Interview - Gemini Brothers
Gemini Brothers: Interview
Words: Andrew Thompson
As the UK moves forward to a referendum that will possibly change the T’s & C’s of their daily living, it awakens the populace to a realisation that the status quo can be challenged and change can be the feared unknown for all, the ignorant and the unserved.
The right to democracy and devolution will always lead to a time of political instability and personal apprehension and can take decades for any manifesto to deliver. That troubled freedom can also instigate a marvellous cultural renaissance, as the shackles of former regulation and restriction of movement are removed.
In December 1998, the Stalinist leader of the Romanian Communist Party Nicolae Ceaușescu ordered his security forces to fire on anti-government demonstrators in the city of Timișoara. The Romanian Revolution then moved on to Bucharest and as Ceaușescu and his wife fled, they were captured and executed. For the previous twenty years, in order to address the country’s mounting foreign debt, he had exported their national industrial and agricultural assets. This led to a shortage of basic necessities, drastically lowered living standards and intensified unrest.
“With foreign music in the Communist years, there are still stories about illegal collections, with The Securitate arresting music collectors for having Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” or other music that can harm the Red Party ideology. Really tough times for music lovers but of course there were always people who love to risk, and get, good music.”
“When the Communists fell, we were around 10 years old, so we still have some memories. The fact that that system fell has, of course, its positive and negative sides. Freedom of speech, freedom of travelling, a few small steps to a freedom market - are some of the things that, the so called ‘revolution’, gave us!”
For The Gemini Brothers, twins Ionut & Razvan, this freedom gave them previously impossible opportunity to expand their shared love of music. Not that the pre- Revolution days offered nothing.
“Before the communists fall we were into Romanian music, even if it was folk, folkloric, pop, rock and all kinds. From our side there were so many good and quality sounds in those times. There were a lot of great composers, using good equipment and recording on the only Romanian label called Electrecord.”
These early and yet restricted influences led the young men towards Adrian Enescu and Rodion G.A. (“the Romanian one-man Kraftwerk”) and their initiation into synthesisers and electronic music. The records that these artists made, some using reel-to-reel Tesla machines and even Casio VL Tone pocket synths, at a time when any club playing these records may expect a visit from The Inspector, would give clear direction to the brothers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb-OF6n_65o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSJ77zI1tGU
With their first steps into Capitalism and all that shiny world could offer came the flood of US pop & rock and MTV charts. Welcome To The Jungle.
“And then the silly revolution came, Neo-Communists came over and here we are in the same ‘90s political and economic jungle! Meanwhile, everybody can buy music, records, cassettes, CDs. To be honest before ’97 we’ve been huge rock fans where Queen or Guns N ’Roses were in the top of our tastes! Depeche Mode or Michael Jackson came a little later in our collection.”
It was an NYE party when the bani dropped for Ionut & Razvan, and the desire to get more involved became easier as promoters relished the relaxation on getting established acts into Romania.
“We started step by step to get interested in the local scene, checking festivals, clubs, local DJs. Of course there had been small rave parties in the beginning, but somehow everything grew up! Festivals, clubs, promoters started to get more and more foreign acts with heroes that we knew only from those mixtape cassettes. Jeff Mills, Carl Cox, Sasha and Hawtin started to come very often to Romania so the scene actually became quite big.”
Despite that early reclamation of dancefloor territories by the superstar DJ’s, the brothers still feel that there are still very few opportunities in their homeland and play outside of Romania in order to get the respect they want from fellow countrymen. And have a solid ambition.
“We would love some day to play in Fabric! Such an incredible venue. The artists that have been there and expanded that place into a huge underground movement in fact. Having an interview, and an exclusive mix would be a fantastic way to express your thoughts about music, your vision about art to a quite well organized crowd.”
http://soundcloud.com/gemini-brothers/tronik-youth-zulu-whisky-hotel-gemini-brothers-out-of-hotel-mix
Over the past two years, The Gemini Brothers have been grafting hard and investing time and any profits into building up their studio set-up. They are certainly feeling the love for it, with their remixes and productions getting charted across Europe.
“We are really close to this new ‘Chug’ movement as well as Balearic, Acid, Techno, Dub, Dark Disco, Nu-Disco! Once you start listening to a living legend like Sir Andrew Weatherall with his legendary ALFOS sets, Ivan Smagghe, Ewan Pearson, Prins Thomas or Todd Terje there is already so much music to discover. Richard Norris is a legend for us too and we are so honoured to have his positive feedback.
There’s also great records by Rich Lane, Duncan Gray, Eskimo Twins and Timothy Clerkin’s Heretic project. And our Romanian brothers Khidja!”
With a debut UK festival lined up next year (the expanded Alfresco in Blackpool), the fellas are very excited about a trip to the English seaside. “Alfresco makes those fantastic events with ALFOS mainly as guests, but also supporting the local scene as well. Promoters like Chinny are hard to find these days. We are so honoured to play there next year and it is a dream to meet the living legends like Sir Andrew Weatherall or Shit Robot from DFA plus old friends like Haules Baules, who used to live in Bucharest for a while, or Tronik Youth to name a few. Really looking forward to making the people in Blackpool dance!”
The twins use their entwined musical journey to telekinetic effect. "I think that there is this 'eye view' feeling like in tennis when we DJ together, and you always trust that your partner will help you escape from a difficult situation. Always being together, working together and sharing the same feeling together. But we argue, damn we argue!"
The Gemini Brothers remix of Shindu’s “Trust Me” available now on iTunes
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/trust-me-ep/id902325606
The Gemini Brothers remix of Future Bones’ “Dirty Profit” coming late September on Tici Taci.
