Verses GT

Trust is a key theme, emphasising their collaborative nature in this 50/50 partnership. The album carries a meditative weight, inviting listeners to slow down and engage with their surroundings. Capturing the energy of body-driven music, Verses GT balances intimacy with expansive soundscapes. With an extensive global tour set to begin on 18 September, the live performances promise to deepen their creative bond while engaging audiences in this singular, shared experience.

Part of that stems from the nature of our friendship. Though we met through music, we built and maintained a relationship by realising that we had so many interests outside of it. We’d go for meals when in the same city, watch films, talk about photography, and so on. So for us it kind of made sense that when we came together on a project, we’d try to broaden the scope a bit — ideally working with some of our friends in those other spaces.

In some ways it streamlined the process a little. There were few surprises about the steps afterwards, or the roadblocks – both actual and mental – that happen throughout. We both had somewhat different yet overlapping instincts related to track order, and really engaged with one another on what we wanted the listener to feel, and when. Beyond that, the beauty of working alongside someone else is letting them take the wheel from time to time and allowing yourself to be surprised and taken somewhere you wouldn’t have gone alone.

When we worked on the music, we’d almost constantly have two laptops running to the speakers at once, alongside some gear strewn about the studio. There was this constant feeling of jamming, responding to what the other was doing. In our moments of deep sync, we’d go non-verbal for almost an hour at a time, just silently listening to one another and deciding what could be added or taken away.
One particular moment was Found, written in Montreal last summer. J had this ever-evolving vocal being processed in a granular synthesiser; P started playing some chords beneath it. From then on it felt like elements of the rhythm section materialised out of thin air as we both wordlessly tried things over it until it felt like there was a tacit agreement about what worked.

Part of that comes naturally to both of us. From different angles, our solo music always has a certain component of mood and texture, considering headspace. On this record we wanted to explore that tension a bit and purposefully arrive at a kind of push/pull. To some it might feel old-world to think so much about full album sequencing in this era of singles and playlists, but to us the record was conceived so that songs often respond to the ones before them, and subtly set up the ones after.

She’s a friend of friends, and we were both fans of her work. We specifically knew that we could trust her to understand where we were coming from and what we were trying to do. George always seems to have such good intuition about how much space to take on a record, and how much to let breathe.
We sent her a skeleton of an idea and didn’t give her too much direction on lyrics, just broad notes on the general mood and headspace of the rest of the record. When we got her vocals back, they inspired a whole new evolution of the song. From there she adjusted, and we adjusted again. We felt it important to strike a balance between these hyper-intimate, human, fluid verses and this almost mechanically looping sampled vocal feel for the hook.

They all did in their own way for sure. The bulk was in Los Angeles, and driving home late from studio sessions, listening back to that day’s demo, would really anchor a feeling of introspection. From there we started DJing on the road together, sometimes booking rooms along the way, and our sessions in London were directly a result of making notes while DJing across the UK. Sometimes the cause and effect wasn’t so direct, but the idea was to try to be present in the material world, with one another, with our friends, and let anything seep into the work.

Terence has been a long-time friend, since JG and I first started putting out music. We’d talked about working on a bigger project together for years. Timing worked out and this was the one that made sense. He had similar relationships with Xav and Erin and brought everyone together. It’s been a real pleasure to work with long-time friends who understand each other’s work and have mutual respect.

I (Nosaj Thing) was in LA and JG was in Montreal during the making of this record, but it was important to us to record it in person. While we could have worked remotely, nothing really beats the immediate energy of being in the same room.
Like we mentioned earlier, there were moments when we were locked in and laid out 90% of a song with no dialogue. I think you’ll be able to hear those moments throughout the album. It was also equally important to step out of the studio and have conversations about our vision. A simple walk around the block and back can be a real breakthrough moment.

It’s an opportunity to experiment and improvise. JG is programming live drums while I’m tracking vocals and running them through a granular sampler.

Kučka and Tyson are family — we’re also all on LUCKYME. They understand electronic music and our point of view, so it was smooth. We really love their contributions; it was a pleasure to work with them.

I feel that the show will be constantly evolving as we move from city to city. We’ll be taking mental notes of moments that felt right. I think that’s the exciting part — I want to explore more improvisation in electronic music.

We’re sitting on some more tracks that we’re excited to release in the near future. We also have a couple of short films in production. I think this upcoming tour will be a big inspiration for us.