INTERVIEW: GEORGE FITZGERALD

Rising to prominence off the back of his party Man Make Music and its associated label, George Fitzgerald has been gaining momentum for some time now. Winning over dancefloors and tastemakers with tracks such as garage swinger 'Child', he recently signed to the Domino affiliated Double Six for the loopy vocal gem 'I Can Tell (By The Way You Move)'.

We had a quick chat with George, who plays at London's XOYO on Friday 25th October alongside Midland, Moodymann affiliate Andrés and Wolf Music's Medlar. Tickets here.

It's major label time again with dance music's return to the top of the charts. When did you hook up with Double Six and did you feel any extra pressure around 'I Can Tell (By The Way You Move)' because of its Domino links? It seems to have the most radio friendly hook of everything you've released so far. 

“I'd been talking to Domino for a while about doing something together and it felt like good timing with where I'm at musically. Ultimately, they're still an independent label and I wanted to keep that ethos with the people I work with. I don't feel any pressure to write any specific kind of music for them, just good music, which is the way it should be.”

We imagine linking up with Double Six means that there are plans for an album. Can you tell us what stage you're at with this? Will it be straight up club sounds or are you going to expand your scope?

“I'll be releasing my first album with Domino in the first half of next year hopefully. I'm still at the writing stage but it's coming together nicely. It definitely won't be just 12 club tracks. I see no point in just doing something like that and have always hated boring dance music albums that could just be four 12" EPs of club bangers. Working at different tempos and writing things not just for the dance floor has been really liberating.”

You're currently on tour with gigs coming up at XOYO and Panorama Bar. Have you been doing any special preparation for your set? How about XOYO?

“Playing at Panorama Bar is always really special and something I do a lot of preparation for. You can definitely play things in there that you can't in other places. The crowd are willing to go on a journey with you and that's means you can do more interesting things. I've never played in XOYO but I hear really good things and it'll be great to be back in London!”

You have a label called Man Make Music. This originally started as a party. Can you tell us about that? What's the ethos behind the label now in terms of its sound and who are the main artists?

“Yeah, it's something that started as a group of friends running parties together in London, but I always wanted to start my own label and give a platform to other artists, do something that wasn't about me and my music so much. We were connected to so much good music through the parties which wasn't being released, so it just made sense to do this. The ethos really just reflects the vibe of the parties – anything strange and different in the electronic spectrum. We're not looking to release slinky, well-engineered tech house. Our main artists at the moment are Laszlo Dancehall (a collaboration between Leon Vynehall and Christian Piers), Trikk, U, Fold, Natan H and Amy Jean – they perfectly reflect that ethos and it's amazingly inspiring to work with them.”

Another well known George FitzGerald was the 19th century Irish professor of "natural and experimental philosophy" who has a crater on the far side of the Moon named for him. How would you like to be described to future generation and in what kind of memorial would be a fitting tribute?

“A crater on the near side of Mars?”