With his unique and genre-jumping style, arranger, producer, and beatmaker Thomas Gangemi, aka Gan Gemi, delves deep into “change and people naturally progressing into becoming what they were always supposed to be” in his new EP, ‘Unravelling’, out now with One House.
Gan Gemi (pronounced Gan-je-mee) is an immense talent who has quickly established himself as an artist to watch (listen to ‘Metal’ to hear why we became instance fans). Blending elements of jazz, electronic, folk, and hip-hop, each track on the new EP is infused with a soulful essence, resonating deeply and speaking directly to the heart. The intricate layers and delicate balances in his work create a vibrant mosaic of sound that invites you to explore and lose yourself in the music.
Right from the start, ‘Unravelling’ grabs your attention with its daring and innovative sound. The opening track ‘That Sound’ intricately combines shifting polyrhythms with harmonious vocal layers, punchy drums, and rolling, dub-infused basslines. Next up is ‘Pretty’, where he draws inspiration from Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, blending elegant orchestral elements with powerful hip-hop drums. The EP gracefully concludes with ‘Film’, a track featuring a delicate piano motif recorded on his grandparents’ piano in Italy. This piece embodies immense subtlety and warmth, highlighting the beauty in the small details found throughout the EP.
Click play and listen to the ‘Unravelling’ EP below.
We also caught up with Gan Gemi to ask him a few questions about the EP, his earliest musical memories, influences and more.
Who is Gan Gemi?
My name’s Tom, and Gan Gemi is my artist name. I am a producer, composer and arranger (and a student who’s just woken up in his uni halls room).
Could you share your background with us? Also, we’re curious to learn about your early introduction to making music.
I am 20 years old and have lived in London my whole life. I am half Italian and a quarter Chinese-Malaysian. I started making music actually when I was in late primary school – I used to have a YouTube channel with like 10 subscribers to my name. I wanted to start making the background music to my videos, as well as posting remixes of famous themes from TV and film, like the music from Star Wars or Spongebob. I didn’t know how to do these things, though, until I was shown Garageband by a family friend, and it started from there. I knew the basics of production from then, but I’d say I didn’t make original intentional music until about age 14/15 when I started a music production course at the Rhythm Studio in Ladbroke Grove.
Could you share some insights on how the sound of this new EP compares to that of Typebeats vol.1?
To me, the two sounds and styles are vastly different. Firstly, “Typebeats” was all instrumental, but in the EP, lots of the songs have vocals. While my mindset during the making of “typebeats” felt much more playful, impulsive, and imperfectionist, I’d say there’s a lot more intention behind “Unravelling”. The Typebeats mixtape was heavily inspired by sample-based Hip-hop production with people like J Dilla, old Kanye, Knxwledge and Alchemist, while the new EP combines elements of folk, neoclassical, R&B and jazz whilst also containing some of the hip-hop inspiration too.
Could you share if there’s a particular theme or inspiration that fuelled ‘Unravelling’? Also, I’m quite curious about the story or concept behind its title. Can you tell me more?
There’s the title track song (called “Unravelling”) on the EP, and the string picking on its guitar part always felt to me like it was evoking the motion of a string or branch untangling or unfolding. Paired with the lyrics which I wrote about change, and things/people naturally progressing into becoming what they were always supposed to be, I thought the word “unravelling” would perfectly encompass these themes. The EP as a whole also takes on these ideas, even as a playthrough, with the texture and production behind each song naturally becoming more and more sparse and subtle as the listener progresses through the project.
If you have one, which is your favourite track of the EP and why?
I’d say the title track, “Unravelling“, is my favourite – I’d never made a track in this style before, and it was also the first time I’d written full lyrics to a song. Musically, the fact that it’s so stripped back makes the few musical layers in it so important, and so it forced me to be very intentional with melody, song structure and harmony. I also love the singer’s (my friend Millie) voice on it. I think she does a beautiful job.
Can you describe one piece of equipment that is absolutely essential in your music creation and share reasons why it is so important to you?
The Korg Minilogue is the best thing that ever happened to me. It was handed down to me by an old friend a couple of years ago, and I keep discovering new things and tricks that it can do. It was the only proper musical hardware I had for a long time, so I took advantage by trying to master it. It’s an extremely versatile synth, and its portability is also amazing. You can probably hear it on most of my songs, and I use it when I play live – its sequencer and LFOs open a lot of possibilities.
If you had to narrow it down, could you pinpoint three artists who most influence your musical style?
It’s hard to pinpoint three, but at the moment I’d say the versatility of Floating Points has been very influential on my style, as well as the feeling of songs by Alice Coltrane, and the production of Flying Lotus.
What advice would you offer to an up-and-coming producer?
I’d say putting hours in and listening to lots of stuff is the most important thing. Just like any other craft, production requires a lot of practice and time. Listening to music is also so important, especially listening to the inspirations of people that inspire you. Saying this though I don’t do either of these things enough but that’s a goal for this year!
Lastly, any final words for the Twistedsoul community?
I want to say thank you for having me and supporting my music – Twistedsoul has put me on to a lot of really cool stuff, so it’s an honour to be a part of it 🙂
