Combing sound and rhythm, music and dance with producer, DJ and label owner GiGi FM. As a rising star in the music industry, GiGi FM takes us behind the scenes of her artistic process, revealing how her personal experiences shape her tracks. Paul and GiGi engage in an intimate conversation, recorded in the creative ambiance of a Berlin gallery, where she shares her story and how she infuses it with her music.
The episode then transitions to an exploration of the transformative power of music and dance and how they serve as conduits between our inner selves and the collective consciousness. Remember the first time you lost yourself in a dance or a melody? That's the flow state we explore here, through personal narratives and insightful discussions with a successful DJ who shares her rapid rise from underground parties to Boiler Room, Berghain, Fabric, NTS and beyond. We also delve into the nuances of reading a crowd, creating energy, and understanding the dynamics of a party.
The journey continues further, as we navigate through the vibrant nightlife of Berlin and Japan, discussing the unique energies at different raves. We also dive deeper into the life of GiGi FM, discussing her move to Berlin, her own imprint, Sea~rène, and her love for mythology. Through her story, we uncover the symbiotic relationship between creativity, music, and life itself.
Presented and produced by Paul Hanford
Paul Hanford on Instagram
Pre-order GiGi FM’s Kiwi Synthesis Diary Vol 2 here.
Lost and Sound is proudly sponsored by Audio-Technica
Paul’s debut book, Coming To Berlin: Global Journeys Into An Electronic Music And Club Culture Capital is out now on Velocity Press. Click here to find out more.
Subscribe to the Lost and Sound Substack for fresh updates and writing.
Lost and Sound title music by Thomas Giddins
Combing sound and rhythm, music and dance with producer, DJ and label owner GiGi FM. As a rising star in the music industry, GiGi FM takes us behind the scenes of her artistic process, revealing how her personal experiences shape her tracks. Paul and GiGi engage in an intimate conversation, recorded in the creative ambiance of a Berlin gallery, where she shares her story and how she infuses it with her music.
The episode then transitions to an exploration of the transformative power of music and dance and how they serve as conduits between our inner selves and the collective consciousness. Remember the first time you lost yourself in a dance or a melody? That's the flow state we explore here, through personal narratives and insightful discussions with a successful DJ who shares her rapid rise from underground parties to Boiler Room, Berghain, Fabric, NTS and beyond. We also delve into the nuances of reading a crowd, creating energy, and understanding the dynamics of a party.
The journey continues further, as we navigate through the vibrant nightlife of Berlin and Japan, discussing the unique energies at different raves. We also dive deeper into the life of GiGi FM, discussing her move to Berlin, her own imprint, Sea~rène, and her love for mythology. Through her story, we uncover the symbiotic relationship between creativity, music, and life itself.
Presented and produced by Paul Hanford
Paul Hanford on Instagram
Pre-order GiGi FM’s Kiwi Synthesis Diary Vol 2 here.
Lost and Sound is proudly sponsored by Audio-Technica
Paul’s debut book, Coming To Berlin: Global Journeys Into An Electronic Music And Club Culture Capital is out now on Velocity Press. Click here to find out more.
Subscribe to the Lost and Sound Substack for fresh updates and writing.
Lost and Sound title music by Thomas Giddins
Lost in Sound is sponsored by Audio Technica. Audio Technica are a global but still family-run company that make headphones, turntables, cartridges, microphones. They make studio quality yet affordable products because they believe that high quality audio should be accessible to all. So, wherever you are in the world, head on over to AudioTechnicacom to check out all of their range of stuff. Hello and welcome to Lost in Sound.
Speaker 1:I'm Paul Hanford. I'm your host, I'm a writer, an author and a university lecturer based in Berlin, where I'm speaking to you now from. And this is the show where each episode, I have conversations with the musical innovators, the outsiders, the mavericks, the artists that do their own unique thing, and we talk about music, creativity, life, the things that inspire us to make the things that we make. Previous guests have included Peaches, suzanne Cianni, Jim O'Rourke, chilly Gonzalez, graham Cox and Sleaford Mods, mickey Blanco and First and More. And today on the show, you're going to hear a very flowy chat I have with GGFM. My book coming to Berlin is available on all good bookshops or via the publishers website, velocity Press. And so, yes, I hope, whatever you're doing today, you're having a fantastic one. And in a second you're going to hear a conversation I had with DJ producer. Label owner GGFM. Yes.
