‘The Piano’ – a massive Buzz Chart smash from our favourite Cagedbaby
Hi Tom, welcome to the DMC World. So a Bordeaux resident splitting his time between French and German shores. You hail from a big musical family and were obviously helped in your career from an early age – your Grandfather sounds very bloody cool…
“Hi Dan thanks for having me. Loving the site and magazine and always keep my eyes on the charts, keep up the great work. The piano was always being played in our house, we had a huge grand piano from 1890 in a great big ebony hardwood case, I would sit and play a couple hours a day and compose or pick up a guitar. There were always a few guitars begging to be picked up and various pieces of percussion from world travels. We also had a mic set up with a groovy effects box, I’m sure it was that that got me into electronica. My Great Grandfather was a classical violinist and on the other side my Grandad was a honky tonk player and big band swing fanatic so I got the best of both sides. My Nana was a dope accordian player, she had a pub in Brighton. I had a technical rock band in my teens which had full support as we rehearsed in the garage.”
What was your time at boarding school like? Was there an opportunity to further your love of music there?
“My school was super bohemian luckily. There was a strong emphasis on extra curricular activities, lessons in the morning then whatever you felt like in the afternoon. We had a great music department with a very eccentric music teacher and I had a massive crush/thing for my cello teacher. They didn’t have much in the way of music tech, but I had an Ensoniq SQ – Korg M1 and a Wavestation which I knew inside out. I formed an early bond with Korg at that school and got into sequencing very early, I’ve still got my Korg Prophecy kicking about but I’m more about Moog’s and Nords these days. Also my first bands were at school, great for jamming and building a collective, not sure how hardcore we were though.”
Can you remember the first record you ever bought?
“The first record I ever bought on vinyl was the ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ by Pink Floyd which was very well worn and from a charity bin in Lewes in East Sussex. Lewes is a very Pagan town in the Heart of Sussex – prog rocker country. I’m sure Rik Wakeman cleaned out his record collection every so often in Lewes. I had a lot of my brothers cheesy 80’s records too.”
At what part of your life did dance music start to chip away at you? What bands / DJs / clubs started to lead you down this Acid House Avenue?
“I used to go to a club called The Mansion House near Brighton in the late 90’s watching DJs play there in full UV rooms when I was under age. It closed down many siestas ago. I can’t remember who used to DJ there now but it was acid house and hard house back then – I vaguely remember seeing Rampling and the crowd were all painted in UV and had specific dance patterns to the tracks. We all left for after parties in the morning which set a standard for the rest of my life…”
Who were your early mentors in dance music who gave you advice back then?
“Ashley Slater from Freakpower and Richie Fermie from UNKLE gave me an apprenticeship into production in Brighton. I’d sit behind and absorb factoids after work and ended up collaborating with them before I started my own production. This was just as hardware sampling was going out but I have always played everything live. I use midi for beats still but I prefer to ‘get into it and play it right’ . Soon after on the Brighton scene I made friends with Norman Cook and Phil Hartnol from Orbital whom I also learnt a lot from musically and arrangement wise through working with them. One of the first collabs I did was with Arthur Baker and we’ve just got back in touch now.”
Your love of Ibiza is obvious and your sets on the ‘We Love’ stages at Space have been incredible. This year with the launch of Ushuaia, the emergence of Aura where you have played host, as well as the likes of the Swedes and Luciano putting their stamp on things, Ibiza seems to be getting slicker and slicker. Thoughts on that comment?
“I like Carnival techno layering percussive beats and grooves rather than going track to track as a DJ standard. I put a lot of love into my shows there as it demands a respect and as a result, I’ve had the greatest sets there. I think its game on the way promoters are mixing up the live acts and DJ’s. Pacha has always had a few live acts on so have We Love but this year I saw some classics…Jamiroquai, Chic, Human League and Duran Duran all played in Ibiza this year. You wouldn’t have thought that possible a few years ago.”
The great thing about the island though is you can get in your car, hit the road and 20 minutes be sitting in a tiny cove eating a picnic all on your lonesome. Where are your hideaway places?
“I do a spot for the app ‘Augmented Ibiza’ where I talk about my hideaways, but I had great fun up at Pikes (IBIZA ROCKS) this year playing in Freddie Mercury’s old bedroom suite – I like a giant oversized bath as many people will testament to. As for the Eivissa beaches – I like Cala Olivera, Punta Galera and Es Xarcu, but I’m always finding new bays to hang out in. This year I thoroughly enjoyed spending time in Mallorca and Formentera and putting a bit of space between me and the summer revellers.”
Who is the best artist you have seen play on the island?
“All the crème de la crème play in Ibiza but I really enjoy going to see my good friend Alfredo – he is Mr Balearic. Sometimes I play with Ian C too who often plays with Alfredo as he’s the best percussionist on the island. When I play I do the carnival Techno thing that Luciano does, but its goes to a new level with a great percussionist such as Ian to add natural grooves.”
A massive list of releases under your Cagedbaby and Thomas Gandey monikers; ‘Mercy Hump and ‘Trucks’ all over Radio 1 in 2010 – ‘Piano’ is riding high in the DMC Buzz Chart at the moment – how do you think your style of production has changed over the years…
“Cagedbaby was of the DFA Disco Blood Scene (last revival). I touched on Sleazy glam electro disco but I was always a bit cosmic to pigeonhole. Cagedbaby was around the same time as electro clash but I never joined that camp, we were kind of gothic electronic soul. These days ‘Thomas Gandey’ is still a unique sound but it’s for nightclubs and the dancefloor, these are bouncy tec tracks that often go deeper for sunrise. It’s very much 4/4 so it’s house music – I am often told I have a ‘big sound’.”
