Gus "I get inspiration from almost every country and city that I visit" - interview

Gus is a producer coming from Greece, who - a few years ago during his stay in Poland - created an instrumental song and shot a video "Spring In Gdansk", and also a full album inspired by his European travels "Eurotrip". Since then Gus has managed to release a duo album with a Baltimore MC Bullet Brak "The Connection", based on a very interesting concept - Greek samples, features from Greek MC's and classic, raw American rap.

We caught up with the amiable artist during his last visit to Warsaw, when he played a DJ set as a support before Ras Kass, Rapper Big Pooh and Apollo Brown, and recently conducted an interview via e-mail, in which Gus reveals the secrets of his production and existing international projects.

M: What does your creative process look like, where do you usually start working on a new beat? What inspires you, what equipment do you use?

G: I usually start with the sample. If I think that I hear something that I like it, I will try to flip it. So at first, I start with editing the sample. I cut the parts that I like and then I pitch it till the tempo I want. After this, I add the main drum loop and in case that I want to "fill" the beat more, I will add a breakbeat as a background. Now that I have the drum loop and the main sample, I add the bass. In this stage either I boost the bass of my main sample by playing with its equalizer or I play a new bass using VSTs. In the next step, I play a little bit more with the sample, I add extra sounds and instruments for the hook or the bridge etc... Generally speaking this is the procedure that I follow.

Everything can inspire me and of course music in general; from artists that I will later sample till producers that I like. Right now, I'm in Copenhagen and here I have only my laptop and a good pair of headphones, however, still I make the same beats. I don't think that the equipment matters at all. I know a lot of good producers worldwide who make really dope beats only with their pc and on the other hand, producers who spend a lot of thousands to buy equipment but their beats are bad.

Do you try to develop and polish your composition as most as you can or do you quickly move on to another idea, another beat?

It depends, most of the times when I make a beat, I arrange the main patterns - the basic idea and I usually make an arrangement of an intro, 1 verse, 1 bridge and 1 hook. Then, if someone wants to use it, I will work further on it and I will arrange it based on his preferences. When we are talking about beats that I'm going to upload them as instrumentals, I work with them a lot. For example in order to finish the Spring in Gdansk I was working for about 2-3 weeks only with this. I always change some minor things ( I add extra sounds, I remove other etc... ) till it comes out as I wanted to.

What do you prefer – spending many hours on mixing and mastering the beat and song yourself or rather giving it to a professional engineer?

Again it depends on the situation. I prefer to mix my own instrumentals, but when it comes to a full song, with acapella, then my engineer takes action. I don't have the knowledge to do a full mix or mastering, however I like to participate in the mixing session in order to say my opinion and express my ideas. Mastering is something totally different and I don't want to interfere to experts.

What do you like more – working on a full project with an MC (as you did with Bullet Brak) or sharing space on the project with other producers?

I like both of them. However, because I haven't got a lot free time, I prefer to work with various mcs and not to focus on only one. Imagine that when I was working for the project with Bullet Brak, for 6-7 months I was making beats only for this project ! It is a real time consuming process, but it has fun, especially if you know who you working with and what he expects from you.

What do you think about charging people for beats?

Most of the time I charge for beats - at normal rates. I spent a lot of time making beats and I think that my work should be rewarded.

How did you connect with Bullet Brak and who came up with the idea of sampling Greek music and inviting Greek rappers to join him on songs?

I first met Bullet Brak through myspace back in 2009. He told me that he feels my music and his grandparents were from Greece and he feels Greek as well.  So, at first we did three songs for my album Road to America; The Connection, More, More, More and Peace from Greece. Then, about a year ago, last Christmas, he posted on my Facebook wall "Ayo Gus we need to put a project together man" and after a week we already had finished our first song, the "Some other shit", so easy and simple. We had the same ideas and it was really easy to do it.

He told me that he wanted to do a project with Greek elements, so I proposed him to do the whole project based on Greek samples. Then we had the idea to add some MC's to the project, at first we were thinking about 3 Greek MC's and 3 American, but in the end we decided to include only Greek MC's.

What did you like most about working on this album and what was the biggest challenge?

I really like working with Bullet Brak. He is a machine! I send him a beat and within a few hours he sends it back to me with a draft recorded verse! This was how the project rolled.

The most exciting parts of this collaboration came through as soon as Bullet came to Athens. We had the opportunity to shoot 4 video clips, to perform a live show and meet a lot of new people. We also went to the studio to record a new song.

The biggest challenge was to convince Greek hip hop heads to listen the album. To be honest, people's acceptance didn't reach my personal target, however the good think is that everyone who listened our project liked it and supported it. So at the end of the day the result was positive. We did something good and also our feats contributed to this as well, all of them are well known in Greece.

I also have to ask about your "Spring in Gdansk" video – how do you remember your stay in Gdańsk and do other cities and countries often inspire you to create and try new sounds?

I really enjoyed my stay in Gdansk and in Poland in general. This was also the reason that I decided to come back again the last summer to perform in Apollo Brown's show with Ras Kass and Big Pooh.

I've got inspiration from almost every country/city that I visit, this was the concept behind my instrumental album "Eurotrip".

Let's talk about your album "Road to America" – how long did it take you to finish it up and what song are you most proud of?

It took me about two years to finish the album. Late 2008 I had the idea to start working with MC's from the USA through myspace and on 2009 I started collecting songs. So, on 2011 I released the album.  If I had to choose only one song, I would say the "Only  for you" featuring Craig G. It is still one of my favorite songs and it was my first street single of this album.

What are your plans for the future?

Right now I'm working on a new album featuring some of my favorite Greek MC's. I hope that it will be ready really soon. I haven't got a deadline yet. Moreover, I will keep making beats on my free time and releasing beat mixtracks every 3-4 months (hopefully).

Facebook fanpage

Gus on Soundcloud

Below you can watch a video to one of the singles from "The Connection" project by Bullet Brak & Gus - triumphant "Lineage". Full listen and free download available here.

Also here is a video showing Gus making a beat for our site :)