Speaker 1:So GGFM, the French Italian artist, has been rising through the ranks, particularly on the dance floor of the last few years, playing sets at places like Berguine, rural, japan Fabric, primavera and the Bunker in New York, amongst other places, and she has a very flowy residency on NTS radio, which I always love tuning into. So she's just about to release the record Kiwi Synthesis Diary Volume 2, which is also the first release on her new imprint, sirene, and the music on the on the record is a real blend of very liquidy techno which I feel has a heart in psychedelia, in soundscapes, and there's a very artistic and also spiritual practice that goes on in terms of how she pulls the music together, how the music comes together. That is connected to her life story, which we delve right into, and subsequently, this is a very, very, very flowy chat which I really enjoyed having, and this is actually a face-to-face chat as well, no zoom involved here. We met at a gallery, gallery in Corner Park in Neukone in Berlin, to be precise mid-November 2023, and so subsequently you can hear a bit of like gallery atmosphere in the background, a little bit of ambiance. But yeah, this is what happens when I met Gigi FM.
Speaker 1:Okay, julia, thanks so much for joining me here now, and I feel that there's like a connection between music and storytelling, for you yes absolutely.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you could tell me a little bit about that.
Speaker 2:First thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:My pleasure.
Speaker 2:It's really nice to be here with you in our DIY interview space and, yeah, for all my music, for me it's really about like telling the story. For me, music is capturing moments that become presence. You know, and it's great with music that you can have it for eternity and then when you listen back to it, you know it's like it was yesterday. You could really just reconnect and time travel back to it. So it's like for Kiwi, since this is diary volume two, but also Kiwi, since this is diary volume one, I used a lot of sound recordings, a lot of videos with, like, voices from my friends, from the city, from nature, from just moments and, you know, taking them into Ableton and bringing that in the song and making it about this for me is what this project is about actually, and what for you is?
Speaker 1:because it seems like there's so much about kind of capturing moments and you know it's amazing. We have these resources where you can, you know, take field recording. There's kind of bits of conversation, things like that. But for you, what is the what with this, these tracks? Was there anything specific for memories that you were trying to get?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely like it. For me, each tracks that I make is kind of it's obviously either attached to a moment or a person, but sometimes they are a person themselves. So, you know, I'm I'm sitting down or I'm dancing, I'm making music and I'm like, okay, who is it? Who am I dealing with? What's their character, what's their personality, what are they doing? Where are they? You know, and this is how I make the song and, for example, amada Mushis is highly linked to this mushroom trip that I had and you know, and it was Amada Mushis and she's called Amada because, you know, she takes the Mushis and it's all about. It's all about this trip.
Speaker 2:So, for me, when I was making this song, I was like, okay, like you know, where is she, what is she doing, how mischievous is she, how deep is she? Because you have this big viral, you know, pad that comes in and it's, you know, like this feeling you have in your stomach. And I was like, okay, like I'm, I'm getting to know Amada Mushis. And it was the same for Tevora, which means number nine and it's the last number in numerology and it's, you know, this self-awareness, the closing of a cycle, feeling more conscious and more confident in yourself and and it continues on.
Speaker 2:For example, house hopping also was linked to this very dark moment last year where I have a very abusive and crazy neighbor and yeah, I got really difficult and at the start of last year I had to leave my house for the first two weeks of the year to stay at friends on couches and stuff, because it was just getting too hectic and and funny enough like this is the most happiest song ever made, but it was in the darkest moment and I think that's just really encapsulating like escapism and and in that moment, you know, I just thought about this, do you know?
Speaker 1:hello kitty yes, you know, there's a character called Keroopi. I don't know the cat, I just know the lunchboxes and the yeah, well, it's really cute.
Speaker 2:I mean, I love the Japanese culture and I love like all these. I look Hawaii like things and I think you're really like helped me in being this a little cute frog, you kind of being, and I was like, oh, piece of happiness, like dark, dark moment. I think it's very important to keep a light somewhere, you know, within.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, so you drew on kind of creating a happiness out of a dark experience, absolutely yeah, and music is the perfect outlet.
Speaker 2:You know, for me, with music or with dancing, and they're the only two moments where I can really pause on anything that's happening, I could really reconnect with my inner self. I can tap into you know my subconscious, my intuitions, messages, but also you can tap into the collective consciousness. You know, and feel the strength from that. Like that there, for me, they're the only two outlets where you could really surrender into the pureness of the moment. You know. So it's not something you can do in everyday life because you have, like your brain, that's just having a thousand folds a minute and a second, and then you have all of this environment around you. But when you're in your crafts it's yeah, every time, just pauses yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's this kind of idea of because I speak with quite a lot of DJs and also producers about this about being in that state of presence, of flow, states where you are just in the moment, and is that something? When would you say that you first experienced having this kind of sense of flow state in your life?
Speaker 2:I think very young actually, like I've suffered from quite a few different things through my ages, but when I was very, very young and I started dancing actually maybe it was even when I was doing this choir, I can't remember exactly I remember, with dancing and with I'm playing the piano also, when I was like maybe like seven, you know, or eight years old or something, and I was getting bullied at school and it was like a little bit difficult times.