What was your Summer anthem?
“I’ve been rocking ‘The Piano’ track all summer, but I did a lot of edits this year for my set, and this year I’ve been playing all my own stuff out – so I’ll say Thomas Gandey ‘The Piano Track’ as it’s had the best response. Also Matt Radio Slave and I did a remix of Mousse T’s classic ‘Horny’, we’ve only sent it out to a very select few but its getting massive support from all the deeper boys like Dixon, Ame, Seth Troxler, Jamie Jones etc. It’s released soon.”
What are the big 10 tunes you are spinning right now?
“My heads up chart..
1. Thomas Gandey – The Piano Track – Radio Slave Mix
2. Thomas Gandey and Sam Watts – What do you think
3. Sacha Dive – La Santa Danza
4. Zeb Wayne and Thomas Gandey – Head Chef (unsigned)
5. Matthew Dear, SIS – Free to Ask – SIS Edit
6. Chris Leibling – MMM – Radio Slave, Thomas Gandey and D.O.P mix
7. Bart B More – Ari EP – BMKLTSCH
8. James Braun – 606 Rock N Roll
9. Chapsy – ALl the Critics Love You In New York
10. Mousse T – Horny – Radio Slave & Thomas Gandey – Just 17 Mix
What one piece of vinyl would you never sell?
“My 10″ of Strawberry Message – a remake I made of Grandmaster Flash’s ‘The Message’ and also ‘Strawberry Letter’ by the Brothers Johnson – proper blue eyed electronic soul which is very special to me. Plus it’s got a classic 70’s cover of a crazy afro taken by my friend Paul Misso at the first Glastonbury in 1971.”
Not many people know this, but Thomas Gandey is really good at…
“I have a few skills. I’d like to say nun chuckas but I’ll say table tennis. We have a Tisch Tennis Table in the Berlin apartment and we’ve been playing most days getting our skills up, this week we’ve had Jesse Rose and the guys working here from D.O.P taking up the pong challenge in between studio sessions. I’m a pretty dab hand in the kitchen too, that’s definitely from being in France…food is the soul of life.”
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
“More up time, less down time.”
What is the best and worst thing about living in the south of France?
“The best thing is the weather, cuisine, the quality of life and big fuck off prawns as Charlie Brooker would say. Some of the beaches round the house are stunning, it reminds me of the Australian coastline. Probably one of the most beautiful places in the world and definitely the best surfing in Europe. The worst thing is we still get winter, but it’s only 3 hours to the slopes to hit the piste…so I don’t have any grumbles really. It’s not LA but it’s a central hub to Europe.”
You have travelled the world twice over – what is your favourite country to return to and which crowd have the craziest clubbers?
“Every DJ loves Japan, I love playing at Womb, JApans had a super tough year and all my love goes out to them, i haven’t been back since the Tsunami and Quake there this year. As for crazy clubbers a lot of my DJ diary is in Scotland and Ireland, they definitely take the party cup, you have to fit it all in by 2 / 3 am latest so they dont hold back.
Some wonderful remixes to date for the likes of The Editors, Nelski and Grace Jones – what re-work are you most proudest of?
“I’ve done over 100 remixes. I think one that got people into Cagedbaby was the remix I did of Armand Van Helden ‘Mymymy’ – just headstrong party music. But I’ve done a lot of disco remixes too, the Grace Jones mix was a highlight for Wall of Sound. This week I’ve done a remix for Chris Liebling with Radio Slave as well as a rework of Evoke Arms Of Loren a classic 90’s house track.”
We come back to yours after the club – what are the 10 Back To Mine tunes you spin us to chill / carry on the merriment?
Ame – Rej
Gabriel Ananda – Hey Blop
Paco Osuna – Pum Pum
Mark Henning – Get Me To The Moon
Cagedbaby – Disco Biscuit
Arnaud Rebotinio – All You Need Is Techno – Gesaffelstein Remix
Glimmer Twins – LoveSucker
Elements of Life- Soundorom’s long verision
K.I.D – Don’t Stop The Music
Diana Ross – My Old Piano
Which one vocalist dead or alive would you like to work with in the studio?
“I’ve already produced a few of my vocal heroes, David Byrne, Iggy Pop and Tracey Thorn. But I’d like to do something with David Bowie. We just did a live show in the Hansa Studios in Berlin for the Red Bull Academy inspired by his Berlin tapes.”
What is your guilty pleasure record?
“I have a million guilty pleasure records. ‘Party All The Time’ – the Eddie Murphy version was pretty big this year for me. Hats off to Sharam but I love the original.”
It’s your birthday – what 3 DJs would you invite to play and why?
“DJ Harvey, Francois Kevorkian & Andrew Weatherall. Harvey for his Hawaiian tropic disco vibes, Francois because he goes deep and Sir Weatherall as he’s the greatest DJ.”
And finally, what have you got up your sleeve studio and event wise for 2012?
“2012 is all about taking myself out live again. It’s been three years since I toured Cagedbaby live and I’m working on a live show right now to take out for next year especially for the festival scene. I’m going to play and trigger everything live, it’s very exciting. I need the excitement…”
