Out of Sight

Jeez, there are just some songs that get me. A former colleague and good friend, Cameron Hawes released an EP in May 2014 shortly after we met. The whole album, titled The Holy Grail EP, is fantastic. But there is one song that stuck out to me and my electronic music side was tickled pink. The song is called Out of Sight and I suggest everyone take a moment and listen. I’ll wait here.

Yeah! Monstrous jam, right! I jam this song all the time. It’s just so uplifting and well-constructed. Here’s Cameron’s debrief of what Out of Sight means to him:

“Out Of Sight is a song about life and death. It’s about what we really want in life vs. what we get from it. In major events such as 911 or any of my more personal experiences involving death I’ve noticed something quite profound – everybody comes together and wants to be close. As soon as death comes to mind we are quickly reminded that our days are numbered too. If only we could remember our desire to be open and close to the ones we love in everyday life – maybe we would be living a little bit closer to the truth and in line with our true values; the experience of experiencing each other. “

Cameron was aware of how much I loved this song so when he needed someone to accompany him in a music video made for this, I like to think I was a solid option. It was a really fun experience to be a part of this video and jam to one of my favourite tunes with one of my favourite dudes. Anyway, the video:

I hope you enjoyed the song (and my dance moves).

Talk to you soon.

PGEP

PGEP Announcement

Hey friends,

I am really excited to announce that my debut EP, titled PGEP, will be released on July 20, 2015 and available for immediate free download from this website!

PGEP track listing:

  1. 82
  2. Only
  3. Forrest
  4. Infancy
  5. Num3rology
PGEP

PGEP – Artwork by James Densley

PGEP was an interesting venture. I started four of these songs (82, Forrest, Infancy, Num3rology) in 2012 and Only in 2015. It essentially acts as a time capsule and reaches back into my development of becoming an electronic musician. For a few years, most of these songs collected dust. In late 2014, I decided to revamp them and make them into something I could be proud of. Like many artists, my style has changed over the years; where I was musically in 2012 is very different where I feel I am now. I had to adapt these songs’ arrangements and structures into something I was going to be happy with. I kept a lot of the same instruments and core elements but tried to change the atmosphere surrounding the songs. I wrote all the music myself but had some help from friends Joel MacLean and Ken LeBlanc for lyrics / vocoder parts. I wanted to try to do as much on my own as possible but having them aid me turned out to be very beneficial.

I’ll be posting some videos and songs as the date nears. I’m truly so excited to finally have some of my own music released; it’s a huge weight off my shoulders. And there are so many more things waiting in the wings for you all to hear. This the first small step of what I hope lasts a very long time.

I hope that PGEP is as fun to listen to as it was to make.

-Ryan

Mid-May Update

Hey guys,

I hope the sun is out wherever you are. I’m working on a lot of really cool things right now that I’ll be releasing this summer. Primarily, I’ll be releasing my debut EP titled PGEP (Poly Gecko Extended Play, I suppose). It’s going to contain five original songs that are written, performed and compared by yours exclusively. I’ll do an actual announcement when the time is right and I can release some mixed songs to tide you over until the main course. I expect this to be released in July but life is a busy thing and could be more August but we’ll see. I’ve got all the arrangements and music complete, it’s now just recording vocals that remains.

I’m also in the mixing stage for the remix I did of Joel Freck & Cameron Hawes’ Take My Hand. Like the EP, I will have it posted as soon as it’s ready and presentable.

Along with those two musical projects, I have also taken on the task of creating and maintaining this website with absolutely no experience or knowledge. It’s proving to be difficult at times, but nonetheless a worthwhile learning experience. Soon I’ll be posting songs at this address and you can directly download here instead of going to a variety of sites. I already have Posture primed for download, a song by Karver Hitchcock and I from December 2014. The button below will add it to your life for free: [purchase_link id=”93″ style=”button” color=”white” text=”Purchase”]

I wanted to also take a sec and express what music has captured my attention as of late. I’ve been really enjoying Voices by Phantogram (Indica Records). If you observed my iTunes library, you’d know I’m a total sucker for female vocals and this is no exception. Siren EP by ATTLAS (Mau5trap Records) has also caught my attention and really inspired that spacey-percussive side of me. One final one before I get back to work is Policy by Will Butler (Merge Records). Will is a member of Arcade Fire who I am also very fond of and his groovy jams on this album are striking. Anna, the single is just so catchy and primes me for a long-awaited summer.