Speaker 2:I felt very lonely and it was in these moments at dawn school that I remember maybe the most vividly, where I was like okay, I don't think about anything, you know, I'm just in the movement, you know I'm just doing this choreography, I'm just doing this exercise with my body. And it's when I realized that your body and your mind, you know, obviously I, eight years old, I wasn't like whoa, my body and my mind, I was more like, oh, wow, I feel good, you know. But then, introspectively, you know, I was thinking like wow, okay, from this early on, you can also feel the power of movement and the power of music and this transposing you, you know, and being like okay, you're here now and that's what you're doing and you can forget about everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah that found out very, very beautiful and I think I've chased that. You know always, subconsciously or consciously, maybe you know a little bit later in my life where I could think about it in a different way.
Speaker 1:I think later on in your life because I can relate to this through sort of different experiences I've had as well that becomes more of a language around this kind of idea and it's kind of connected to ideas of spirituality as well and being present. But when you're young it's more just intuitive.
Speaker 2:It's so intuitive, yeah yeah, you don't think about it, it just happens and you're like wow, I feel great, you know that's it.
Speaker 1:What was that? Well, what was that?
Speaker 2:I'll go back to the dance school and then you're like actually I want to be a dancer. And then you're like oh, love music. Okay, I'm going to continue on playing the piano and you know, and it just happens like that. But I think the pinnacle of this moment for me is when this I think my life project was born in my head. But I think I love Star Trek a little bit too much and it was very hard times at dance school. I went to Paris Opera School.
Speaker 1:Right, so you grew up in Paris, did you?
Speaker 2:So I grew up in Paris, I was born outside Paris and I stayed there until I was about 13, 14. I started doing dancing music from seven and then at nine, 10 years old, I went to the School of Paris Opera and that was very difficult. Ballet is a very hard environment. Yeah, it's very difficult for kids. They don't really treat you as a kid. It's highly competitive and you know your body, the consciousness about your body, your weight is very is brought very early on and it's not very healthy.
Speaker 2:And I think you know, for me, when I was about 13, I was like, okay, I love these choreographies, I love these, you know dance classes, I love dancing. It's my life. I love music. Music has always been part of my life. I could ever remember. But I was like, okay, I don't really want to dance to the music anymore. I would like to be able to make music with my dancing, and I think I just never thought it would be possible, because it was this young girl dream. I'm 13, I'm watching Star Trek. I'm like, well, that would be so cool. And yeah, little did I know that later, much later on, I was able to do that, but it was a very long journey from going to, you know, wanting to be a dancer and then continuing on dancing. Going to America having a scholarship for a school American ballet and then Alvin Eley and then injuring and being like fuck, okay, what am I doing with my life? You know, I can't be a dancer anymore because my knees are fucked.
Speaker 1:And that's like the kind of classic no, no, no, you can fucking swear it's actually like but that's the kind of classic sort of. There's almost like the classic story, isn't it, of the dancer that kind of breaks the leg, you know, or the breaks a bone.
Speaker 2:It's crazy, yeah, like Same with like a sports person.
Speaker 1:It's like that.
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, I mean actually dancers and footballers have very similar injuries and you know, for me it was my cross ligaments on my knees and I also have a hyper extended leg. So then my knees have always been very fragile and it was always kind of like this doom thing that you know, my dance teacher told me very early on like, oh, your knees are, it's beautiful, it's very rare, like you know, physical condition that's very beautiful for ballet and for dancing, but you know, be careful, your knees are very Fatou's, was this doomy thing that was always looming, you know, on top of me and then when it happened I was like okay, and it was very difficult. For a long time I didn't know if I was going to ever dance again and I had a little other life, becoming a fragrance specialist in the nose.
Speaker 1:Oh, really A perfume. Yeah, yeah, a perfume, yeah, amazing.
Speaker 2:So I moved to London doing that actually and then I started dancing a little bit again and I was like oh, wow, okay. And then I started going to techno parties with my friend Iti that I used to work with in fragrance and we used to go to the Blueprint Label Night, hydra and Jaded and Corsica and we were like hardcore techno.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and what era was this this?
Speaker 2:was like whoa. This was maybe like oh, eight years, maybe nine years ago.
Speaker 1:I was living in London at that time as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when Jaded was good sorry.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, that's fair enough.
Speaker 2:No shade to anyone in London that loves.
Speaker 1:Jaded, but it's.
Speaker 2:It was so good at the time.
Speaker 1:The end of a really good era.
Speaker 2:It was yeah, it was Corsica was pumping it was super great and I was there every Sunday. I wouldn't be working in Harrods or Selfridges, basically, so you know. But yeah, and I was lucky enough to meet some people in South London and the Rye Wax crew and at the time I wasn't working there yet, but my friends were throwing parties and one day my friend was like, oh, fear's ruling diva is coming to DJ and we would love you if you could vogue or dance for the DJ set. And I was like, fuck, yeah, like I would love to do this, I'm so excited. So I did that.