Full details on Alfresco 2015 here: https://www.facebook.com/AlfrescoFamilyEvents
Words: Andrew Thompson
As the UK moves forward to a referendum that will possibly change the T’s & C’s of their daily living, it awakens the populace to a realisation that the status quo can be challenged and change can be the feared unknown for all, the ignorant and the unserved.
The right to democracy and devolution will always lead to a time of political instability and personal apprehension and can take decades for any manifesto to deliver. That troubled freedom can also instigate a marvellous cultural renaissance, as the shackles of former regulation and restriction of movement are removed.
In December 1998, the Stalinist leader of the Romanian Communist Party Nicolae Ceaușescu ordered his security forces to fire on anti-government demonstrators in the city of Timișoara. The Romanian Revolution then moved on to Bucharest and as Ceaușescu and his wife fled, they were captured and executed. For the previous twenty years, in order to address the country’s mounting foreign debt, he had exported their national industrial and agricultural assets. This led to a shortage of basic necessities, drastically lowered living standards and intensified unrest.
“With foreign music in the Communist years, there are still stories about illegal collections, with The Securitate arresting music collectors for having Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” or other music that can harm the Red Party ideology. Really tough times for music lovers but of course there were always people who love to risk, and get, good music.”
“When the Communists fell, we were around 10 years old, so we still have some memories. The fact that that system fell has, of course, its positive and negative sides. Freedom of speech, freedom of travelling, a few small steps to a freedom market - are some of the things that, the so called ‘revolution’, gave us!”
For The Gemini Brothers, twins Ionut & Razvan, this freedom gave them previously impossible opportunity to expand their shared love of music. Not that the pre- Revolution days offered nothing.
“Before the communists fall we were into Romanian music, even if it was folk, folkloric, pop, rock and all kinds. From our side there were so many good and quality sounds in those times. There were a lot of great composers, using good equipment and recording on the only Romanian label called Electrecord.”
These early and yet restricted influences led the young men towards Adrian Enescu and Rodion G.A. (“the Romanian one-man Kraftwerk”) and their initiation into synthesisers and electronic music. The records that these artists made, some using reel-to-reel Tesla machines and even Casio VL Tone pocket synths, at a time when any club playing these records may expect a visit from The Inspector, would give clear direction to the brothers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb-OF6n_65o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSJ77zI1tGU
With their first steps into Capitalism and all that shiny world could offer came the flood of US pop & rock and MTV charts. Welcome To The Jungle.
“And then the silly revolution came, Neo-Communists came over and here we are in the same ‘90s political and economic jungle! Meanwhile, everybody can buy music, records, cassettes, CDs. To be honest before ’97 we’ve been huge rock fans where Queen or Guns N ’Roses were in the top of our tastes! Depeche Mode or Michael Jackson came a little later in our collection.”
It was an NYE party when the bani dropped for Ionut & Razvan, and the desire to get more involved became easier as promoters relished the relaxation on getting established acts into Romania.
“We started step by step to get interested in the local scene, checking festivals, clubs, local DJs. Of course there had been small rave parties in the beginning, but somehow everything grew up! Festivals, clubs, promoters started to get more and more foreign acts with heroes that we knew only from those mixtape cassettes. Jeff Mills, Carl Cox, Sasha and Hawtin started to come very often to Romania so the scene actually became quite big.”
Despite that early reclamation of dancefloor territories by the superstar DJ’s, the brothers still feel that there are still very few opportunities in their homeland and play outside of Romania in order to get the respect they want from fellow countrymen. And have a solid ambition.
“We would love some day to play in Fabric! Such an incredible venue. The artists that have been there and expanded that place into a huge underground movement in fact. Having an interview, and an exclusive mix would be a fantastic way to express your thoughts about music, your vision about art to a quite well organized crowd.”
http://soundcloud.com/gemini-brothers/tronik-youth-zulu-whisky-hotel-gemini-brothers-out-of-hotel-mix
Over the past two years, The Gemini Brothers have been grafting hard and investing time and any profits into building up their studio set-up. They are certainly feeling the love for it, with their remixes and productions getting charted across Europe.
“We are really close to this new ‘Chug’ movement as well as Balearic, Acid, Techno, Dub, Dark Disco, Nu-Disco! Once you start listening to a living legend like Sir Andrew Weatherall with his legendary ALFOS sets, Ivan Smagghe, Ewan Pearson, Prins Thomas or Todd Terje there is already so much music to discover. Richard Norris is a legend for us too and we are so honoured to have his positive feedback.
There’s also great records by Rich Lane, Duncan Gray, Eskimo Twins and Timothy Clerkin’s Heretic project. And our Romanian brothers Khidja!”
With a debut UK festival lined up next year (the expanded Alfresco in Blackpool), the fellas are very excited about a trip to the English seaside. “Alfresco makes those fantastic events with ALFOS mainly as guests, but also supporting the local scene as well. Promoters like Chinny are hard to find these days. We are so honoured to play there next year and it is a dream to meet the living legends like Sir Andrew Weatherall or Shit Robot from DFA plus old friends like Haules Baules, who used to live in Bucharest for a while, or Tronik Youth to name a few. Really looking forward to making the people in Blackpool dance!”
The twins use their entwined musical journey to telekinetic effect. "I think that there is this 'eye view' feeling like in tennis when we DJ together, and you always trust that your partner will help you escape from a difficult situation. Always being together, working together and sharing the same feeling together. But we argue, damn we argue!"
The Gemini Brothers remix of Shindu’s “Trust Me” available now on iTunes
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/trust-me-ep/id902325606
The Gemini Brothers remix of Future Bones’ “Dirty Profit” coming late September on Tici Taci.
Full details on Alfresco 2015 here: https://www.facebook.com/AlfrescoFamilyEvents