Music Genres in 2015

Once upon a time, before I had written any music under the name Poly Gecko, I found myself trying to forecast what genre I should be. My internal monologue sounded like a few music buffs on an indie radio station who felt the need to give every artist their own specific genre: “this, to me, sounds like experimental-indie house-punk”, “no no no no. To me, this sounds like post-alternative ska-jazz”. I guess I was trying too hard to select a niche genre to fit into before even having any music written. I often times put the cart before the horse in my head but I had to learn some discipline and just start writing music and not worry about genres at all.

Eventually, I had some songs. People would ask me “what kind of music is it?” and I would ponder and come up with a different story for every different person who asked. I guess it really depends on what I’m writing or working on at the moment. Some days I’ll feel more like a dance music producer, somedays I’ll be more interested in writing spacey soundtracks for movies and then other days might become centred around Lorde-esque drum beats but with just piles of synth. Chances are if you’ve asked me what genre I fit into, I’ve given you a story that only made sense for that specific day.

The problem I have with genres is that almost every artist is influenced by more than one genre and those genres / influences are reflected in their music. One of my favourite bands of all time is the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They can go from rap in the verse to funk and rock in the chorus. Even Deadmau5 can switch from club-banger mode to spacey acoustic guitar mode for the next song. I don’t want to compare myself to the likes of RHCP and Deadmau5 but I’m heavily influenced by a number of different artists in different ‘genres’: Lorde, Trent Reznor, Purity Ring, The Mars Volta and Hey Rosetta! I’m humble enough to know I’m not the only one being influenced by a multitude of genres but we’re left with something fantastic when genres collide – we’re left a lovely potluck of music, where genres are becoming less relevant than ever.

March Hare Fest

On March 8, 2015, Wayne Hunt and I played a three-song set at the Carleton Music Bar. Wayne has been playing this festival for a few years now and each year he invites different musicians to occupancy him – this year, it was me with the Maschine. It was a pleasure to play live with one of the best songwriters that I’ve ever met.

The March Hare is a touring festival that originated in Cornerbrook, Newfoundland is 1988 and showcases Newfoundland & Labrador arts across the country. Hailing from Newfoundland, Wayne’s music fits right in. He has a collection of smokin’ tunes but he narrowed down to three for us to play together at the Festival. Wayne was really interested in the Maschine and integrating it in with his folk music. It’s an interesting juxtapose for sure and we spent a lot of the time practicing just getting the right samples for Maschine. Two of the songs (Bonfire Night; The Symphony) are a little more laid back while the final song, Little Harbour Deep is (in Wayne’s words) “a little more industrial”. We drew a lot of inspiration of drum patterns and samples from Lorde and her producer Joel Little.

It was the first time I had played live in a very long time – and the first with Maschine / without a bass guitar. It’s a very cool feeling to have my first performance in years in front of a sold-out crowd at my favourite music bar in Halifax. Overall, the March Hare was a blast and I’d love to play in front of all those salty Newfoudlanders again.  See the performance of the set here:

Num3rology Video

I have a song called Num3rology that I’m going to release on an upcoming EP and the lyrics are mostly about hating Winter. Some lyrics go like “so maybe I’ll go ahead, go ahead and burn the snow“, “I fear this Winter’s the end” so I thought it would be cool to get some footage of me walking around in the snow during the snowstorm Halifax received on March 17. I thought I should do it now in case it was the last big snowing for this Winter – and hopefully it is. I attached a GoPro to me and just pointed it down on my feet, showing me walking in the snow.  Here’s a little teaser of the video on the Facebook page:

The rest of the songs on the EP will also feature a short (1:00 – 2:00) music video of just some GoPro-shot footage of me walking about in different settings. The videos won’t be released until early Summer so hopefully by then, we’ll forget about this Winter and the snow will look so unfamiliar.

-Ryan

Hello world!

Welcome to Poly Gecko’s website. I’m still learning this website thing, so bare with me.

Many lovez

-Ryan