Gorgon City talks US vs UK dance scene, new album at SXSW [Interview]

Kye Gibbon and Matt Robson-Scott are the makeup of Gorgon City, a London-based electronic duo that has been winning over the hearts and ears of club goers all around the world. Perhaps best known for their #4 UK Dance hit "Ready For Your Love," the Black Butter Records duo is hot off the heels of their 2014 smash and are ready to show what else they have up their sleeve. 

Relaxing after their long flight at The W Austin Hotel, we had the pleasure to sit down and chat with Gorgon City and see what's been on their mind. It was a beautiful mid-70s afternoon at SXSW, and Matt and Kye were in radiant spirits prior to the onslaught of shows they were scheduled to play in the next couple of days, including a spectacular performance at the AMOnly Showcase. We touched on topics ranging from their origins, their optimistic thoughts on dance music in the states compared to the rest of the world, and the many things they have in store for us in 2014. Check out the interview in its entirety below, and be sure to be on the lookout for their new music by following them on their social media pages. 

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Earmilk: Have you guys done SXSW before?

Matt: First time! Always wanted to be here, it’s a legendary kind of event. Definitely always have wanted to do this.

EM: So you've never been to Austin either I assume?

Kye: No, I've never even been to Texas before.

M: Yeah, I've only been to Texas once when I was like 7 years old.

EM: What is your SXSW schedule looking like this weekend?

K: I think tomorrow night we might be doing a total of 4 DJ-sets, so that’s going to be crazy. It’s sick doing so much, but at the same time it’d be cool to explore and see other people play.

M: Yeah, yeah. It’d be great to see others play. Looking at the schedule we don’t have much time to see anyone else. And when you come to a music festival there’s so much music and you just want to absorb it all and explore. But we love DJ’ng!

EM: How did you guys come to meet and pursue working together?

M: We were on the same DJ agency doing our solo projects a few years ago, and we literally started off by doing collaborations like most dance producers do – just for fun. It just went really well and we kept doing it again and again and finishing tracks really easily. So, we thought, “lets make a new name for it,” and we went for it.

EM: So you've recently released “No More” with Liv, how was it working with her?

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K: Yeah, well that track was never going to be a single or anything, but she was amazing. We’ve worked with her quite a bit, and she just has such a nice voice. Great to listen to on your headphones.

M: A very sultry kind of tone, very dreamy. When we wrote that track, at that time that was my favorite track we had ever done. I still really love it, I love the chords in it – they really kind of get me. I think the song is great and the song is going to be on the album. We wanted to put it out there to give people another taste of what’s to come. Obviously “Ready For Your Love” has been around for a bit, and has been on the UK radio for a long time now, so we wanted to put something else out there so people know there’s more.

K: It can be quite frustrating, because we are now sitting on so much music. We are sitting on so many tracks and we just want people to hear it!

M: So when they told us they were going to give it away we said, “Yeah, cool, whatever, anything! Let people hear something else!” 

EM: You mentioned your album, can you let us know what you have in store for 2014?

M: Yeah, so the album is pretty much finished. After this tour we’re going to go home and do a few more sessions and make a few more tracks just to see what happens, and then the album is going to be done next month and should be coming out around August. So we have the album, touring, summer festivals in Europe, and we’re coming back out here for Coachella.

K: Coachella is another one like SXSW, where you just hear so much about it over the years and we’ve always wanted to do it. So that will be sick.

EM: You’ve spent a decent amount of time touring in the states, what are your thoughts on dance music here versus in the UK?

M: It’s quite different, because obviously the whole EDM thing is enormous here, where in the UK it kind of feels like it isn’t as big. But you still have really good underground scenes, crowds, and vibes in the US, so I think it’s really good.

K: Yeah, I suppose it’s sort of more diverse in a way, because here you get one extreme to the other. Whereas in the UK, you won’t really see EDM sort of stuff.

M: Yeah, so people headlining enormous shows and stadiums in the states – they might not be as big in the UK. So in that way, maybe we have a more direct scene for the underground where it’s more about all the names. But out here there’s a big difference between the big EDM stars and people who are playing the underground shows. So it makes it so the people who are at the underground shows are more into it and more into the music. So I actually think the crowds in America are really good.

EM: Very cool, and I think it’s been interesting to see that UK-bred music like deep house has been getting more and more popular here in the states.

K: Yeah, I suppose so. Stuff from the UK does have an influence on the underground scene out here which is cool to see. So it’s going to be cool to see what happens over the next year or two.

M: Yeah, we think it’s changing very fast. I mean, it’s so hard to tell. We’ve just been in Australia at Future Music Festival seeing the more mainstream side of dance music, which was kind of interesting because to me it didn’t really sound like what mainstream dance music is in America. I don’t really know because I'm not from here, but it sounded different. It didn’t sound like EDM or dubstep, it sounded more like dutch house. The dutch house scene is kind of taking over at the moment and becoming mainstream. But it’s all crazy the way it’s all happening.

EM: What are your thoughts on dance music's rising status at the Grammys?

M: Yeah, well Skrillex started it off didn’t he? He smashed it. It’s funny, because Daft Punk would be the band to win it 7 years ago. It shows the industry is seeing the lucrativity of dance music and how it can be used in the film and commercial world. For someone who lives in England, when Skrillex won a Grammy it was just completely crazy and I couldn’t wrap my head around it. In England Skrillex isn’t probably as big as he is here, but I’d heard of him obviously and seen him play, but it was completely mad.

EM: So what was your top album of 2013?

M: For me it was James Blake I think. He won a Mercury for that, but even if he hadn’t I would’ve thought it was definitely the best. Rudimental killed it as well.

K: I loved the Moderat album as well, for sure.

EM: What tracks have been in heavy rotation recently?

M: A lot of Rudimental. We’ve been playing a lot of underground house stuff.

K: Jesse Rose came out with a new album and that’s been really cool.

M: Something which has a new sound, which I’ve found interesting, is this thing that people are calling G-house. These guys called Amine Edge, they’re from Paris and they’ve started up a label called CUFF Records. It’s basically just house with rap lyrics done in a deep way. It’s cool, you should check it out. It’s not like a “genre” or anything, but that’s a way you can describe it. It’s kind of like gangster-house.

K: When we were in LA a few months, we recorded with a singer/rapper, and we could’ve made a house track with her that we’re excited about.

M: Yeah and it’s kind of got that flavor. CUFF Records has done a compilation which has a lot of cool tracks on it, and is something we’ve been playing in our DJ sets.

EM: Anything else you want fans around the world to hear?

M: Keep an eye out for the album! It’s something that we’re really excited about.

K: We’ve been working really hard for the last year or more on it, and it’s been exciting for us making it. A lot of new experiences, new challenges, working with songwriters, singers, other musicians. It’s been a lot of fun, and it’ll be interesting to see what people think of it. I think people might be surprised by what the album sounds like. It doesn’t really sound like an album that people would expect.

M: Yeah, it definitely has some different vibes on there. It will be interesting to see what people think.

K: Yeah, I think people might expect this like garage-deep-house album, but it’s different. We wanted it to sound like a 2014 album and a bit different, something that we could listen to for awhile.

M: Yeah, we wanted a timeless album, haha.

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