Melbourne’s GMJ (Gavin Martin) and Matter (Matty Doyle) joined forces in late 2015, a triggered recognition and magnetism for their shared perspectives and love for deep atmospheric music leading to the formation of the GMJ & Matter collaboration.
Already drawn by a respect for each other’s unique sound, their first meeting soon saw them in the studio crafting the acclaimed ‘Superposition’ EP for Proton music, which was debuted at Rainbow Serpent Festival 2016 and released afterward to big success, supported by industry heavyweights including Hernan Cattaneo and Cid Inc. This was followed by the ‘Osmosis / 11 moons’ EP in 2017, and the “Interscope / To the Stars” EP in 2018 which further highlighted the pair’s distinct and accomplished sound.
A natural synergy and seamless understanding has seen works constantly flow, with remixes for Pete K, Andre Sobota, Juan Deminicis, Nopi, Donny Carr, DJ San & Rudy UK, as well as fellow Aussies Funkform, Pantheon, and David Leckenby. 2019 raised the bar higher as the duo joined forces with Funkform for a highly anticipated debut EP for the esteemed Balance Music.
Studio success translated into demand from a constantly growing number of respected festivals and clubs both locally and abroad. A debut performance at Dragon Dreaming Festival 2017 was followed soon after with support gigs for Nick Warren and Dezza, leading towards a fully live performance for Wildwood events, then on to their debut European tour in late 2019, with gigs for Progressive Astronaut in London and Replug Records 10 year anniversary at ADE in Amsterdam. 2020 has seen the conception and constant growth of the pairs Meanwhile Recordings imprint, which has opened to high regard throughout the industry, both as a platform for their own signature sounds, and as a home to some of the world’s finest. With many amazing artists and releases on the horizon, Meanwhile is already on the way to establishing itself as a premier force in the world of global deep progressive house. With constant inspiration raising the heights in reflection, the future is to the stars!
We caught up with GMJ & Matter to talk about their latest release ‘The Path / Perfect Storm’ via Meanwhile Recordings.
Electronic Groove: Hi Gavin! Hi Matty! How are you doing guys? We’re excited to have you here with us. Quite the year we’ve left behind… What balance can you make on a personal level out of all of it?
GMJ & Matter: Hey, guys, thanks for having us, great to be here! Yes, it has been a wild year but for us, it was a good one on many levels! Obviously, a challenging time for humanity and we are all affected, but also gave time to reflect on what’s important, and also musically aligning to start our label was a highlight.
Electronic Groove: You’ve been quite active the past year with a handful of great releases and the steady growth of your own label, Meanwhile Recordings. How are you coping with balancing your individual careers, your musical partnership, and the label?
GMJ & Matter: We have been busy! Even though there were next to no live gigs or performances, it seems it was the best time to launch and grow our new label. The response has been amazing so far and it has been a lot of fun doing it together. We feel music still played a vital role in helping people escape into lighter spaces so for us providing an outlet for our own sounds and other artists we respect and admire was fantastic. We balance the work of the label between each other and our A&R James Warren pretty evenly and it all seems to organically flow which is great. The label has definitely been our main focus musically, with shared releases together and individually appearing in our first year, but we have still also found time to work on our own solo projects and other collaborations in 2020 as well!
In some ways being in lockdown for long periods provided more time to get in the studio, but that also needed to be balanced with feeling inspired and motivated to create in amongst the life challenges, but overall we embraced that and the chance to share music with the world more than ever.
Electronic Groove: About Meanwhile…now that a few months have gone by since its inception and going strong into its 11th release, how do you feel about running a label? Is it more work than expected? Was the timing right?
GMJ & Matter: It feels amazing! We are grateful to our friend and CEO of Proton, Jason, for showing us a vision for the label at ADE last year that made it achievable with our busy lifestyles. We are lucky enough to have our A& R James handling a lot of back-end stuff which leaves us to focus mostly on the fun stuff like signing amazing music, design & branding, promo, among others. We are blown away by the results in our first 11 releases, and also by the amazing artists who want to come on board with us. Our ethos is to only release the highest standards of music to our ear and production values. People then get to know us as a label they can rely on and trust, and that has happened really quickly which is humbling.
The timing we believe was perfect. As mentioned earlier, people were soaking up music in 2020 as much as ever to bring hope, light, and transcendence in a challenging world.
Electronic Groove: Were you expecting the rise you’ve had over the past couple of years as individuals and as a duo? What do you think makes this partnership so successful?
GMJ & Matter: I wouldn’t say expecting but we believe in ourselves and our music as collaboration and individually; we have something to say and it is meant to be through music in this life, so expressing it is natural. The rise of the last couple of years is also not an overnight thing; both of us have been in the music world for almost 20 years; it’s amazing how the appearance of rapid growth can be concealed behind years of hard work. Since we met and joined forces that growth has expanded exponentially as we are always there to encourage and lift each other, and also not afraid to call things as they are! But above all we just love this music, it’s in us and we would be doing it without external success just for the love!