Speaker 2:And then I'm at the back of the dance floor and I'm vogueing with this girl and we're really getting along and we go outside and we're a little bit, you know, in the air at a party and we're talking and I'm telling her about my dream and I'm like, oh, you know, how cool would it be if we could make music, you know, by dancing. And she was like, oh, have you heard of Ableton? And I was like, no, what is that? And she was like, oh, I work for Ableton. You should totally email me on Monday. You know, I go back to Berlin, but you know we should totally keep in touch.
Speaker 2:And yeah, and that changed my life. Basically because I learned about Ableton. I was able to teach myself it and learn about, you know, max MSP and the fact that there is people you know using Kinect and all sorts of technologies to do what I want to do, and I was like, whoa, what, what, like I could actually would this be possible? You know, ever. And this is when the journey also started with making music. So it took a little bit of time to feel some confidence.
Speaker 2:I taught myself Ableton through the help view you know, and every time I wanted to do something I'll go on YouTube or I'll just, you know, reddit it and be like, okay, how do you do this? It took a while and yeah, and then with DJing I was, and that time I was lucky enough to move in with Sam Jones. He's Simeon Jones. He's an amazing jazz instrumentalist and producer. He does this project with Nathaniel called the Color that Rise, and it released an amazing album on rhythm section. Actually, I highly recommend it. And you know we were living under the same roof and our housemates bought CDJs. He was just very into record collecting and I had records as well, but it was more like jazz and ambient and experimental weird stuff because, I always loved music and collected records, you know, without any means but to listen to them.
Speaker 2:And he bought CDJs and his girlfriend at the time was very involved in music, Her family very involved in music. Shout out to Lily and the Color that Changed my Life as well.
Speaker 2:It's always really important to acknowledge these people, yeah like I really see, like people that come in your life, they all bring your karmic lesson. I really believe that and everyone can teach you something and you can teach something to everyone, whether you know it or you don't know it. You know, and it's so beautiful when things happen organically like this, and I always loved music and I was always asking for the ox cable at the after parties and I was surrounded with DJs and I didn't know how to use these things and I was like, oh, djs is for these boys there, you know, kind of thing. And it was not actually that many also women DJ, like in my knowledge. You know, I saw Rebecca before play and I loved her, but it wasn't, like you know, so broad to my knowledge at the time.
Speaker 2:And and yeah, lily one day was like, hey, this is a USB and let me show you this thing called record box. You use it to put your music on it and maybe you could take all of these YouTube playlists that you have and you could download the tracks, maybe, and put them on this stick and you know, and you have CDJs at home, so maybe you could learn how to mix, you know, and I was like, oh, okay, but that would be really fun. I mean, I've always made playlists from when I was very, very young, you know, on my dad's iTunes and stuff and then on YouTube. Sounds like okay. Well, why not?
Speaker 2:And then every morning with my best friend we would just smoke a fat joint, have a coffee and play about three hours of dub techno, because I was really into that at the time. And yeah, and that's how I started mixing and beat matching. And about three months later Lily was like, hey, I'm doing this party at the alibi. You know, there is James Messiah playing and me. And she was like, yeah, me and my friend other Julia, and they used to have this girl collective.
Speaker 1:Wait a minute, alibi. I know the name, the alibi in.
Speaker 2:London, in Dourston, in Dourston, that is right. Yes, yes, yes, it closed now, but it was such a cute little venue that was really really nice venue wasn't it?
Speaker 1:I had to do like a little bit of, because I've been in Berlin for six years now.
Speaker 2:I had to do a little bit of a mind, recall and go alibi.
Speaker 1:Alibi, yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, Jane Fitz used to play there quite often actually, and it was, yeah, so sick, but yeah, so I played and I closed the night and I was like ooh, how did that feel that first time stepping behind? Oh, I was sitting myself. I was like, well, all of these people are gonna hear me doing some transitions that I've only done in my living room.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's theoretical about things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you don't know what you're gonna do or what people are gonna feel like, and for me, techno was already like my go-to.
Speaker 2:But also living in London and having all of these crazy multi-genres being accessible to me and having James Messiah playing before me and he's such an amazing artist, and I was like whoa, okay, so I did it. And then I remember closing with this French rap song by PNL and there was quite a few kind of like youths and gangsters, vibes, fashion-y, in the crowd and everyone just sat down and was like wow. And I was like, okay, this is the moment. And we went back to my friend's house for a little afters and James was there and he was like wow, like I really loved your set. And we did a little back to back at the afters and then he was like hey, at the moment I'm working at Boid Room and I were doing these series of events called Low Heat and it's to give a platform to these South London artists that are emerging, a platform to maybe do a little publicity or bring a light on these people. And maybe you would want to come into the office.
Speaker 2:And I was like well okay, well, I've been to a Boid Room where Daniel Avery was playing, you know, and I was like whoa, that is crazy.
Speaker 1:It's such a quick thing as well, isn't it? From playing at Alibi to this moment.
