Gerald Simpson aka A Guy Called Gerald I-view

Abbiamo fatto qualche domanda a Gerald Simpson, noto ai più con il suo moniker A Guy Called Gerald, in occasione del suo nuovo disco in cui oltre a confermare la sua voglia di non ripetersi essendo allo stesso tempo innovativo, sembra esserci lanciato in una riflessione cosmo-panteistica molto interessante, nonostante To All Things What They Need è l'album forse più "difficile" nel repertorio di Gerald. Vi consigliamo di ascoltarlo almeno due volte (nonchè di leggere l'intervista) prima di ritenerlo troppo ostico per i padiglioni o di formulare giudizi affrettati. Per descrivere questo cambio di direzione, si potrebbe per esempio citare quel tale Zarlino -che tanto appassiona i medioevalisti castellanofili - quando definiva la musica "mondana" come quell'"harmonia che si conosce essere tra quelle cose che si veggono et conoscono nel cielo, nel elgamento degli Elementi e nella varietà de i tempi". E i filo-branduardiani son serviti! Buon ascolto e buona lettura. A Guy Called Gerald "To All Things What They Need" (K7 /Audioglobe) Tracklist 01.American Cars 02.To Love 03.Millenium Sanhedrin (feat.Ursula Rucker) 04.Call For Prayer 05.Meaning 06.Tajeen 07.Strangest Changes (feat.Finley Quaye) 08.First Try 09.Pump 10.What God Is

Hi Gerald. Compliments for your newest album. So let's speak about it. Why did you choose that title? I was reading some material about The Tao. It was really inspiring reading and it answered alot of questions for me and at the same time posed more questions. It made me look at the pattern of everything and the cyclic movement of life as we know it in this dimension. The Tao means nature, her processes, her methods and her laws.

As it happened with your past productions, you renowned your style again. Is there an aspect which marks each album? Each album is a like a diary, it marks a time and place in my life. They usually run in five year increments.

There are some tracks in "To All Things What..." reminding some old productions from UK labels like R&S, Apollo as well as some echoes from your past in 808 State. Are there any records which can be considered akin to your last one? I don't think about other music when I'm producing music. I'm only thinking of the process of producing music at that space and time. If there is a pattern that occurs then the shapes that are created or similarities or frequencies, whatever you want to call them, that appear happen by accident. But remember this nothing in nature is an accident only a result or an echo of a previous vibration.

Are you planning visual shows or videoclips related to "To All Things..."? I'm constantly recording images. When I listen back to certain tracks from the album images appear reminding me of the time when I was making the tracks. There are no video clips but I am planning a visual show.

You choose grat collaborators in Essence (Louise Rhodes, Wendy Page, Lady Kier,...). In this album, only two "feat."s. Any particular reason for this choice? During the process of making this record over five years i collaborated with many different people but Finley and Ursula's tracks were the tracks that actually fitted the best into this project.

What's your reaction when you hear remixes of your tracks? It depends on the remix. The word 'remix' has become fetishized. If someone really thinks that a track needs more work or they can hear it in a different way then a remix can be quite exciting. But if they just want to use your name or the record company just wants to use it for marketing value, usually you just get a pretty flat mix with no clear idea. And in this day and age when someone can type in your name into a file sharing system and your music is supposed to come up, the last thing you want is for some cheesy DJs mix to come up under your name.

You look very interested in spiritual and cosmogonic matters. A lot of ancient tribes used music to evoke what they called gods, which according to a lot of writers should be "hidden" powers of human mind and soul. Do you study any ancient musical tradition from this perspective? I used to wish and search for ancient music to study and then I tried meditation and realised that the only reason people value ancient things in religions and stuff was so that they could sell them to people in this day and age. But really, worshipping antiquity leads nowhere. I'm interested more in the future.

Don't know why, but we got a vision while listening tracks like Meaning or Tajeen: Gerald Simpson performing in a shaolin temple during an hard session of physical training.... J LOL

Are you preparing a tour? Will you come in Italy? Yes, I'm touring at the moment. I have some dates in Italy coming up very soon - on 03 mar Pergola, Milan and 05 Mar Barfly, Ancona.