“People were soaking up music in 2020 as much as ever to bring hope, light, and transcendence in a challenging world”
Electronic Groove: Speaking about its 11th release, ‘The Path / Perfect Storm’…it’s quite a biggie. And it also features a dazzling remix by Alex O’Rion. What was the process like for this EP?
GMJ & Matter: The originals were 2 tracks we conceived in 2020 and developed over a number of months, tweaking and re-arranging as we went. We rarely physically sit down to work on tracks together, instead of passing files back and forth, making calls together on what works or doesn’t. We started one of these tracks each and we are happy with the results as complements to each other.
It was great to get Alex O’Orion back involved with a remix for ‘The Path’; he was really excited about the original when he first heard it so he was the perfect choice.
Electronic Groove: As we know, Alex has been a frequent collaborator over at Meanwhile. How did that relationship come about? What is it that draws you guys to his sound?
GMJ & Matter: Alex first made contact with Matty and not long after with Gavin a few years back online. We had been listening to each other’s music and it was one of those relationships that evolved organically. Last year we spent some time together hanging out in person at ADE which was awesome, as well as all playing at the Replug event there.
We also have a really special thing going on where we pass our tracks back and forwards, giving advice, feedback, and comments which has really helped us all and solidified our friendship. We all feel like we have had a hand in each other’s successes which is really special!
Alex is one of the finest artists in the sound today. We love the rich depth of emotion in his sound, his groove, and his technical wizardry. I think overall we have a real resonance between the three of us for our sounds and that is just a natural reflection. Also, we have a good laugh which is great!
Electronic Groove: The pandemic has put music artists in a very weird spot, in the sense that they create music but can’t or aren’t able to showcase all they have done in a live setting, with their fans. And, generally, there’s a notion that we discard music too fast, especially in the electronic music scene…Do you think fans not being able to consume music immediately and artists having to delay the chance to showcase all the work done previously will affect how we perceive and consume music from now on?
GMJ & Matter: It is an interesting question for sure. For us, we didn’t slow or delay anything in 2020, but we know other prominent label owners and artists who put all their releases on hold. While we understand the reasoning with no physical or live gigs, as we mentioned earlier we really felt the music still makes a big difference in people’s lives when they hear something new from their favorite artists and it transports them to a place removed from the challenges they may be facing. So for us, it has been ‘creation as usual’ so to speak. We will always continue to create, and with the internet and possibilities to put the music out there, the timing is what it is for us. 2020 was an amazing year to start our label and also brought some of the best received moments of our careers so far.
It is true that a lot of music these days has a shorter shelf life but true quality and music from the heart and soul still stands the test of time. We do think that perhaps the pause we have had in the scene events wise could lead to some more positive outcomes, such as local markets supporting their talented local artists more, and more boutique events with the right intention becoming prominent again.
Hopefully, as in the bigger picture of life itself, the electronic music scene will strip away some of the glitz that isn’t really about the music and get more of the right events and music coming from an authentic place
Electronic Groove: Speaking of live settings…what’s the situation down like in Australia? Have you been able to plan any gigs? How do you feel about live shows during a pandemic?
GMJ & Matter: Things just started opening up this January again! We just played an event together last week for our good friends at Morning After, and we have a live stream on site coming for Rainbow Serpent Festival (unfortunately the festival itself can’t run this weekend). I (Gavin) have a gig in Brisbane coming up on February 24th for Lemon & Lime at Sub Rosa, then we have the Enchanted Garden Party in April also here in Melbourne as well as some other prospective dates. We are pretty lucky in Australia right now with things, but we have done the hard yards to get here also.
We have no active community cases in Melbourne right now and in other states where the gigs are being held, all the right things are being done so I feel overwhelmingly supportive of promoters and venues running events to keep their livelihood and the scene alive.
“We will always continue to create, and with the internet and possibilities to put the music out there, the timing
is what it is for us”
Electronic Groove: Can you tell us which Meanwhile release you can’t wait to play live? Why?
GMJ & Matter: ‘The Path’ EP! We just got the masters back for all 3 versions so we are looking forward to hearing those on a system!
Electronic Groove: What can we expect from GMJ & Matter for next year?
Matter: I am putting the finishing touches on my debut album which will be out sometime this year on Meanwhile. Also look out for releases from me on The Soundgarden, Bonzai progressive, Proton to name a few.
GMJ: I have releases coming up on Plattenbank, Sound Avenue, Proton, Clubsonica, and more.
GMJ & Matter: We have more collaborations together coming of course on Meanwhile, onedotsixtwo, Mango
Alley, and more to be revealed ☺
Electronic Groove: Thank you so much for sitting down with us! We wish you the best going forward and hope you have a great year!
GMJ & Matter: Thanks so much for the chat guys! Have a great year yourselves and to everyone!
GMJ & Matter’s ‘The Path / Perfect Storm’ will be out February 5th via Meanwhile Recordings. Grab your copy here.
Follow GMJ: Facebook | Soundcloud | Spotify
Follow Matter: Facebook | Instagram | Soundcloud | Spotify
