Girl Unit

We talk music, Japan and Numbers with GIRL UNIT.

Girl Unit is producer, musician and South Londoner Philip Gamble. Critically acclaimed as The Guardian’s #917th ‘Band of the Day’ and noted as someone who is “flying the flag for Dubstep”, his productions have appeared vigorously on Rinse, with all that in mind October is set to be a special month for us, YOU and HIM… Girl Unit is on his way to Tokyo!

We caught up with GU to ask a few questions about his upcoming trip to Japan in October, where he’ll be performing at Numbers in Module.

Girl Unit, hello and welcome to MODERNFUSS!

I guess some of our unfortunate readers may not be too familiar with you, could you tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into music?

I’m 26 years old and live in Camberwell, South London. I’ve always messed around with production software since I was a teenager, but its not really been until the last two years that I’ve started putting out releases. I’ve been living in London for about 7 years and for most of that time I was DJing small nights around town, but then things really picked up last year after I released the IRL ep and its pretty much been non-stop ever since.

I guess just looking for tracks and listening to as much music as possible. The internet’s obviously a huge source of inspiration for me. I can lose hours just surfing through tracks on Youtube or Discogs and it usually sets me off working on new tracks. I usually try to go for a walk or a bike ride and listen to some tracks, just so I don’t get drawn into sitting in front of my computer all day.

Are you looking forward to coming to Japan? Surely this isn’t your first time?

It is my first time coming to Japan, I’m extremely excited! I’ve had a few friends of mine come in the past to DJ and heard so many good things. Its definitely a huge achievement to be able to have travelled this far as a DJ and am really excited to be able to share my tracks with a completely new audience.

All sorts of music, pretty much everything from classic house and techno through to hip hop instrumentals and exclusives from the Night Slugs label.

I’m extremely excited about my next EP, which will be out at the end of the year on Night Slugs. I’ve also got some remixes coming out on Numbers and Acephale in the near future. As for other artists, I’m extremely excited about the forthcoming Jam City album as well as the forthcoming tracks on Kingdom’s Fade to Mind label.

I actually have a lot of fond memories of my first release IRL as it was the first track I’d produced that I actually started hearing in clubs for the first time, and despite all the attention that Wut received, there’s nothing quite like the feeling of surprise of hearing other DJs play your tracks when you’ve never heard your own music in a club before.

My next release on Night Slugs, and a few more remixes although I’m currently taking time off doing remixes as I want to focus purely on getting more of my own tracks out there. Aside from that I’m doing some studio work with other artists which I can’t mention at the moment but I’m looking forward to finishing them off.

Japan and South Korea for starters, I’ve been really looking forward to these dates for some time now, as its definitely the furthest I’ve travelled so far and its always been a dream to see Tokyo, I’m really looking forward to eating a lot of food. I also love visiting the US and I’ve had the opportunity to spend much of the summer there this year, I always play really great shows whenever I’m there.

Playing the Picnic electronic stage at Osheaga festival, Montreal this summer was one of the best DJing experiences I’ve had this year.

Romance V.3 by Girls On Top

Los Angeles is definitely one of my favourite places in the world, but I also love where I live in London.

Being Youtube DJ for the night.

I bought an iPhone recently after years of being a proud Blackberry user.

Probably Night Slugs at Counterculture project in London. There’s still video evidence all over youtube from that night.

I’ve played in a couple of pubs with broken equipment before which have been pretty awful.

I’ve only really heard a few pop artists. I quite like Perfume, they always have some really mad production on all their tracks. I’m a fan of Nami Shimada, I love the “Sun showers” track she did with Soichi Terada. I also really love Ryuichi Sakamoto. Jam City recently introduced me to the songs he did with David Sylvian which I’m really into.

I try to always keep my keys with me but even those I forget at least once a week.

Nope.

Where would you rather get stuck for 5 hours? Option A) A broken elevator, or Option B) a broken ski lift

Wowsa! Thanks Girl Unit!!

Be sure to see Girl Unit at NUMBERS in MODULE on October 9th.

Follwo Girl Unit on MYSPACE / IFLYER