Speaker 2:It happened in like six months. It was really for me. It was really crazy. And then a lot, sometimes a lot of people ask me how did it happen so quickly? How do you feel about this? And I'm like well, actually I've done music since I'm seven, you know, and I've been into as a dancer. You count a lot also, and there is a lot of modern pieces like Stravinsky is so hard to count when you have to come on stage and you always have to keep this count.
Speaker 2:And I feel like it's like this second nature of dancers actually, and to know where is the one, because if you want to DJ up to know where is the one and count to four, so you know and yes, so I think it happened quickly, but also maybe it's my history also that made it possible. I feel like in a way technically speaking. But with James he really also was a pivotal moment because he was coming to the office and we had like few sessions where we mixed, and the last session there was people but it wasn't filmed. And then he was like, do you want to do a filmed or a room? And I was like, oh my God.
Speaker 1:Did you feel ready at that time?
Speaker 2:No, yeah, no, like absolutely not. But I was like, yeah, fuck it. Like it's 45 minutes or something and I'll just play my as much of my friends tune and tunes that I like you know. And yeah, I was very anxious but it was so fun and I had a lot of my friends with me and in front of me, so it made it really really nice and I wouldn't say easy, but easier, yeah, and it's because it is quite important, I think, is like that element of stepping up sometimes and we never feel, when you get an opportunity, we never, quite often, we never feel that we're quite ready for it.
Speaker 1:I think, yeah, it's, but we just, you know, there's that thing of just knowing that perhaps you are ready. It's just like you are ready but you just don't. Perhaps it just feels like a shock to be put into that context.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure, I think also about art in general. It's taken me a long time with music production actually to feel like, to feel and think like this, but now I can say that actually just throw yourself out there.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because otherwise you're, there's so much things to learn about. Just throwing yourself and just being like you know what this opportunity has come to me means that you, the universe or you know, whatever you believe in, like God or whatever you know. But anyways, for me I believe, like, okay, the universe and time and space is giving me this and I think that I should take it and I should, you know, try to make the most of it and have a nice experience and learn something from it. So I did that and it was amazing. And on the back of it I met so many lush people, especially my friend Ries. He had this project called Child's Play at the time and they were doing these amazing parties in London and I started playing for them with them almost every weekend, and also met my friend Coyne, which is maybe you know her she's okay Williams.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like her NTS show.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I've never met her, but I you know this is Coyne. I've been on the whole time, is that yeah?
Speaker 2:But yeah, and we started just doing a lot of parties and playing together around London, like you know, a few times a week for quite some time. And then I got a nettle radio show and started doing radio and I was like so fine and everything just kind of blended. And then I moved into this squat in South London. We had a club in the basement. It's called the Rising Sun, I think. I'm not sure if it's still fully going. I think it's more of a studio, music studio spaces down there and stuff now. But at the time we were doing so many parties A lot of people came through and played, like Bruce and you know just Just like under the radar, exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, like the yeah.
Speaker 2:And also there's also proper parties like but just you know, and yeah, I was close to this, this crew, so that would. That had like sound system and one of the first times that actually DJed after Boiler Room and another club setting kind of thing was in this old court in Southwark. In Southwark that was going to get demolished and we just put the sound system and put the booth where the judge is and it was played for about 15 hours and yeah, and it was, it was really fun. So we would do a lot of, a lot of things like this around town. We did one in Sloan Square which was actually outrageous. The police was not happy, right?
Speaker 1:I can't let today turn up quite quickly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but actually no, like we carried on until I think maybe 10 or 11 am the next day on Sloan Square, you know, so you can imagine which is one of the for Berlin listeners that don't know London. It's so posh, it's posh, isn't it? You have Dior across the street from where we were doing the squat rate.
Speaker 1:It's Disney, it's like when you watch a Disney film from the 50s. That is the London, isn't it?
Speaker 2:Exactly, yeah, it's yeah and it was. It was so fun and actually, you know, doing these kind of parties really told me a lot about what it is to party, what it is to be in the crowd, obviously as a dancer, you know, and as a party attendant, but also as a DJ, you know, like what kind of music you need when and the waves of energies of a party also, and, like you know, also just security, health and safety and you know all of these things like that. You know, maybe when you go to a party, you don't necessarily like think of first thing, because you're like you're here, I'm going to have a good time, I'm going to party with my friends, but that that really brought a lot of knowledge.
Speaker 1:And you can only get that through the, because you're like you said, there's certain things that, like, you've had your whole life, like the kind of the rhythm and the from the dancing and the kind of the music education, but that kind of experience of DJing kind of like, because it's almost like you know, you're aware of everyone in the room, aren't you?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:When you're playing, and then it takes all of these instincts that you kind of develop through that repeatedly doing that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and feeling that every dance floor has its own vibrations, and you know also, I mean, I don't know, can we talk about? Can we talk about?
