Geordie Greep is the front man and guitarist of UK based post-punk band, black midi. The band was formed by Geordie and consists of his fellow classmates from the BRIT School, which is a prestigious performing art school in London. black midi released their debut album “Sclagenheim” in 2019, and immediately the world was notified of black midi’s signature style of blending themes of prog-rock, punk, and jazz riffs to create their unique and easily recognizable sound. The band has gone on to release two more critically acclaimed albums and are currently touring across the world.
At the helm was Greep. Growing up, he decided to learn to play the guitar because of a so-called “addiction” to Guitar Hero. He cites his biggest source of inspiration as his father; the man that introduced him to a wide variety of music at a young age. He says his father taught him “there are good and bad music, and there are no boundaries between genres.” The latter half of that quote remains visible as Greep attempts to incorporate a wide blend of genres into his body of work.
When discovering new music, Greep studies the culture and the time period the music came from to better understand how to use its influences on his own music. “Needless to say, the great thing about music is that it doesn’t have to be verbalized, so anyone can enjoy it. I love translated books and movies. Most of my favorite books are French, and I love movies of every kind of genre, but especially I watch a lot of movies from Hong Kong. But when a language is translated, there is always the fear that something has been changed or lost. But again, the great thing about music is that it sounds the same to everyone.”
Many black midi songs are formed as a result of hours long jam sessions. Many of the sessions, Greep employs his method of divergent thinking and is able to come up with many different melodies and lyrics as a response to what his bandmates are playing. Many of the songs that you hear on their albums are vastly different from the ones played at their live shows, as Greep has been known to experiment with new material in front of a live audience.
Geordie Greep and the rest of black midi are currently touring in Australia and hope to come out with new music soon.
Sources: https://tokion.jp/en/2023/01/24/interview-black-midi/
https://pitchfork.com/features/rising/get-to-know-black-midi-a-new-type-of-british-guitar-band/
https://www.guitarworld.com/features/black-midi-geordie-greep-hellfire
I had never heard of black midi before this post. I checked them out and wow they are incredible. Extremely unique and unlike anything I have really heard before. Each song has a very different vibe as you mentioned, but a common thread of uniqueness. I think Greep's collectionist methodology is fascinating and very evident in their music.
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