12 days ago, trendy east London boozer the Old Blue Last played host to the eponymous E.P launch of Semi Precious, aka Guy Baron.
Guy, along with fellow Squareglass Collective producers, captivated the audience from beginning to end with his uniquely dense material which takes the listener on a meandering, trippy journey through the more beautiful side of melancholy with a shoegaze-esque sound.
We caught up with Guy afterwards for a short interview. Check it out below:
Hi, how are you today?
Quite excited, actually. This has been a somewhat overwhelming couple of weeks in terms of the work on the EP that has been released on Wednesday and I feel so fortunate for the support I’ve been receiving so far.
How would you describe your sound to those unfamiliar with you?
A middle grounds between strangeness and familiarity, or perhaps between distance and intimacy. These are the (so-called) tensions I’m interested in exploring and conveying in my music and through the use of sampling. It terms of the sonic aesthetics itself, the tracks are all rather vocal-centred and are characterized by a somewhat sketchy or slightly rough-on-the-edges quality. I try not too over polish my tracks.
Which artists influence you the most?
The first artist that really inspired me and made me think about music in different and new ways is probably Matthew Herbert. For me he represents a certain kind of musicianship that can result in quite mellow or catchy (and often quite danceable) tunes, but at the same time also draws from certain sonic agendas and correspond with sound art. I’m also a big fan of Burial’s music, which I think captures South London’s distinguished and somewhat gloomy atmosphere.
Which artists are you really into at the moment?
I listen to a lot of not-too-known sampling producers, like Myown, AKA dj vtgnike, Seenmr and Orlogin. I also really like Hackman’s stuff. Also a big fan of Dimlite.
You just released your E.P at a launch at the Old Blue Last, how did it go?
I think it went quite well. I really enjoyed it and the audience was so supportive and responsive. Being a studio/bed-room producer, I personally feel that live performance is a quite an interesting and multi-layered medium, which can be somewhat challenging but also very rewarding.
You’re a part of the Squareglass collective, can you tell us a bit about that?
I formed squareglass together with Bunki (Aviram Barath) and Ballerino (Robin Braum), with whom I’ve studied at Goldsmiths, University of London. We’re all working as individual producers, which can be a somewhat lonely thing to do. So joining forces and creating a platform that would allow mutual support, both creatively and practically, seemed like a natural thing to do. We’re also motivated by an attempt to explore new production approaches/aesthetics. For instance, we're quite interested in working with certain limitations, exploring the way they influence the overall sound and challenging the conventional hierarchy or function of different elements within an arrangement or track. Working with samples or ‘chunks of recordings’ as Semi Precious, for instance, didn’t allow me to treat each element or instrument separately, but for me that’s part of the magic. The next release we’ll be working on together is Ballerino’s double-sided single, which I really like, followed by some other great releases later on this year.
Your sound is created with your voice and two samples - what are your key pieces of gear?
A rather simplistic bedroom set-up. A laptop, a condenser mic and two monitors. I mainly work with Ableton Live.
Have you got any plans for after the E.P - Tour, album, other projects/collabs?
I have a new single coming up on the NX Records compilation, which is a joint venture of Goldsmiths and Matthew Herbert’s Accidental Records. I also have a few more live gigs in in the next few months that are yet to be announced. It's worth noting that my live set-up is quite different to the original tracks – I work with a 4-piece band that recreates the sampled source material and translates it into a purely live set (no laptops/samplers involved), which is a rather interesting and challenging experience.
If you weren’t a musician, what would you be?
I would like to think that I would have become an architect, but I would probably end up being a lawyer.
With Semi Precious receiving much-deserved attention from the blogosphere, as well as being the Guardian’s artist of the week, keep your eyes and ears peeled.
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