Speaker 1:drugs at all. Yes, absolutely yeah, that's not nothing's open. I mean, you know, we all know that when you know you go partying.
Speaker 2:A lot of people also use, you know, substances and I think, like at least these squat raves in particular, but also it's valid for clubs you can feel when what is being used and which type of energy it gives out. You know, like, for the last two years I went to Japan and I love Japan so much. I love the way they experience the music, the way they party. It's really different.
Speaker 1:So how would you describe it? It's different.
Speaker 2:Everyone has their personal bubble space on the dance floor. No one really like touches each other and everyone is really attentive to what the DJ, what the performer is doing and everyone gives the time to listen and to understand where they're taking us you know Right, okay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's a very deep channeling moment and over there they don't have many things available. You know you can take LSD and drink alcohol and but it just it gives you know and you have kids also at the party. You know like people also out there like sober partying and fully channeling into the sound and it's in the environment and it's just very precious because you can open with a three to five minute ambient. You know track, no one's going to leave the dance floor and everyone is just the first time I was there actually did that and everyone just channeled and just stayed and just went inside their bodies, and I felt that it was insane because I was like okay, everyone is with me, I can feel that everyone hears collectively on the same frequency and now we can really go together and
Speaker 2:go into this journey together and move through it together and and that was definitely one of the most special moments for me as as a dj and also last year in the japanese mountains I I went back to the same festival called rural. So shout out to the rural crew and I highly recommend it. If you go to japan in the summer, it's in july and it's not to be missed, this festival. But yeah, the mountain this year was just absolutely stunning and I saw butterflies, blue butterflies the size of my hands. I was like, wow, this is, I'm in a gibby.
Speaker 2:I don't know, that's amazing, yeah, yeah you know, and I was fully sober and I was like this butterfly, is this big, like really so you are like what's this?
Speaker 1:what was the sort of setup of of this in the mountains?
Speaker 2:so you're in the mountains called the naiba greenland, which is the old labyrinth sites. You're about four or three hours away from tokyo driving and you're in the mountain. In the summer it's super green and lush and in the winter it's a skiing resort and we were in this mountain spot full of pine trees around, just very green, with these giant butterflies, you know, flying and and these this amazing stage design like very lsd, friendly, very like just these giant crystal flowers and stuff and just very beautiful.
Speaker 2:And I played at night time and and and you can see very much, you know, but it was you could hear yeah and it was a very like crazy experience because everyone you know was shouting and doing their thing and and, yes, it was it was just amazing and and playing, playing there was extremely channel. And it was very important also for me this year, because I had a very challenging year personally with mental health and just healing of a recent trauma, and I think this moment was the moment where I really paused and I was really looking forward to have this reset, this emotional and cosmic and physical resets, and I'm so grateful for it. And actually the recording came out yesterday, right um, of this particular set and that's available on.
Speaker 1:Is that like a sound powder? Yeah, it's available on the xlr hr oh, yes, yes, yeah, they're good, yeah, they're great, yeah la based.
Speaker 2:But so, yeah, that was, that was really amazing. But it's very different, obviously, from squat raves and and all of this, but yeah yeah, that's what.
Speaker 1:That was brilliant. It's great. It's getting getting like the whole story in here and like um and then um. So you know you're living in berlin now. Yeah, um, and did that feel like that had to be the next natural step for you?
Speaker 2:so yeah, I mean another story. No, actually I met sabina. Hey, sabina, the beautiful lady that changed my life and introduced to me ableton and um. I came one of the first times I came here. I came for loop festival and um sabina was like you have to come, there's a lot of talks about your project like that.
Speaker 2:That is an ableton festival exactly it was a funk house and I I was amazing because I met um zora jones that was doing this installation at the time, with the connect and um you know you could be in front of this screen and you would control. You know this visual um of you and you know the synthesizer, and it was amazing, some of these people, and it was one of the first time that I came. I came to berlin and and then I went um, I went to this other um kind of festival, um what's it called? Again, where do I have a brain fart?
Speaker 2:um no no, no, um, you could discover like a lot of modulars and a lot of new oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a little bit of a forest, doesn't it? Yes, what is it called? It's called, yes, I know I've been there as well.
Speaker 2:You know the one right. Yeah, yeah, and it's got like a little stage which is surrounded by water exactly, yeah that's gonna be as soon as we finish.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna, you're gonna be like, oh, yeah, yeah absolutely.
Speaker 2:But I went, I went there and I met um, I met this professor of this university and he was using a mayo armbands and I was like whoa, and we were there was about five of us in this, you know, chats in this, you know and he was talking about how he was using this armband and and at the end he was like does anyone have any questions?
