Geordie Greep - The New Sound
Percey Bysshe Shelley, the English poet and husband of the great Mary Shelley, once stated that “the mind in creation is as a fading coal” a thought that illustrates his personal battles with the ephemerality of creativity. “The conscious portions of our natures are unprophetic either of its approach or its departure” he concluded, words that resonate with me now as I battle to fill the expanse of white space that lies ahead of me on the page, praying for a bolt of inspiration from the blue. Advance and retreat, type and delete. Sisyphisian warfare. My frustrations are softened somewhat by the amateur nature of my efforts; however, I often ponder the reality of this process for the professionals, the virtuosos, the experts.
Between the years of 2019 and 2022, Black Midi released a trio of records that turned British music on its head, with their expansive sound they dismantled closely held ideas on genre, eviscerating boundaries that had previously existed to create something truly new and unique. They were labelled as everything from post-punk to math rock, even avant-prog was thrown into the mix as people tried to define their body of work. Their influence on the grassroots scene within the UK was huge, mobilising an eclectic wave of fans who flooded venues up and down the country, desperate to get a glimpse of this unfathomable entity.
When confronted with this kind of success, when you change the game, how do you sustain your creative vitality? How do you continue to push the boundaries of your craft? Do you ride the momentum into inevitable decline or do you cut and run? Start anew? For Geordie Greep, the band's former vocalist and guitarist, it was the latter. Last month he released his debut solo album The New Sound shortly after the news broke of Black Midi’s indefinite hiatus. “The problem is if you’re in a band, no matter how good it is, it eventually becomes a brand. That’s just how it goes, but if you want to try something completely different, there’s no guarantee that the rest of the band will” he explains to me during our recent conversation, as we connect over Zoom, “It’s easy for bands to end up in this kind of creative deja vu or become a parody of themselves.”
Geordie Greep. Credit: Yis Kid
Creative stasis is not just the enemy of artistic progress, but a knotweed capable of toppling even the biggest edifice. Noel Gallagher once claimed “It's a working-class thing ... I'm not an experimenter," exemplifying the kind of anti-musicianship sentiment, proudly held at the heart of alternative music throughout the NME years of the late 90s and early 00s. These comments were made shortly before the release of Dig Out Your Soul, the last of a long line of middling records that stained the band’s legacy before their eventual split back in 2009. This is a fate that Geordie Greep was desperate to avoid at all costs and one that he actively kicks back against on The New Sound. “As soon as you start pulling a punch or holding back, it sets a precedent that's hard to break after that” he considers as we discuss his mentality when putting together the record, “I just thought I may as well really not give a fuck. If I'm going to do my own album, let's try and make it as different as possible.”
Recorded between Sao Paulo and London, The New Sound is a truly immersive experience, a record where stories of Machiavellian miscreants, barroom cads and would-be generals are soundtracked by a rich tapestry of musical influences that range from Steely Dan to the unmistakable sounds of South America, a recurring motif throughout the tracklist. “I love that music” he tells me, “I don't know what the hell they're saying, or I don't have any historical context or association so, I'm literally just listening to it as pure music, it's a testament to how well it’s constructed.” The result of this rich array of influence is an electric mix of the depraved and the dazzling, a dissonant combination that signifies the next chapter in Greep’s creative genesis and a project deserving of all of the critical acclaim it has received.
Following recent live performances up and down the country, including his show at Brudenell Social Club in Leeds, where he and his band played for more than two hours, it appears that the studio album is perhaps just the beginning, a small scrap of a much greater Kerouacian script. A jumping off point or source material that can be stretched and contorted, a living and breathing entity. “ I don’t know what it's going to sound like in five or 10 years, I hope that it sounds different, I hope that it's developed. If it hasn't, that wouldn’t necessarily be a complete failure, but it would be a bit of a shame” he considers, highlighting his constant desire to evolve his musical style.
The experience of seeing Greep and co conducting and collaborating was mesmerising, a performance that borrowed more from the world of jazz than anything I’d previously experienced in traditional rock or popular music (with the exception of their cover of Thin Lizzy’s ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’, which was played straight up). The desire to do something different, push things forward has stayed with Greep from his own formative experiences of going to shows back in the 2010s. During our conversation he reflected on watching bands such as Swans perform, he explained “that was the experience where I was like, a live show can be so much more than just playing the songs. It can be this brilliant thing where you kind of have that out of body experience, and you go to a different kind of reality.”
Geordie Greep. Credit: Yis Kid
In a world where music is constantly dissected, categorised, and reshaped, Geordie still appears to stand enthralled by its mystique. “Music is the most mysterious art form while also being the most accessible,” he reflects, a statement that speaks to his deep reverence for its enduring power. Known for his own distinctive style and cerebral approach, it is clear that he believes our connection to sound often transcends explanation. “You can break down why you like a painting or a movie or a book by relating it to something that happened in your life,” he notes, “but with music, if you like the way something sounds, it can be such a strong reaction, but there’s no way to justify it.” With an understanding of music that goes beyond melody or harmony; for him, it’s all about those rare, transcendent moments. “I think early on I recognised it’s all good to have a good song or a good tune,” he says, “but when you get to those moments, it puts you in a completely different place.”
Thinking back to Shelley’s metaphor about the “fading coal,” it's hard not to be struck by how Geordie Greep’s journey embodies the same restless pursuit of inspiration and progress, in search of those evasive moments of transcendence. Creativity, as Shelley described, is unpredictable and fleeting, yet Greep seems to thrive in those liminal spaces of exploration, refusing to let his flame settle into a predictable glow. Instead, he propels himself into new, uncharted territories, defying the creative stasis that so many artists face and fall victim to.
It’s a reminder that, whether on the page or in the studio, the battle to create something meaningful never really ends, no matter what success you’ve previously achieved. We’re all just trying to keep the spark alive. Greep’s story, like Shelley’s words, leaves me with a sense of awe at the unpredictable nature of inspiration and the relentless drive to chase it, even when it feels like an endless cycle of advance and retreat, type and delete.
The New Sound by Geordie Greep is out now via Rough Trade Records.
