Gary Des Etages

Interview 25 November 2003

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Tell me about the album - seems like it's been a long time coming?  How long did it take, some of the tracks are a few years old now aren't they.  Are you happy with the product.

In a sense the recording of the album has come together very quickly - some of the songs had been written over a period of time others were actually written in the studio during the recording session. I was down in London at the recording studio with Mark "Fish" Coddington the FER label owner and my manager Mark Dufour working on a couple of the tracks for a single when Fish suggested why not try and get the album started while I was In London, after all I wasn't planning to return to my home in the North of England for another week ! once I'd recovered from my fainting spell the producer Barry Bee and myself knuckled down to some serious writing and amazingly the album came to be. I am very happy with the final result, but of course as with anything there are always things you feel you could have done a little better and i think that is a good thing, it means you don't become complacent about what you are doing.    

It's been stated and I don't know the truth of the matter, that you could have been picked up by a bigger label.  If that is true why FER and how has that been good for you.  How important to you is it to have control over your artistic output.

Some major labels had been expressing an interest in me, making very positive noises and saying that we should do something, then a few months would pass without hearing anything, we may then hear some more positive noises and then another few months would pass with the suggestion that soon they would be in a position to do something and so on and so forth, we finally got fed up with the waiting. First Experience Records had been expressing an interest also during the same period and were willing to put there money where their mouth was and so we finally decided to go with them. One of the drawbacks with a small independant label is the much smaller budgets your working with but a great positive is their comittment to making things happen, the greater control you have over your music both in relation to artistic control and the ability to retain a much more significant proportion of your publishing.

You've done quite a lot of shows and PA's across Europe and the UK.  How have they gone down.  What do you think of the UK soul scene, and do you see yourself as part of it. Do you use it to influence where you want to be, where you want to go or do you look stateside.

The PA's that I've done have always gone very well, particularly amongst the soul crowds where the passion and enthusiasm that I'm often greeted with is wonderful, the soul scene however in England is very small which is why we have tried to create an album with tracks that have a more urban flavour which we hope will appeal to the RnB crowd, I did a PA recently at Southport where I performed the Blacksmith remix of one of my tracks called 'Anything'  in front of an essentially urban crowd and the response was great, probably the best response I've ever had from an urban audience. I certainly consider myself part of the British soul scene such as it currently is but recognise that it is necessary to take on board what the current generation are listening to, otherwise as an artist you may as well pack up and go home. Where I want to be in relation to my music is wherever my music will be appreciated, whether its Britain the States or anywhere else, however its always nice to be appreciated in the place you consider home.

The album is fresh and well produced and 'fits' that scene.  Is that you or are you getting guidance from elsewhere.

It's me me and only me !, only kidding ! without the support from my manager and Mark Coddington I would not be in this fortunate position now, Mark Dufour in particular has provided invaluable advice as regards the mix of tracks on this album and trying to reach both the urban and soul audience, it was also Marks suggestion that I do the Change cover 'Glow of Love'.

Fish made the contact with the producer Barry Bee who is responsible for the urban feel that some of the tracks have. Bottom line, this album has clearly been a team effort !

Some of your product or remixes have been more 'Urban' and some more 'House'.  Do you 'feel' those marketplaces, or are you just testing the waters, or is that a commercial decision.  Where do you see yourself in a few years time. What do you feel most the more Urban like Anything or Bad Mutha Luva, or the soulful ballads like Why.

Lot of old school influences in there too, a Change cover and Eugene Record samples for example

What I most naturally 'feel' when I write is slow or mid-tempo rhythms and beautiful and interesting melodies,which I tend to interpret as SOUL. House music with its quicker more regular beats doesn't come quite as naturally to me, I love a lot of the urban stuff out there but for me it must have an interesting rhythm and good melody, in other words it's got to be in touch with the soul. It's true to say that attempting to write in these other genres is an effort to reach a wider market but if you don't the chances are that you won't survive, the soul market on its own is simply not big enough to sustain an artist anymore. In a few years time it would be nice to be working on a second or third album, have gained a solid fanbase in the urban and soul markets and be making good inroads elsewhere in Europe.

No doubt I feel the soulful ballads more, I love their passion, I love their drama, they feel more real to me. A song like "Bad Mutha Luva" is purely entertainment and fun.

As I said before, you've got to have that soul feel, the track with the Dramatics sample was already complete musically, but it had no lyrics or melody, Barry began playing it and I thought that sounds great, I asked what he was doing with it and he said nothing, can you do anything with it, and so I wrote the song.

