A Guy Called Gerber

Guy Gerber is maybe not so different to hundreds of other DJs as he sits in his studio and discusses the track he's finishing. “It’s going to be the second single for the project I am doing with Puff Daddy,” he explains. “After that the album we have done together will come out.” Ok, so Israeli Guy Gerber is not your average DJ. His understated, dark and simmering take on techno and house has earned him a slew of fans in the clubbing community as well as being a big favourite with DJs. His first single Stoppage Time was released on John Digweed’s Bedrock label and, fittingly, he will be playing the Fringe Opening Party with Digweed’s frequent companion Sasha. 

But back to the Puffy Daddy story for a minute. How does a respected but uncommercial, techno/house DJ end up working with one of the most high profile artists in the world? It all began when Puff Daddy used a sample of his and liked it so much he invited Guy to his studio. It may seem like a lucky break but you soon realise that Guy’s good fortune has been due to hard work and an ability to make sounds that people respond to – his dark, claustrophobic reworking of Puff Daddy’s Nothing Can Be True is an example of this. “It was unclear how it was going to turn out. I was jamming in the studio and he liked what I was doing so I showed him some hypnotic and psychedelic stuff.” Puffy ended up asking him to remix his last album and then insisted they work together on a new album.

Gerber’s musical tangent is interesting because until now his steady rise to recognition has been based upon more traditional avenues like playing regularly at the biggest clubs in the world, having an brilliant live show, and running a label beloved by DJs, Supplement Facts. It’s no wonder he’s taken so long getting round to checking Edinburgh off his destinations list. His first time in Scotland a few months ago made a lasting impression on both sides; a few weeks later some of the same Scottish crowd caught up with him again at a night in Barcelona. “Or were they Irish?” he suddenly wonders, “Wait, maybe I made a mistake! Glasgow is in Scotland, right?”

Having played often in diverse places such as Mexico, Ibiza, Rome and his hometown of Tel Aviv, I ask him what differences he finds between them. “For me it is always the people themselves. You can see that in some places they like melodic stuff and in others it’s got to be deeper and dark. Of course,” he adds, “you get the places where they will let you do anything and you can play some really strange stuff!” Now based in Spain, he still talks about the clubbing scene in Tel Aviv as having gone through something of a slump as underground clubs began closing before it began to reemerge. “People go out there all through the week and most of the bars have electronic music so that keeps it alive. Right now it is pretty cool so I don’t know, it’s less underground for music lovers but still very nice.” 

I ask him his thoughts on warming up for the likes of Sasha. Guy tends to maintain deeper sounds on his warm up sets whereas his headliners are much stronger and hypnotic and he thinks it’s actually quite nice to follow him. “I always try to create an atmosphere whether it is peak time in a club or early at a festival. I don’t feel like I’m stealing anyone else’s peak time and as I play most stuff live we won’t play the same tracks. Although...”, he suddenly laughs, “it’s rare I’m not the headliner so I usually don’t have to worry!”

Guy Gerber still has more traditional work in production. A new album is set for release early next year with a few singles expected before then, the first being The Tourist with remixes by Jamie Jones and label mates David K and Soul Camp. His label, which is less than five years old, has already released more than twenty five records and the artwork that adorns each cover has received so much attention that they have even been the feature of an exhibition in St. Petersburg. Guy’s philosophy behind this is simple enough: beautiful covers will keep people buying vinyl, a rare example of art driving commerce rather than the other way round.

I ask him how this underground work fits into collaborating with mainstream pop artists but his intentions seem very clear: “What is always important to me is to keep my music underground and to show the mainstream that music can still be experimental and ambitious.”