TERRY FRANCIS, part of the furniture at London’s fabric, has been busy in the studio while the club remains closed due to Covid.
Last week he launched a new label, Where Are You Records, with US artist and designer Caroline Geys.
The first release features three tracks from Terry: Reflect & Build (Main and Dub mixes) and Where Are All Of Us, both featuring Caroline’s vocals. Caroline is also the talent behind the eye catching artwork, branding and design for the label which you can see below.
We caught up with Terry and Caroline this week to find out more about the label. We also asked Terry to compile and talk us through a playlist of ten of his current favourites including the new release on the label which you can read and listen to after our chat with them both.
Can you tell us about Where Are You Records and why you decided to get together to work on the music together and start a new label?
Terry: Well basically I’ve all of a sudden got loads of time on my hands because of the lockdown and so been making loads of tunes and doing a few remixes for different labels. So gradually I was getting a pretty big collection of music which I wasn’t putting anywhere. I’d been reading and hearing about BandCamp and thought why not put some music up there and see how it goes? Caroline had sent me a few of her vocals and I just wondered if she was up for doing it with me. We’ve known each other for years and she’s solid. I thought with her artistic flair and ideas with the vocals it would be a great combination of art and music. It just came from there.
Caroline: We met through mutual friends in the electronic music scene in the late 90ʼs in Gainesville, Florida which is where I was in university at the time for business school. Terry came to DJ a few times while I lived there. I was fortunate to have had such a great circle of friends whom introduced me to a lot of new electronic music, including Terryʼs style of tech house.
Iʼve been a visual artist since I was young and music has always been a vital aspect of my life through the different genres. Three years ago, I launched Caroline Geys Design Studio, a multidisciplinary practice. I worked in marketing for architecture, interior design, and real estate firms for 12 years which inspired the earlier days of my graphic design. Art and music were always on the side. Throughout the years, I have designed some album artworks in different genres. In 2014, I collaborated with Terry and Nathan Coles, Wiggle Records on artwork for several releases. I also DJʼed a bit over the last twenty years in some small venues with weekly residencies in Miami where I resided at the time and Los Angles where I have resided for the last ten years.
Caroline continues: I started recording some ‘artcastsʼ with my husband Steven in 2017 which consisted of me doing readings from various favorite visual artists and combining some music with them, tunes from other artists that Steven would mix in, mainly with a down tempo, low-fi sound. In September 2020, I recorded a vocal which is now ‘Reflect & Buildʼ. I was thinking of how much I missed everyone that we love. Steven and I both work from home and are very grateful to do so, and have chosen to isolate ourselves for our own safety and others nearly through the entire pandemic. Weʼve only seen a few friends, mostly at the beginning and see our neighbors occasionally out on our walks or on the roof from a safe distance. Itʼs how together we have responded and what makes us comfortable, and yet we still have had loads of creative fun in our space. As difficult as the pandemic has been in various ways, it has provided me with so much creative energy and the most determination Iʼve ever felt.
When I sent over the track to Terry, I had no idea that weʼd start a label. My first thought was just how cool it would be for a solid track to have these vocals on. With Terryʼs music aesthetic, I had to see what could happen. Now thinking back, I think it was a way I wanted to connect with others virtually and musically through what I was feeling and what all of us were feeling. The collaboration became an organic movement of music and lyrics being sent digitally back and forth.
The vocals in the track are very poignant for the times we are living through.
Caroline: I’m talking about my loved ones, music and how the pandemic has affected so many people throughout the world. I have roughly 40 recordings from the last five months where I am going through the motions of this pandemic. Iʼve felt all the emotions, cried, laughed and been fully reflective on everything and where we are headed.
We all miss our loved ones and have lost a world of physical connection in one way or another. I am fortunate to feel like I have gained so much more insight to the world, myself, those we love, and being able to push creative boundaries that may have not occurred at this point in my life.
Terry: Yeah the words on the EP are pretty much the thoughts and feelings Caroline and I think a lot of us are feeling at the moment of missing your friends, family, loved ones and the freedom we used to have. It’s very relevant and captures these strange times we are all going through.
I think if it wasn’t for the music I’d have gone mad!
TERRY’S LOCKDOWN PLAYLIST
Per Hammar – Remote Dubb
This is a nice little dub track from the FUSE boys INFUSE label, an offshoot of their infamous parties. This is one for early morning heads down moments.
Terry Francis – Where Are All Of Us featuring Caroline Geys
This is our funky tech house track. It changes groove half way and then gets even deeper with those corona relevant spoken words.
Terry Francis – Reflect & Build featuring Caroline Geys
This is our building tech house track again with those very relevant spoken word vocals from Caroline.
Hayden Andre presents Subculture – The Voyage
I’ve tried to license this over the years for different mixes but unfortunately never been able to. We played this at my good friends Cat’s funeral, it means a lot to me.
Steve Darko – Red featuring Nala
This is a nasty, squelchy acid track for cheeky, nutty parts of the night!
Sound Process – Sociopath
Here’s a dirty house groove with a big bass line for mid party fun.
Nepotek – Cirrus (Terry Francis Remix)
Quite a punky remix of mine with a double bass bass line.
Carlos Francisco – Hidden Smile Culture (Terry Francis Remix)
Another late night tune for dreamy moments on more serious dance floors from Carlos Francisco’s Brazilian label SP records.
Butane, Riko Forinso – You Got Me
Another very deep, dreamy late night female vocal groove track.
