Made his mark on 2022 with panache: Fred Gibson, the 29-year-old DJ and producer you can call Fred Again.. His ‘Marea (We’ve Lost Dancing)’ was already a lockdown hit, last year the last part of his Actual Lifetrilogy was received with cheers and dancing, and he gave a five-star concert at Pukkelpop. Moreover, the Briton was one of the first headliners to be announced for Rock Werchter 2023. About Belgian regional beers, Brian Eno and asthma puffers: There spoke to the breakthrough of the year.
A viral TikTok video showed how a fan bumped into your turntable, causing the sound to cut out in the room. You did not scold the man, but gave him a hug. That was the most heartwarming thing I’ve seen this year.
Fred Gibson (laughs): “Fucking Rodney! He was dancing so hard he bumped his beer belly into my table. You might see the fear in his eyes when the music stopped. But I can’t be angry because someone gives everything? Everyone should have that much energy on the dance floor.
”In the meantime I met him once more: a sympathetic man. And he just sent me a message: if I can’t put him on the guest list for a concert. So a true friendgrins).”
You have made three records in a year and a half, performed almost fifty times in recent months and also work as a producer for Ed Sheeran and Stormzy, among others. Don’t you run the risk of colliding with a burnout?
Gibson: “Ask me once more in a year when I’m on the couch recovering (laughs). No, at the moment I’m happy with how everything is going, I’ll see what the future brings. You have a point, but when you put it like that it sounds heavier than it is.
“The blessing of my job is that it never really feels like work. Plus: there are plenty of moments to relax. During a tour there are also evenings without a show. Well, then chances are you’ll find me dead drunk in the city center (smile).”
Remarkable: almost all the photos I find of you seem to have been taken either in a car or on public transport.
Gibson: “I like to travel. I also like to work and write in vehicles. The inspiration then comes more smoothly, it’s my best state of mind. Much better than waking up and rushing straight to a studio where it has to happen.
“By the way, the train to Brussels was one of the best I’ve taken.”
I will pass it on to the NMBS. What’s the craziest place you’ve ever made a song?
Gibson: “The smoking room of a club in Berlin, while there was plenty of dancing around me. Well, I don’t need much more than a laptop: I can work anywhere. I don’t need to drag a cello or anything (laughs).”
Do you sometimes drink before or during a show?
Gibson: “No! If I make it a habit to drink two beers before a show, one day it will be three. And then four and five and seventeen, until things get completely out of hand. I know myself.
“Even if I only drink two beers, I’m less focused and my voice sounds different. People don’t pay for that. I want to give them the best possible performance.”
Recently you had to bring out your asthma inhaler during a performance.
Gibson: “I always give my all during a show and sweat like crazy. It’s exhausting. But I smoke, so it’s entirely my own fault if I get out of breath. Don’t write it as if I’m fishing for pity.”
You played everywhere this year: from small venues to Coachella. What suits you best?
Gibson: “I recently played in the velodrome in Berlin in front of 12,000 people, the night following in Hamburg with an audience of barely 600 people. Well, both shows are among my favorites of 2022.”
Does your next record have a track called ‘Rodney’? Every song of yours Actual Lifetrilogy is named following the person you sampled.
Gibson (vague): “Often I just run into someone online who lives on the other side of the world. I send them a message to ask if I can use their voices for my music, and get almost nothing but positive responses. Kyle, Sabrina, Angie… They were so much fun!”
Cards on the table: you have become a world star this year. Is that already reflected in your rider?
Gibson: “Absolutely not. I only ask for scented candles. I used to have more wishes: Kinder Bueno and Guinness, especially. But you quickly get tired of the same food and drink every day. Henceforth I will be content with what is available. In the AB that was a good selection of regional beers (laughs).”
What is your favorite meeting of the past years?
Gibson: “I got to know Jay-Z thanks to Stormzy. Special: Jay speaks non-stop in quotes, like a kind of prophet. I filmed my first conversation with him on my iPhone, which later became the intro to Stormzy’s set at Glastonbury.”
You have been aspiring to a music career since you were 6.
Gibson: “I already played the piano then, yes, and thought it was fantastic. (Fast) I was not a prodigy, because I turned out to be untalented in almost every other way. I wrote my first song when I was 9 and by my 10th birthday my first album was ready. There were surprisingly many power ballads on it (laughs).”
Will we ever hear it once more? Whether or not mixed with newer work?
Gibson: “Mate, that’s brilliant! (Makes note in his cell phone) I will immediately look for those songs at home and see what I can do with them.”
Brian Eno became your mentor at 16. What did he see in you?
Gibson: “No idea. But recently my mom sent me an interview in which Brian said that I’m his mentor as well, and that he’s even started listening to music differently because of me. To hear that from someone like Brian is… crazy.”
Did you know who he was when you met him?
Gibson: “He was the neighbor of a friend of the house, and I knew he was doing something in music. I hoped to learn something from him, so I courted him by making tea every week with the singing group he met with. I had no idea how big Roxy Music had been, nor did I know he had collaborated with David Bowie and Talking Heads. Perhaps better this way: if I had known all that, I would have been terrified and intimidated.”
What’s the best advice he’s ever given you?
Gibson (thinks): “Brian told me regarding his postman in Norfolk not long ago. Perhaps a job that doesn’t seem exciting to everyone, but that man did say this fantastic sentence: ‘Someone’s existence is just as interesting as what you make of it in your head’. Verily: words to live by.”
How interesting is your own life?
Gibson (laughs): “Very fascinating! And I will always find that. Even if I ever become a postman.”
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