Speaker 2:And I had too many questions and he was like, okay, let maybe come and talk to me at the end, you know, and and we had a chat and then I started working um with him a little bit, um, and so I would come, I would do two weeks, two weeks um, and at the time, in in london, I quit my uh, fragrance job, um, I was like I really started to, I need to dance again, I need to continue my music. So I started working out rio wax as a bartender and in this restaurant as a waitress, and I was doing two weeks, two weeks, two weeks london and two weeks berlin. Yeah, and this is when I started being in between and falling in love with berlin and, you know, just discovering also the club scene here, and the music and because in london it was beautiful, you have so many genres.
Speaker 2:You can, you know, go to drum and bass night, to a reggae night, to a rock night, you know, you can. You can go to a techno night, but more the years were passing and less techno there would be, or at least less techno that I kind of wanted to to hear. Perhaps, you know, especially in the deeper kind of scene, and fold wasn't even existing at the time, right you?
Speaker 2:know, so it's not like you could go to fold and go to unfold and be like, hey, I'm getting my techno and you know, and so, and jaded was not what it was, and of course I was changing and you know, things were just moving and it was amazing for me to be in berlin. Go to, you know, gris moeller at the time. You know, go to these cocktail, the amour parties. Go to trésor, you know, and um, experience all of this. You know, beautiful sound. And then I went to berghain for the first time and I was like wow, what is this? You know? And it was funny because at first I heard of berghain and I was like, wow, everyone is always yeah, a little bit like oh, come on, you know, and I was like what?
Speaker 2:why is this so special kind of thing? And then I went and I was like, okay, I understand, I understand why it's so special. I understand the sound. I understand also why certain music was made and why it would sound so beefy on this sound system, like it was so crazy. You know just certain tracks are just pretty much a kick a bass line on the hi-hat and you're like fuck yeah, but it actually just works, doesn't it? And yeah, and it's all this old, you know, osgoode sounds that's just mind-blowing and yeah.
Speaker 2:So I, you know, started experiencing this and and then I fast forward a little bit. Then covid came and I was like I can't go to berlin, I can't do my two weeks, two weeks so you were in london when the lockdown. Yeah, like I was. Actually, I was about to go to india for a mini tour and, and on the day I was about to leave, um at the time boris johnson was like okay, I've run locked in oh, yes, yes, I remember that well and I had covid already, so I didn't know um so I've been at the times before we really knew what it was, I guess literally like march 2020.
Speaker 2:Like you know, the first two weeks of march 2020 and then I spanned from march to august, locked in london, feeling extremely depressed, realizing that actually, you know, I was on the phone every day to my best friends from berlin and I was like I miss you guys, I miss it here. And then this one, I realized that actually, the only reason why I was happy is because I was doing this two weeks, two weeks, and because I had these two weeks in berlin exploring my creative identity, working on my projects, um, you know, making music and only having this.
Speaker 2:You know to think about. It's amazing when you can wake up in the morning and and just be fully in tune with yourself. You know, doing your meditation practices. You know asking yourself these in-depth questions about you know what are the meshes messages inside you and just being like, okay, how and what am I going to do to let this out? You know, and it's almost like self therapy and having this time to do that and then having that taken away was really difficult.
Speaker 2:So in august 2020, I came back and I was like, okay, I'm gonna come for, you know, two weeks or whatever. And then I realized that actually I couldn't leave. You know, I was, and I was feeling so, um, so full of creativeness and and so inspired and I was like, okay, I cannot leave. And I was about to leave and, um, universe was like you're not leaving and I had anaphylaxis, shock and got rushed to hospital because I'm highly allergic to nuts oh, no, right, okay, yeah yeah and uh so how was that, the universe being a little bit tough, yeah, just be like you're not going anywhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're locking you in a hospital for 48 hours, you'll be fine. And then, in a hospital, I I called um. I called a friend that I just met. That's an amazing musician. Um, shout out to dasha rush um. And I called her and I was like, hey, and I don't know why, it was kind of this intuition of like, call this person. I was like, okay, so I call, call her. And I'm like, hey, do you know anyone that has a flat for three months? Because I really need to finish some music. And she was like, yeah, me. And I was like, fuck off, no way. She's like yeah, what are you doing tomorrow? I'm like, well, I'm carrying a hospital Because I'm on an animal. It's a shock, but I could come by tomorrow. And then, and then I met Lars Hermeling, which is an amazing, also musician, berlin bass.
Speaker 2:And yeah, thanks to them, I managed to find my way in Berlin and never left.
Speaker 1:And never left. That's the classic I move from the flat. Now, yeah, come on and you set up your own imprint as well. Yeah, and I believe there's a bit of a story behind that, isn't?
Speaker 2:there. Yeah, there's a kind of concept I'm an intergalactic mermaid. I think that's been a thing for maybe over 20 years now.
Speaker 1:What would you? What do you mean by that?
Speaker 2:Well, ok, I need to call my 10 year old self, or something you know, watching Charmed and Star Trek and you know really being into mythology, I've always loved history and you know I've always been very close to you. Know that Poseidon, poseidon, how do you say in?
