe that’s always been in his music from the beginning until now, Greep says, “I think it’s just the ambition, you know. It’s like the only thing in 70s stuff. Music, movies, all of that, it was very ambitious; there was less of that kind of tongue-in-cheek, off-kilter stuff.”

Delve into the sharp intellect behind it The New Soundhe continues, “It was like, ‘If we’re going to do it, let’s go, let’s make a huge album, Close to the edgeand all that kind of stuff. It was the time when the director could do what he wanted, that of the author. It ended up with things like Gate of Heavenbut it’s very different from how things are now.”

While the title, the new sound, it might feel a bit on the nose, as if Greep is telling us that’s it real he in a new era, it’s simpler than that. “It’s not serious,” he clarifies, smiling. “To be honest, it’s just a title I’ve had for years that I wanted to use for something.” Initially, he and Shank were going to write the album together and call the duo The New Sound, but as things progressed, Greep had written almost a dozen songs and Shank only a couple. They decided to do this as a Greep record. But make no mistake, this is a new era.

As for the somewhat chaotic announcement of Black Midi’s breakup, which was confirmed by Greep on Instagram Live and prompted X-shocked posts from bassist Cameron Picton, who said the band had agreed not to say anything about the “rupture” and feeling blind, Greep set a few things straight. He claims he’s said a lot of ridiculous things on live stream before that never made a splash.

However, this time there was more to it. The band met about a year earlier and agreed that it was “probably the end,” but didn’t feel the need to say anything because, after a few months, the noise would surely die down. This was not the case, however. His die-hard fan base kept asking about the group’s silence, and during this stream, Greep felt it was finally time to answer.

“It was probably the wrong thing to do, but at that point I thought, ‘Who cares?’ It’s over,’ just because I felt bad, I didn’t want to chain all these guys or give anybody false hope or be weird. It’s just clean,” he says. “It’s better to say that because, yeah, the reality is that it’s probably going to be a long time before there’s any other gigs or whatever, who knows. Mainly just because I haven’t been going anywhere in a long time.”

For about two years, he recalls, “there wasn’t that much progress in the band.” They created Cavalcade i hellfire close to each other. For him, the process began to become formulaic, from writing to recording and even listening to the finished product, losing the great satisfaction he once had. He wanted more creatively and understood that from that moment on, the end was coming, or as he put it rather bleakly, “The days were numbered.”

It’s like being in a relationship: when you think like that, you’re halfway there. “That’s exactly right,” Greep confirms. “If you think about when you’re 15-16 and then you get to 25, your friends change. It’s not like a conscious thing. It’s not even that deep or anything, it just happens.”

Black Midi accomplished a lot for a band that was so young, regardless of the minutiae of their split. They released three acclaimed albums and toured the world. “This is like an old-school vibe, you know, the Velvet Underground, even the Beatles weren’t together that long, really,” concludes their former frontman. “It’s better than doing whatever, and every time you put out a bad album, your rankings go down. You don’t want to do that.”

Calling it a day isn’t the end of the road for Geordie Greep, but rather the start of a new one after he swerved at a signposted junction. The New Sound. Who knows what this one has in store?

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