Who advises you on the remixes and what do you think of them. You write most of your songs?

Myself, and both Mark's have come to realise over time that some of the tracks have required a remix in order to appeal to either a house audience or an urban audience, these realisations have come about based on a number of factors, advice from other DJ's in relation to what's hot in the clubs, the responses we get from PA's, what other artists are doing etc. In a number of instances I personally have preferred the original version although I have been happy with the remix. In fact, the original version of 'Don't I Know You' is on the B side of the Blacksmith remix of 'Anything' which I'm really happy about, I hope some other of the original versions of my tracks will also get heard in due course.

Yes I do write my own songs, I think its essential nowadays, I certainly wouldn't have an album out now if I had to rely on others to write for me.

Who are your 'team', who do you use for musicians, productions, advice and so on. Barry Offloh for example, and singers Tracie Riggins and Sioban Getting some good press? Hope that translates into sales I guess?

My team at it's core consists of Myself, Mark 'Fish' Coddington and my manager Mark Dufour, we decide who we need to produce or to remix the music, Fish and Mark concentrate on the business and I concentrate on the singing and songwriting. Barry as the producer we employed brought in the additional vocalists.

Good press is important but it doesn't necessarily translate into sales, what is essential is getting the music heard and that means getting the music played on the radio stations, we have been getting great support from Solar Radio and Soul 24/7 and have recently started getting played on Choice FM and BBC 1 Xtra in London, however we are still trying to get support from one of our main national radio stations 'Radio One'.

Who are your influences both old and new, and also in writing.

Marvin Gaye Is my favourite singer of all time, I also love the Stevie Wonder of the seventies era before he became too poppy for my tastes, I love Donny Hathaway, Roberta Flack, Gladys Knight and more recently Angie Stone, Jill scott,and some of the American male groups like Blackstreet and Jagged Edge.

To me you are kind of quite a well known name (through the Modern Soul scene, FER, Expansion, live PA's etc) but I know little about you.  Tell me about yourself, where your from, how music evolved as a career choice, to where you are today.

I was born in South London, to a West Indian father and a Yugoslavian mother. My father is also a singer and songwriter and had some degree of success during the late sixties and early seventies, he would often ask me or my brother to sing some backing vocals on his demos or play the violin on some of his songs, I guess I got hooked during this time. I used to have a battered old reel to reel as a young teenager on which I started writing songs and experimenting with harmonies and when my Dad was out I used to play his piano, experimenting with different chords. As I got older I was in a few bands which didn't really go anywhere but they helped me in learning more about the songwriting process and what worked and what didn't when singing to a live audience. A few years back I entered a tv talent competion called 'Get Your Act Together'  which was for singers and songwriters performing their own songs, incidentally I didn't win but it was from that show that I hooked up with Mark Dufour and so in the long run I think I gained a better prize.

You had some product out at Expansion, on the Soul Steppin album as I recall, were they in the mix for your signature for the current album.

The song that came out on Expansion was the song I wrote and performed on the show I just mentioned, it was called 'If You Ever Fall In Love" however, I had to sign a contract as part of that show that meant I gave away any and all rights to the song, as a consequence I have never performed that song since that time.

Prior to that was some House material like Where is the love and Loving you, the SDA stuff, is that where you started. What did you think of that.  It went down quite well didn't it.

I'd amost forgotten those songs, I was working with a guy who had just formed Vice Versa records and we worked well together and had some stuff played on Kiss FM, I haven't talked to him in years, if he wants to stick that material back out there then good luck to him, but i think it'll be sounding quite dated by now. 

What's happening now, you still promoing the album.

The album is still in it's early days as regards promoting it, as I've mentioned we still hope to get some of the national stations on board but this is a quite difficult mountain to climb. In the meantime we carry on with the PA's, the interviews and getting the Des-Etages name out there.

What's on the agenda for the next few years. Anything likely to be happening in the US

I think It's more likely that we'll be trying to make inroads into the European markets and possibly Japan than America at this point, but we will take on board any good opportunity that is presented to us from wherever it may come.

Tell me a bit about yourself, what you like doing, your background, what you'd do outside of music, what interests you and so on.

I enjoy going to the gym for some weight training. I like playing tennis and also play a little football. I love reading fantasy novels and some sci fi, real escapist stuff. I went skiing for the first time last year and it was brilliant, took me about 8 days to get the hang of it but once I did I was off..

Anything else you'd like to add

Thanks for your interest Mike and I hope I haven't waffled on too much. Gary.   

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