Joining the Musical Dots

Hi Gilles. How are you feeling stepping into the 2024 festival season?

I’m good. I’m busy. There’s so much going on right now. I turn 60 this year and it feels like everyone expects you to slow down, but it’s never been busier for me.

Does this time of year usually feel like a big change of pace for you?

Not really. Even though I’m behind a few summer festivals, I’ve never been a seasonal DJ. I’m a year-round DJ.

What does a regular day look like at the moment then?

Well on a Saturday I’ll get up early, about seven, then go on a big run — ten miles or so. I’ll have that done by about 10.30am, then it’s breakfast and I’ll start prepping for my show, which will have been building up all week.

I have quite a weird approach to radio, I don’t have all my links prepared and my set list ready well in advance. My approach is always to have an idea of what the ingredients will be, but to try and capture the energy that I might have felt in a club the night before.

Then at 1pm or 2pm, I’ll head into the studio to prepare to be live on air from 3pm until 6pm. Last week I went straight to Kings Cross after the show and jumped on the Eurostar over to Paris. I got in about 10.30pm local time and was on the decks by 11pm until 3am. A straight four-and-a-half-hour set. Bed by 4am. That’s quite a normal Gilles day.

You headlined the first ever Urban Village Fete and have been back a couple of times since. What's the vibe like for folks who haven't been before?

Yeah I’ve been doing it for years. I like the fact that it’s a free event. Wayne Hemingway does a great job on the curation and it’s a really good balance of talks, culture and music. The narrative of it all is something I like.

I’ve always been a DJ who enjoys playing to new ears, and when you do a free event it means that people who wouldn’t normally come and pay to listen to you are going to hear you, which is a huge benefit. When you’re someone who’s a bit left-of-centre that gives you a huge opportunity to put that music into a mainstream context and just blow people away.

You’re headlining this year with fellow 6 Music DJ Jamz Supernova. Are you planning your sets together, or keeping it separate?

We’re not planning anything together but we definitely join the dots with each other in terms of our tastes. She’s got a global approach to music, too, but she brings in that electronic thing which is really exciting.

I really respect and admire Jamz. She always pulls out tracks that I want to listen to. In fact I try never to listen to her show when I’m on my way into the studio. It often freaks me out a bit because it’s so good. She’s a fantastic broadcaster but she’s also really serious about her craft, about being a DJ. She’s the only other person on BBC 6 who’ll go and do a live set on a Saturday afternoon. She’s on the edge and I love it.

How much do your DJ sets serve as a platform for your label, Brownswood Recordings? Any up-and-coming names that people should be listening out for when you play?

Plenty of artists don’t play their own stuff when they DJ and I probably don’t play enough of the Brownswood stuff as I should. At the moment though, I’m playing a lot of “Ke Nako”, a Bokani Dyer track that Kid Fonque remixed. That’s a massive track I’ve been playing for the last six months. Then on the Yussef Dayes album, the title track “Black Classical Music,” fit really well into my DJ set, so I’ve been playing a lot of that, too.

A while back I did a Maida Vale session with a band called Blackbirds who did a version of their 1970s track “Dominoes” for me. We played it on the radio on my show and people went mad for it, so I thought f*ck it, and put it in my DJ set in the club that night. That was a real buzz to have it come full circle in a day.

Brownswood turns 20 this year. Have you got any big plans for it?

Yeah we have. It’s been a good year for us with Yussef Dayes picking up some Brit nominations. I’ve just done an album with Emma-Jean Thackeray, the trumpeter, so that’s coming later this year. Got a new Kokoroko album on its way, and they’ve recently played Coachella — I’m super hyped for everything they’re doing. I’ve got a new album from Tom Skinner who plays in The Smile with Thom Yorke.

We’ve also got a new bunch of artist signings happening including a young band called Oreglo, who played at We Out Here festival last year, who I just had to sign. They’re amazing musicians in their own right, like Cream. They’re a little bit Sons of Kemet, a little bit TV On The Radio. Those groups don’t come about every day so I’m really hyped about them.

Do you still get a buzz from helping new talent to come through?

I feel we all have a responsibility to help these people come up, especially the elders who’ve been around a long time and been fortunate enough to live off this industry. I think we should all take a leaf out of the Tomorrow’s Warriors book, “each one teach one”, and put something back into the next generation. It’s something I think is really important in today’s world.

What else are you up to this summer? Where else can folks see and hear from you?

Gilles list of appearances is actually far too long to fit onto this page. Look him up, seek him out and go see him somewhere, or just pop down to Urban Village Fete.

Thanks Gilles!

To keep the tunes coming, download Gilles' summer playlist on Spotify.