You’re probably already familiar with Guido. The Bristol native, real name Guy Middleton, has released two singles to date (the swollen grime odyssey ‘Orchestral Lab’ and R’n’B joint ‘Beautiful Complication’, both stunning), and last month followed them with Anidea, his debut album and one of the most accomplished LPs that grime or dubstep has produced.
Guido’s musical upbringing is inspired by grime, and as a member of both Peverelist’s Punch Drunk stable and the “Purple Trilogy” with Joker and Gemmy, his ties to dubstep run deep. But Anidea is, at its heart, a pop album, reliant on overwhelming hooks and melodies. Sometimes these are provided by guest vocalists, but mostly they’re courtesy of synthesized instruments; memorably saxophone on the incredible ‘Mad Sax’.
More than anything, you get the feeling that Anidea is just the start for Guido. He’s already stated in another interview that he gets more out of playing piano than he does producing electronic music, and the inspiration he gets from classical music (both in traditional form and in video soundtracks by the likes of Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu) is clear to see on Anidea’s symphonic crescendos. Guido’s got ideas beyond dance music, and I can’t wait to hear how they materialise. We spoke about this and more over email.
You’re trained in both jazz and classical piano – are you from quite a musical family?
“I wouldn’t say my family is hugely musical but my dad was in a punk band and can play guitar, keyboard, mandolin and various stringed instruments. I’m not trained prolifically in jazz and classical although I have learnt both for a few years.”
What contemporary music were you into early on in life? Any particular acts?
“I use to listen to a lot of hip-hop, R’n’B from the 90’s and so on, that was what I was mainly into.”
When did you start producing? And what sort of stuff were you trying to make then?
“I began to produce whilst I was attending my early secondary school years, I don’t believe I was aware of trying to make a particular style of music, I just wanted to make music!”
You’re always grouped in with dubstep, but you’ve said you used to go to grime nights a lot when you started. Was that stuff a bigger inspiration to you?
“Nope, it was never really the nights that got me inspired, I was just young and wanted to go out with friends.”
What particular grime were you into? ‘Orchestral Lab’ always reminds me of Ruff Sqwad tunes like ‘Lethal Injection’.
“Low deep, Davinche, Dizzee, Wiley to name a few.”
Are you still into much grime now?
“Not as much as I used to be.”
You’ve said that you get more of a thrill out of playing piano more than you do producing – is live instrumentation something you’re going to incorporate more and more into your music?
“We’ll have to see. It feels more enjoyable to play piano than it is to try and make music on a computer sometimes but I do both.”
Do you reckon you’d ever make an all-out piano-led record, like Sven Weisemann with Xine?
“Yeah I don’t see why not!”
The two realms of music that seem to be the biggest influences on you – correct me if I’m wrong – are incredibly different: 8-bit video game sounds, and classical. Is your music an attempt to bridge the two, do you think? It’s something people like Uematsu have done with the Playstation-era Final Fantasy soundtracks, to some extent.
“Could be. Uematsu’s music translates perfectly to an orchestra and that is the nature of his compositions. I guess you could say I’d like to play it by that angle too.”
Obviously you’ve talked about being an Uematsu fan before – what other composers are you particularly into? You heard Hiroki Kikuta’s Secret of Mana score?
“Yes I played the Secret of Mana game so I’m familiar with it, I think the music writers for early Japanese games were a very talented bunch. They had to make music that accompanied the player whilst they played the game and the sound plays an important role in setting a feeling from the game.”
When you work with vocalists, is it usually the case that you build a track and they record on top of it, or is it a more cooperative relationship than that? You ever built a track on top of a raw vocal, for instance?
“With Aarya’s vocal on ‘Beautiful Complication’ I completely built the tune around it. She had written to another beat before and I felt inspired to try making another tune to it. With Yolanda it was very easy I sort of knew how I wanted the singing to go so I sent her another song as an example to show her. I was really happy with what she did.”
How’s your DJing going? You started pretty late – how did you approach learning it, knowing you had to get good really quick now you had bookings?
“I picked it up from going to nights and seeing other Dj’s play. I took advice from friends then practised and got there in the end. I am having a great time as a DJ being able to travel and go to new places and meet people from doing music is a fantastic thing and I appreciate it very much.”
If you haven't heard Guido's new album 'Anidea' I thoroughly recommend that you beg, borrow or steal it as it is a truly remarkable debut.
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