George FitzGerald Moves Beyond the Club with 'Fading Love'

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George FitzGerald Moves Beyond the Club with 'Fading Love'

"I never went to Ibiza as a kid. It was always something that I thought was really kind of lame and shit.”

George FitzGerald is over making club tracks. In fact, it never really was his passion to begin with. "I just had this moment where I was like, ' Remember when you were growing up and when you were in your early 20's, what you thought about this stuff. Don't forget that. Don't forget that you wanted to make stuff that sounded different,'" he says. "I don't regret any of the releases that I put out. But I felt that if I kept going in that direction, although it was interesting at first, my music would become bland and I don't want that to happen."

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It is with his debut album Fading Love, that FitzGerald truly feels he is speaking his own musical voice.

Over the past five years, the now Berlin-based British producer has repeatedly proven himself a worthy contender in the UK house and techno scene. Beginning with his first release on Hotflush in 2010, FitzGerald has consistently climbed the electronic music ladder, garnering attention worldwide with his gentle garage-influenced shuffles such as "Weakness" and his high-energy house anthems like "I Can Tell (By The Way You Move)". His talent has taken him around the world, wowing crowds behind the decks of clubs such as XOYO, Fabric, Berghain, and Amnesia. He has also successfully held down his residency on BBC Radio 1 while co-running the music label, ManMakeMusic. You gotta hand it to him, the man has accomplished a great deal in a short amount of time.

Long before falling into the monotony of the club scene, FitzGerald felt a desire to make music that would reach people on a deeper level. While the rest of us have been swayed by the hypnotism of his catchy and melodic four by four rhythms, FitzGerald has been yearning to make something that could be enjoyed both in the living room and on the dance floor.

"The inspiration behind the album came from me being sick of hearing a lot of very bland and superficial house and techno," explains FitzGerald. "I was exposed to that [music] because some of the tracks I released put me within this scene. I was starting to play with people on line-ups where, for me, it was just straight up-and-down hands in the air house, which I was always a massive enemy of. When I was growing up, I never went to Ibiza as a kid. It was always something that I thought was really kind of lame and shit."

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Working on his debut LP gave FitzGerald the break he needed to move beyond making solely chart topping house tracks and into a euphoric realm. After all, the more thought provoking tunes have always suited him better. "I've always been a big fan of Carl Craig. His more jazzy and melodic things have always been very influential," says FitzGerald. "I've never been someone who's been into Jeff Mills type stripped back house and techno. I can appreciate that kind of stuff and sometimes I like to see it in the club, but I've always been more about melodies and harmonies. In any of the music that I've liked there has always been that kind of warmth."

It might be fair to say that the title of his latest single "Full Circle" relates to the current position he feels he's in as an artist. He laughs at this idea. "You know what's really weird is that it's hard not to start dropping it in conversations saying, ' Oh ya, I feel like I've come full circle.' And then you're like, "Oh no I can't use that 'cause then it sounds like I'm referencing myself!'" Although the lyrics of "Full Circle" draw a portrait of a stagnant relationship on the verge of collapsing, FitzGerald maintains that the title also reflects the current shift in his music career.

As far as Fading Love's introduction to the public goes, "Full Circle" has been well received so far; a promising start to his first full length. The album's moody tone draped over a minimalist house groove reveals a new level of musical maturity for FitzGerald.

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The album also has him collaborating with vocalists Oli Bayston and Lawrence Hart, rather than just using samples—another trap he no longer wants to be caught in with his productions. Drawn to the fragile and melancholy quality of singers such as Tracey Thorn, FitzGerald says that he has always preferred the uniqueness inherent in imperfections. "It's just full of personality because it's not perfect," he says. "That's something I tried to replicate on my album. I probably went even further by using a couple of singers who really aren't super accomplished singers, but there's just something about their voice that's interesting. You know when you're listening to the singing on records by Kraftwerk or New Order and it sounds like they recorded it in a toilet? And they didn't have autotune and they didn't have Pro Tools to do multiple takes? They just did it in a couple of takes, or even one take, and you can hear the errors but somehow in the end it sounds much nicer."

The glitz and glamour of America may be alluring, yet it's the imperfections that make an artist more relatable and thus memorable. "I think one of the reasons why there have been so many popular British singers recently is because there is still a little bit more of an understanding that some of your imperfections become what make you interesting," adds FitzGerald. "Without being too insulting, it is maybe a product of the American pop machine that everything is way too polished and way too perfect. That always makes people suspicious."

As for what's in store for the future, FitzGerald says he plans to experiment more with the percussive side within his productions while continuing to go down the songwriter/producer path. "I think what I write after this, there will probably be some more broken stuff," says FitzGerald. "It just feels like… not necessarily going back to what that bass music stuff was, but you're starting to hear more broken rhythms all over the place and it's really interesting. I think the four floor thing got a bit too much and there's been kind of an overload in the last two or three years."

For now, the rest of us can enjoy Fading Love, released on Double Six, as we await the continued transformation and evolution of George FitzGerald.

George FitzGerald is on Facebook // Twitter // SoundCloud