Macky Gee will release his fifth studio album It’s A Gee Thing on May 29.
Balancing his signature raffish riff-heavy style with bassline, house, dubstep, trap and even a little dash of EDM, It’s A Gee Thing will feature collaborations with the likes of Mefjus, Bizarre, David Zowie, Tempa T, Cyantific, Franky Nuts, Axel Boy and many more. Without doubt his most diverse and explorative album to date, the 150BPM first single from the album – Not That Guy, with Tempa T – was a statement of intent.
The latest single, the euphoric synthy stepper Demand, dropped last week. Ready For You, with David Zowie, will land May 22 before the full album is released on Macky’s Down 2 Earth imprint on May 29 (see the full tracklist below)
Last spotted on UKF smashing up the Quaranstream, we called him up for more info…
Bet you never thought you’d be releasing this album on a lockdown when you wrote it…
Yeah and I’m glad I finished it when I did. It would have limited me badly in terms of collaborating and things. It’s actually worked out okay for me, I have to be honest; I just got to sit here and think of ways to promote the album, which is much easier when I’m not getting off flights and knackered all the time. It’s a funny one though isn’t it. You kinda wonder if you should hold off releasing it but there’s a lot of people at home bored out of their heads right now, so let’s give them something to listen to.
Amen. It doesn’t feel like two years since we spoke about your last album Moments, but I remember you talking about experimenting and trying new things. What we’re hearing on the album is what you were talking about…
I’ve wanted to do different things for years but wondered about doing an alias or whatever but it’s catch 22: I can’t constantly release the same sound that got me popular because that would be boring and people would say ‘ah you just make the same thing all the time’ but if I try something different then people say they want the old Macky or they want another Tour or whatever. I can’t win so fuck it, I’m spreading my wings and trying new things.
We need to talk about the Mefjus collab, The Devil. How did that happen?
We linked through his MC, Maksim, who I knew anyway. He’d been saying me and Mefjus should connect for a while but I didn’t think Mefjus would be up for it to be honest. In the end I hit him up and said ‘let’s do a tune’ and he got back saying ‘fuck yeah.’ Quite surprising really. Then from there we send things back and forth until we came up with something. We’re well happy with The Devil. I think the idea of us collaborating confuses some people, though…
You’re total opposite ends of the spectrum in many ways but it’s all just D&B and I bet you shared a lot of ideas during the process?
I don’t know man, he’s mind-blowingly technical. The stuff he was sending over was incredible and I learnt a lot from that. He’s the most technical guy I’ve ever worked with.
Ah but I bet if I asked him about this he’d say similar things about your hooks and riffs…
He did actually say something like that when we were doing this. Basically that we’re combining those two strengths. His technicality, my hooks. The best of both worlds I guess.
That’s the beauty of collaborations. There’s a lot on this album. Obviously the Tempa T link-up on a bassline tip..
Yeah that was sick. We started chatting, I sent him some ideas and came up with this thing. I don’t even know what it is. It’s not bassline because it’s too fast but it’s too slow to be dnb. It’s 150BPM but he went nuts to it. We went to the studio and I’m not lying, he smashed it in an hour. Mental. Then I linked up with Wayne Lennox who’s a director who’s made a load of sick things. He was really into this one so we made a video with some actors from Lock Stock, which was a massive touch. I really enjoyed that. Hopefully after lockdown I can make some more videos.
How about the David Zowie collab. How does a jump-up DJ end up collaborating with a chart-topping house producer?
Ha. My mate’s sister goes out with him. I randomly went round his house, just purely on the social, we got talking about music and thought ‘fuck it, let’s make a tune together.’ I’d never done house music before, thought it would be fun to try things out. We got some ideas down which we were happy with. Ruth came from Bristol and smashed it out with the vocals and it was done. That’s the one I’m the most excited to see released because it’s so different to anytrthing else I’ve done. It’s borderline commercial. We’ve kept the bassline version of it in there too to keep things bass friendly.
How about I Need You, with Cyantific. That’s another quite unlikely collab…
We met at an event in Rotterdam and were just chilling, had a laugh and talked about collaborating. You get different types of collabs don’t you? You got the big ones that are just a business thing, which is fine, whatever, but then you got ones where you’re just linking up to jam and see what you can make together. That’s what it was like working with Jon. We never set out to make anything specific, we just sat down and seen what came up. They’re my favourite type of collaborations.
There’s a track right at the end called L.O.V.E. Another a surprising one, it’s almost on a Flume vibe.
Yeah that surprised me too! It’s definitely more of an EDM vibe innit. I was just jamming with some chords then put some beats under it and realised it was at drum & bass tempo. It’s a very weird tune for me. It’s another one of those ones I’m really not sure people will make of it but I’m happy with it.
This is your most honest album isn’t it?
Yeah man. With my other albums I always put something different on there to show that I’m not just about one sound. There’s always a random different tune, but this one I was thinking ‘take it or leave it’, this is me. This is my fifth album. If I don’t spread my wings now, I never will. You don’t know how long this music thing lasts. In five years time when no one cares any more I’ll regret not releasing different things. Especially when I got a hard drive full of it.
That’s an equally bleak and positive way of looking at things. It so true though. There are many hard drives all over the world with gold on them that may never see the light of day. Dillinja is still finding old tracks from 25 years ago he can’t believe he didn’t release. A lot of it is a confidence thing isn’t it?
It definitely is for me. You get known for a certain sound and a certain niche and you play to that because it’s your USP, but if you just chase that alone then you’ll lose people in the end. Nike don’t just sell Air Max 95s do they? People will get bored if they did.
We’re back to where we started… It’s all about balance.
That’s right but I’m happy I’ve got the balance right on this album. I’ve been sat in my comfort zone for too long. This is the album I’ve wanted to do for years, I hope people like it.
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Tracklist: Macky Gee – It’s A Gee Thing
Intro
Macky Gee – Destiny
Macky Gee – Foolin’
Macky Gee – Joy
Macky Gee x Axel Boy – Another Level
Macky Gee – Demand
Macky Gee – Same Sound Skit
Macky Gee – Erotic
Macky Gee – Riot Riddim
Macky Gee – Like Me
Macky Gee feat Tempa T – Not That Guy
Macky Gee feat Azza x Grima – Never Prang
Macky Gee – Bizarre Skit
Macky Gee feat Bizarre – Revenge
Macky Gee x Franky Nuts – Take Me (Drum & Bass Mix)
Macky Gee x Franky Nuts – Take Me (Dubstep Mix)
Macky Gee – Curbed Tooth
Macky Gee x Mefjus – The Devil
Macky Gee – Obsessive
Macky Gee – Justice
Macky Gee x Dux N Bass – Surreal
Macky Gee Feat Stuart Rowe – Rude Awakening
Macky Gee x David Zowie Feat Ruth Royall – Ready For You (Bass Mix)
Macky Gee x David Zowie Feat Ruth Royall – Ready For You
Macky Gee x Cyantific – Need U
Macky Gee Feat Carasel – 180
Macky Gee Feat Ryden – LA 2 UK
Macky Gee – L.O.V.E
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