Speaker 1:English. Poseidon in English.
Speaker 2:But actually when they're in the summer in Athens.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, visit the temple of incredible.
Speaker 2:I've been to Crete this year. I didn't go to Greece Greece the mainland yet but I was just very passionate with mythology and I love swimming and I love the cosmos and that was kind of like my imaginary getaway. And when I'm, when I was dancing and I was doing these improvisation classes at the time in preschool, my teacher would always it was kind of like a bad trait at times where I was too fluid in my movement. You know I was not staccato, like I don't know how you say, like you know sharp sometimes enough I get a feeling for you.
Speaker 1:You know it's a very sort of like yeah, on the beat.
Speaker 2:I was on the beat, but it was very fluid you know, for me and I'm very flexible also. So it was this whole. It came from there and then with time, and also with my sound. I've always loved very blue, very aquatic sounds you know, and that came.
Speaker 2:That came from there and from the time actually I didn't even want to be called GGFM, I wanted to be called a Togetic Marry, but then I was like this is a bit cheesy, so I just kept it as my identity and then for the imprint, for me, bless you. And then for me, for the imprint, it was more you know about keeping this identity and being like OK, I want to explore my multifaceted sounds and all of these sonic realms that I have inside me, because for me, music is feelings, you know, and you don't only feel one thing. It's impossible to only feel one thing. You know, you feel so a spectrum of words that can't even compare to to all the feelings that we feel, you know, and and music can do that, and I think this imprint for me was to be able to share this you know with the world without any limitation, limitation from from someone else's vision and hopefully in the future, also being able to have other artists share, you know, their, their dimensions with with me and with the rest of people also.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. I love what you're saying about the kind of fluidity of everything the fluidity of music and feelings as well. It's like you know, and then so does that to me that kind of. I get this image of like you know as the mermaid you kind of like, because water is also sort of something very fluid and there's never a moment that's the same again. Exactly, it's the same with sounds, that kind of feeling, yeah.
Speaker 2:Is the same with sound, like, for example, like a lot of time where I start doing a track, or sometimes, obviously, I have an idea, I'm like, oh, I really want to, you know, make a track with this kind of baseline and I want it to be a little bit like purple and green and I want it to be very foresty. And I have this in my head and I sit down and I try to do it, you know, and I try to convey whatever I have in my mind and my body there on the program. But a lot of the time what I really love doing and this is also the thing the case with most of the Kiwi project is that I just open, able to knock my diary and I had no agenda. I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know if I'm going to be doing ambience or like liquidy, drum and bassy, or have some double time, or techno or or jazz, or I have no idea what I'm going to do.
Speaker 2:But what I want to do is is just convey what I have inside me, and usually it starts with with a color with a feeling and with a movement, because I also love making music standing, even if sometimes I'm not using my motion sensors, I make it a bit more in a conventional way, on the computer or with synthesizers, and I'm still standing. And for me it's about doing this loop that I can listen to over and for 20 minutes, half an hour, and I can dance to it in my living room or whatever and really feel where I want it to go and my body tells me where next we shall go. But yeah, sometimes there's just no agenda, and I think that's the beautiful thing about it.
Speaker 2:And I think it's also being gentle with yourself in a way, because a creative process and creativity cannot be taught by a limitation or rule. And this is what I love about electronic music and I compare often electronic music with modern dancing versus classical dancing. In classical dancing you have very particular physical position. You have the first, the second, the batman, the tendu, the pirouette, and you still have that in modern dance, of course. But you have in classical, right is right and wrong is wrong. But when you go into more modern and more experimental things, right is right and wrong is right and there is no rules, and for me that's extremely important to be able to fully explore anything.
Speaker 1:You know.
Speaker 2:so yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, cool, awesome, ok, thank you. That was a really lovely Thank you so much. It was so quickly.
Speaker 1:OK, so that was me, paul Hamford, talking with GGFM for Lost in Sound podcast, and we had that conversation face to face mid November two thousand and twenty three, in gallery in Corner Park in Neukölln in Berlin, and thank you so much, gigi, for sharing your thoughts, sharing your life journey with with the show Kiwi Synthesis Diary, volume Two, new record is released on December 1st. Two thousand and twenty three on GGFM's own Serene imprint label. Lost in Sound is proudly sponsored by Audio Technica. Audio Technica are a global but still family run company that make headphones, turntables, cartridges, microphones, studio quality, yeah, affordable products.
Speaker 1:I'm always wearing their headphones. I do everything. All of my headphone listening is done with Audio Technica and, yes, my book coming to Berlin is available in all good book shops now or via Velocity Press, the publisher's website. And the music you hear at the beginning and the end of every episode of the show is done by Thomas Giddens. There's always a link, hyperlink, in the podcast description to his work. I hope, whatever you're doing, you're having a really, really, really fantastic day and, yeah, chat to you soon.