Interviews

Fish Go Deep are respected veterans of the underground house scene, both in Ireland and in far flung corners of the globe. Here they're back on their own GoDeep imprint with a full-length album of sonically beautiful, lyrically thoughtful, deep and blissed out electronica on their latest gift to the world - What I Mean By Beautiful. Here we talk to one half of the Cork based duo, Greg Dowling about their forthcoming album.

I'd love to hear about the initial idea for the album - What I Mean By Beautiful. When did you first approach this concept and what was your original intention with this release?

When we initially started on the album we realized we had quite a few demo tracks with a similar vibe and tone which pointed us in the direction of a more 4 to the floor vibe than the last record we put out. It's very much a reflection of where we are at musically.

We have always let the music dictate where we are going, we very much follow our hearts and instincts when making music.

I think our intention was to make an album that reflects our wide musical taste. I really feel we have achieved that

What was most important for you to convey through this album? Do you feel that you were able to accomplish all of your intentions?

Yes. I think the record got a really good balance of styles and tempos reflecting where fishgodeep are at in 2023

What are you most proud of with What I Mean By Beautiful?

The sound. We wanted to create an organic, warm sounding album with soul, and I think we managed that

What was the most challenging part of bringing this release together?

Choosing which tracks to leave out. It's always tricky to get balance right for an album so that there is a flow. We had quite a lot of material to choose from.

I guess this album marks a lot of years in the music business, I'd love to hear your thoughts on how your creative process has changed and remained the same over the years. Do you approach anything differently now?

Some things have remained the same. A good idea is good idea, and we have always followed our instincts when making music and not try to second guess what we are doing.

I think we work much faster now, and more efficiently. We tend to go with flow and not stress too much about every little detail and try and keep the original vibe going.

Sometimes in electronic music you can over work the music till there is no emotion left. We try and record the outboard synths with effects so your stuck with them, so that forces you to commit. More playing less computer. Sometimes we treat the computer like a big tape machine. We have the studio setup so we record anything we want from the outboard gear.

What drives you to continue creating music?

Because we have to. It's in our blood that's what we do. Music is our life. There's always something bubbling away in our minds. It never stops.

Where do you find the most inspiration when it comes to discovering new music?

From friends, listening to the radio, podcasts, other DJs,record shops. The usual places I suppose.

You are releasing on your own label Go Deep. What can you tell us about the imprint and its mission?

Go Deep is mainly for our releases. Next up will be some remixes from the album from different producers just getting that all together at the moment.

What is next for Shane & Greg?

Just started working on an album for our other project Squares with Andrew Philpott. Very exciting. It's going to be great!

Check out the latest release from Fish Go Deep