Bilinick: September 2010

A brief chat with American drum & bass duo Gein (aka Adam Darby and Ronny Eremija) leads us through their new release with Dieselboy's Human Imprint, touches on hometown scene politics, introduces their label Bad Chemistry and the whole thing comes together with an exclusive mix packed with new music.

Tell us about The Human Chemistry EP on Human Imprint, how did this release come about?

Adam was living in Atlanta about a year and a half ago, and started collaborating with a good friend, Mayhem. Together they got the tune Ghetto Dope rolling and when Adam moved back to Milwaukee we took it from there. Around the same time, Silent Killer and Breaker sent us a start to the tune 6 Feet, and after a few months of fine tuning both tunes were finished.

Dieselboy caught wind of Ghetto Dope and wanted it for the relaunch of Human Imprint and after hearing 6 Feet decided that they would fit perfectly together for an EP on Human. And seeing as how Human Imprint is one of the biggest drum & bass labels in America, we were happy to work with them on it.

Your tracks are well known for their dancefloor appeal while maintaining a strong dose of darkness, with new subgenre names popping up every other day, what do you call your own stuff?

Simply put, our music is drum & bass. We really do not like to get involved in all the separation of styles, because the more divisions and subgenres you have, more thought goes into what to name the new subgenres than actually listening to the quality of the music. If you had to actually put a name to our music, drum & bass will suffice just fine because our style is changing every day with every new influence we gain from life's daily complexities.

The blending and evolution of music styles is an ongoing process, and drum & bass has been at the front of the pack in that regard for the past ten years, where do you see it going in the next ten?

Drum & bass, to us, has always been a very fast growing style of music that has progressed considerably in the past ten years. It seems that this style of music fits well with all sorts of influences, so we see the next ten years as being basic limitless. We've seen artists use techno, minimal, dub, reggae, hardcore, hip hop, dubstep, and rock 'n' roll influences over the past ten years, and there have been some amazingly groundbreaking tunes coming out. We believe that the next ten years will be very interesting to listen to, because it could go anywhere.

A large chunk of your catalog includes hip-hop / rap vocals, so how do you choose the samples you use, and what other influences do you pull from when working on beats?

Our samples, as a group, come from our individual influences. We all listen to different styles of music on a day to day basis, so when we all get together we draw from each other, expressing where we want a project to go, and work from there.

The name Gein has some pretty dark connotations, how did you choose it, and why does it fit you guys so well?

The name "Gein" comes from a well known serial killer from an area near our hometown, Ed Gein. The name wasn't necessarily chosen to represent death, darkness, etc. but more to represent the complexities and unknown brain patterns involved in such actions, which when transformed into music gives you the power to really explore the direction your music will take, without much outside interference.

We felt the name gave us the ability to basically do whatever we feel is right with our music and not worry so much on what people wanted us to do.

Six years of working together in the studio and playing shows all over is no small feat, have you had any trouble balancing your friendship with the work involved?

Of course. We have been friends for a long time and nerves tend to flare up at moments, but somehow we always tend to work everything out for the best.

What kind of reception do you get playing out in your hometown, and has it always been that way? Where are the best crowds you've seen, and what are your favourite places to play?

When we speak about our hometown, Milwaukee, there are some positive and negative things about it. It's a small city, which helps when you look at things like people knowing what you're doing in the music world, and local support for shows you play at. The past few years though, the scene has become somewhat divided and local support is very hit or miss, which is very disappointing, but at the same time it's okay because we are not confined to our hometown. Gein has toured all over the United States multiple times, and the European tours have all been amazing. Some of the greatest crowds we've seen in the USA have been in LA, Atlanta, and Portland, and Europe as a whole has been pretty amazing, with unbelievable responses in Russia, Portugal, Serbia at the Exit festival and countless others.

Do you have any side-projects or alias stuff we should be watching for?

We thought about side projects and naming them different things, but we decided to stick with the name Gein for any projects we do together in any style of music. So anything we do musically will be pushed on our Bad Chemistry Recordings imprint or on saintGEIN's Habit Recordings.

Thanks for putting together a mix for us, what can listeners expect?

First and foremost thanks for giving us the opportunity to do this mix. We are proud to represent our new label Bad Chemistry and the music on it, as well as all the artists we support and labels we are on worldwide. We have done this for a few years now with our Skinsuit Sessions mixes that have done quite well for us and, more recently, our Bad Chemistry podcasts have helped us really push our label's sounds. So for this, we fused all ideas together and came up with a mix that showcases upcoming Bad Chemistry releases, great music from our friends and, more importantly, what we believe is music that has staying power.

Words: Ty 'Dubcomm' Metford

Download Gein's guest mix

Tracklisting