House Maestro Mr. G is in a Good Place

Mr. G has been involved in music for almost his entire life. From his youthful days as a soundsystem box boy to his lengthy run as one-half of techno outfit The Advent to his current status as a no-frills production wizard, there’s no question that Mr. G has earned his stripes. With his latest album, A Good Place…?, arriving this week, Mr G. spoke with Shawn Reynaldo on RBMA Radio’s First Floor about his long career, why he doesn’t follow trends and how he’s managed – at age 55 – to be more prolific than ever.

When A Good Place…? was announced, it was said that you had a bad experience while playing a live show which inspired the album. Can you tell us what happened?

I played a club in France and when I entered the club, I got manhandled by security. You had 30 or 40 kids behind me laughing at the security guy, like, “This is Mr. G. You’re crazy.” This security guy was trying to stop me from going in with my bag. I stood my ground and was like, “Yeah, I’m not taking this.” We almost ended in a fight, but then he called over another two security men to manhandle me.

Did you end up playing the show?

I had to. My stuff was in there. In real terms, all I wanted to do was go in, pack up and go home… [I thought] “You’ve come all this way to perform. Perform and deal with it after the moment,” you know? I was angry, but there comes a point when you can’t spoil it for those who paid to get in, however wrong or right it is, so I played. When I came home, it was still in me – in my system. That’s why I set about locking myself away, to get rid of Mr. Angry in the studio.

I know a lot of your albums have had themes. State of Flux and Personal Moments were inspired by the deaths of people close to you. Last year’s Night on the Town LP was about a sort of imagined night at a club. What is the new album about besides venting this anger – or is that what the whole record is about?

No, it’s also about what came out of the anger. I’m in a good place. I'm more relaxed and confident in what I do and I feel blessed with the life I live. There is a question mark at the end, which is always, “Is it great?” “Are there downsides of traveling at this age?” That’s why it’s a double-edged sword. It’s not an album of moodiness. It’s an album of joy [about the fact] that I have the ability to go to the studio and write music. Those tracks, especially “Yard Food,” are about taking all the angst in you and making it into something interesting: dark, deep and with a crawling bassline. The new album is about me finally being in a better place after losing people, after death and so on. It is a statement.

You alluded to this a bit just now, but you’re in your 50s and you’ve been involved in music for most of your life. Are you tired at all? Do you still enjoy going to the club, dealing with the grind of traveling and all the other stuff that comes with being an artist?

That’s a hard one. It depends where. Of course, when you go into places like Tokyo or Singapore, for example, you’re super excited and nervous about what will be there. I don’t focus on the negative, though, because I’m in the best position. I get to travel somewhere, be fed and watered and play my music on someone else’s system – what’s not to love?

The only time you feel like that is when you have a bad gig, and the whole world seems to be on top of you: “Oh, I’m not feeling this anymore.” But that’s just how weird producers are, you know? I feel I’m blessed. Get on, put up, shut up. This is your chosen path. However tough or however difficult, however stressful it can be, this is the path I chose and there’s no point moaning about it.

People often say that your music needs to be heard in the club to be fully appreciated. Do you think that’s true?

Yeah, because I’m a sound man. Everything I do sonically in the studio is not about radio or not even hi-fi. It’s about some big, bass-heavy system – it’ll talk to you.

For years, people have described your music as tech-house, but in the past few years it seems like that term’s become something of a dirty word because it’s affiliated with commercial sounds like those of Ibiza and big festivals. How do you feel about your music? Do you think it’s tech-house? Do you even worry about these kinds of trends or terms?

No. If you know me, you know that I don’t get involved in the industry bull. I'm just on the train, rolling along merrily and doing my own thing. Sometimes I look out the window, but at the end of the day, I’m not following fashion. I do think what I make is a hybrid of house and techno, because I have those sensibilities. I only know how I can make drums push with the soulful sounds of house. When the two come together, they do make tech-house. I would like it to be the rightful use of the word. In the same way, people talk about minimal, but then my word for minimal would be Robert Hood, you know? I don’t lose too much sleep over that. The people who get you, get you. The people who don’t, don’t. It’s just a label. I think my music is far beyond more than just inverted commercial tech-house.