Are you afraid of a Geist? Every Wednesday night musical talent Geist Tunes (GT) presents unique, edgy cyber-goth industrial music at either National Underground (159 E. Houston St.) or Skinny Bar on the lower east side. “I like Gavin Degraw’s (National Underground) cause it’s a closed room, downstairs, and it has that raving in a warehouse till 5am feel to it,” he says. The show starts at 11.
“I like for people to dance. I also like to freak people out with strange sounds. My music is my obsession with the future. I like things that are powerful but still fun. I’m not trying to be a Zack DeLa Rocha. I don’t want to be too angry in my music. Most music at bars and clubs is so homogenous that it is basically the same eight songs. With Geist Tunes I try to deliver some alternative to those sounds. I want to make electronic music with an urgent and unifying message: enjoy your life before it’s all over; evolve from society’s struggles to a new plane of consciousness where we are not fighting each other all the time.”
GT likes to talk about music but behind the artist is a philosopher peering behind the veil of reality, questioning the status quo, and demanding progress. “The average New Yorker is really angry, there’s a NYC madness, and I’m interested in that. What about society makes people so angry? Is it the cop writing you a parking ticket? Why do we organize society into a system designed to make people angry? Why do we perpetuate this condition of anger? There’s got to be a better way.”
There is also a sci-fi fascination driving GT’s inquisition. “When I was a kid I was fascinated with the still shots in Aliens, the James Cameron movie from 1986. I like futuristic movies like Logan’s Run. I am interested in the concept of alien encounter and total annihilation. So I made a song called ‘Fragment G’ about an asteroid striking a planet and destroying it. It’s a song about Armageddon.”
GT talks about his inspirations: “KMFDM has really inspired me. I like dirty vocals with clean music like Trent Reznor in Downward Spiral, which is probably my favorite album. When I heard Angst and Money in the early 90s I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I’m also really interested into Kaskade. He is a big influence.”
GT talks about some of his gear: “I like Native Instruments, The Maschine, Logic, Korg has some good stuff. With technology these days the possibilities are endless and I try to develop different types of sound. When I DJ I use Trak2r.”
What’s next for GT? “The album I’m working on now is called Fisixs. I’m not putting it up on SoundCloud yet cause I want it to be fresh when I put it out. SoundCloud is great but if you put too much up then it makes it more difficult to grow as an artist. The goal of this album is to recreate the sounds live with machines like Dead Mau5. It’s a big project for me.”