It’s quite complicated to introduce Gus Till with a few words. Perhaps saying that he is a musician, producer and Dj who has been offering music to the world since the 70’s, blended with an exquisite and eclectic flavour.
Pop, rock, jazz, or electronic sensations in psychedelic manners, with an ample history of releases and remixes. Figures like Nina Hagen, Bono, Todd Terry or Jamiroquai have been gifted with his collaboration.
And of course, he is constantly providing to the listener with beautiful ambient and chill out music impregnated with tradition and spiritual emotions.
We admire his background, we are grateful for his endless creativity, and we feel very fortunate to talk with him.
Interview by Shantiago on 06/08/24.
Hi Gus How are you? Thanks a lot for having a conversation with us.
Thank you Santiago, my pleasure.
Are you currently in Melbourne? How does the upcoming spring season look in Australia?
Yes I’m in Melbourne and it’s the middle of winter – but I’m glad to be here and yearning for those first few spring days.
Let’s start with the basics. Who is Gus Till? What is his mission as an artist?
To get whatever is inside my head outside, in a format such that it can be appreciated, useful, edifying and entertaining.
How did you discover the wonders of sound? Could we know about your early days playing music?
I’ve always been fascinated by, shall we say ‘psychedelic sounds’? The Beatles blew my mind with Strawberry Fields and I am the Walrus – I was captivated by these extraordinary sounds, I had to know what it was and how to do it – all of a sudden the piano seemed very very dull! And around 1971 we were at family friends for Xmas and someone put Moog Play the Beatles on the stereo and my mind was blown again. Immediately bought the album (or my mum bought it for me more likely) and so began a lifelong obsession – I would buy any album that featured a synth on it from that point in time and was always building little tone-generators and filters and messing about with tape-recorders. Eventually I got an ARP Odyssey for my 18th birthday (in lieu of a car mind you, but my dad went for it, bless him) Soon I was joining bands and then I got into studios….
Your work has been driven by a versatile approach. Would you like to briefly tell us about the different projects during your ample career?
Initially it was bands, one of my early ones which quite oddly had a film more or less made about them… Dogs in Space. I was in a couple of ‘new Romantic’ style 80’s bands and then did the Max Q project with Michael Hutchence and then Third Eye. Around this period I got heavily into studio work eventually leaving Australia around start of the 90’s. I ended up working with Todd Terry in NY and then moved to Paris where I did a lot of interesting things – the Turban Bloc project and working with Manu Dibango and Nina Hagen amongst others.
Then it was London and the nascent Psy Trance scene where I was working at TIP, Butterfly studios and then with Slinky Wizard and the Flying Rhino crew. Also worked on an Opera season in Barbados and did some stuff with Eddy Grant whom I met while I was there.
Come the 21st Century it was Zen Lemonade with my then wife Cozi and a move to Bali where trance took a bit of a backseat, as I was really not interested at all in the direction it headed in. I was putting my energies into ambient and downbeat productions. Now I’m back in Australia and finishing off a very dubby downbeat album which I want to feature vocals on – tell the truth I’m working on several albums – as usual – never really know which one is ever going to get over the finish line!
What is your vision of ambient, chill-out, or experimental music? Where do you receive the inspiration to create those boundless sonic landscapes?
The easiest way to answer that is to listen to the music! But I do like very textural organic sounding things – especially with rhythms now and there was quite obviously a massive influence from living in Bali with the gamelan, which features quite heavily, particularly in my ambient stuff.
Let’s talk a bit about some recent releases, such as ‘New Lease’, ‘Dreamland’, ‘Shōtobājon’ or ‘Music for a Rainy Season’ along with Supercozi. What are the different concepts behind each project?
Music for a Rainy Season was made very much to cater to the spa/ wellness sector in Bali which I had a lot of exposure to and it worked very well there. Most of my ambient style releases are geared to that market so they have a very functional side to them as well.
Actually the story of how I got into doing spas is quite interesting… a friend there had just built a major luxury spa – which went on to win many awards – and I was asked if I would DJ for the opening, which happened to be a dinner with the guest of honour a certain Sting. At the end of the evening Sting turned to my friend and told him the music in the spa was a load of bollocks which caused him pain, he then turned to me and said why don’t you do the music for it? And that was that!
How do you organise your work when creating new music? What kind of gear do you use?
Hmm organization, not my strong point! But the main focus is an overblown Mac Studio running Logic and literally waaay too much software – the utilization there of being always in process and continually refined. I recently added some hardware, the Softube Control 1 (with its requisite software), a superb piece of kit which really helps the workflow. An Apollo xp8 is the main interface and a recently procured 24 channel TLA all valve input mixer which I’m still getting wired up correctly, as now that I’m back in OZ I have a lot of my old analogue gear, in particular my heavily modified Oberheim OBXA. It’s a bit of work getting this stuff all permanently wired and set up!
What do you like to use when performing on stage?
Bit of a minimalist here, generally just a laptop and whatever USB keyboard is appropriate.
Talking about life, how was your experience living in Bali? There is no doubt that the island was enriching you with beauty and creativity.
Well yes, I think I answered this in the previous questions, Bali was great but it changed or at least my relationship with it did and the right thing to do was move on, yet somehow I never really saw myself coming back to Australia. I’d always imagined I’d be heading back to England yet having another child at this stage in my life certainly changed all that thinking!
Do you find a strong connection between music and spirituality?
I don’t have any other leanings other than music being my spirituality.
What are your near-future plans?
Get the music in my head out… it’s getting awfully crowded in there!!
Who is the human behind Gus Till and the rest of his music alias? What do you like to do besides music?
Cook, eat and drink well, walk in the parks (which I’m surrounded with) read, listen to music… and try to stop my weird enthusiasm for geo-politics!!
And before finishing, would you like to send a message to the psybient.org community?
Big ups, respect!! It’s this type of community that makes it all worthwhile. Check out what your favourite artists are doing and please support them!
Thank you so much for sharing some of your melodic insights and harmonious knowledge. We continue the music journey with Gus Till immersed in beauty, and we look forward to listening to whatever is next. A big hug; see you soon!
Listen and follow Gus Till:
https://soundcloud.com/gus-till
