Random House Project : A tribute to Roy Ayers

I met Gez Dewar, member of the Random House Project, who crafted a beautiful tribute to the Late musical legend Roy Ayers. Let's dive into his musical world!

1) Hi Gez! Thank you so much for being here with us! I must say your remix of Roy Ayers’ “Everybody” took us all by storm. We really love the work you did on that one! First thing first, can you present yourself and talk about your musical journey ?

Thanks Artur, glad you all dug the remix, it was a sad loss of a great musical legend, I was lucky enough to work with Roy Ayers and his band many years ago at a Soul Weekender where he played on my keyboards during an interview, such a humble and generous soul.

I began my musical journey in bands in Birmingham then moved to London in the late 80's to go to Art College where I first got into clubbing and the music scene. I started working at MTV when it launched in 1987 and the following year the Acid House Summer of Love started and I got swept up in those clubs like the Wag, Spectrum, Bagleys, The Cross, Turmills and also Ibiza's clubs like Pacha where I was exposed to Dj's like Alfredo and Pipi.

I started making records in 1990 with Doi-oing and got signed to Sean Mckluskey's Brainiak Records, we made a track called "Good Feeling" which sampled etta james and got us noticed , from there we were the first band to get signed to Ministry of Sound's Open label with the likes of Mr Monday , Green Velvet and Paperclip People.

We then formed many other groups like Heliotropic, Tenth Planet, The Experiment, Thee Earls with Justin Robertson and Finally formed Random House Project with Mr Monday and made tracks with Robert Owens which was our first record for Darren Emerson's Underwater Imprint. I continue to work under that name on my own imprint Transmitter Recordings and mainly focus on Reworks and Edits these days as I seem to enjoy the process of reimagining classic tracks in new ways.

2) One of the first thing I noticed while listening to your remix is its delicacy, its precision, and of course its imagery which perfectly fit the 215th episode of BB! How did you end up creating such a kaleidoscopic track from that funky number and why did you choose that song, what did you want to achieve with it?

Thanks glad you enjoyed the rework! I'm colourblind so maybe to compensate for this I have a very colourful musical palette and enjoy the process of creating detailed musical pictures and landscapes with my work. In a way I see the reworks as a new frame around the Artist much like the Pop Art work of Warhol and Lichtenstein; how they created those pictures of Celebrities. I grew up listening to producers like Trevor Horn, Steven Lillywhite, Peter Walsh, Flood, Ian Tregoning and Zuess B Held who created these incredible soundscapes that went far beyond just the reproduction and recording of musicians and songs and created new sonic landscapes that I felt were artistic statements in themselves. 

I chose that track in particular because I loved the very simple answer and call Vibe part and the "Everybody" vocal, the track seems so inclusive to me and fits my ethos, I took a sample of an interview with Roy about his philosophy of life and how he would like to be remembered and that fitted perfectly with the sentiment of the track. I wanted to mark his death with a Portrait and that seemed the best way I could say Thanks.

3) Generally speaking, when remixing, do you have pictures that come meeting you and helping you during the mixing process or do you already have a clear idea you simply execute?

When I approach an Artists work I'm generally looking for a new way to present the song which hasn't been tried before, this is the challenge. I always like to keep the vocal fairly intact and generally at the same tempo, but everything else is up for changing. I will often write in a completely different key and use chords and parts that are from completely different genres and I try not to limit or box myself into a particular or style genre from the start. I'm looking to surprise myself first and foremost by presenting the song in a totally new way if possible. The end result being the familiar presented in a way not heard before, which I think folks really Dig.

4) Was there a tougher part while working on “Everybody” (be it in the mixing or in the mastering process)? 

Different songs require different approaches, not only in the palette of sounds you choose to put around them but also the structure of the track; Everybody was and interesting journey because it's primarily a Jazz track without the usual tropes of verse, chorus and lyrics or very little, so you have to create a structure which is sympathetic to the original parts you start off with, primarily Roy Ayers Vibes. Being Jazz there's a lot of crazy chord shapes and progressions in there and for me the challenge was to create a blend of Disco & Jazz that supported the Vibes but gave it that disco flavour, so many different progressions where ditched along the way to find the best fit.

Tracks like jazz and funk are often less structured than Pop and rely more on the players constantly changing their patterns throughout, so injecting a more structured dynamic into the original, while retaining the overall feel of the original was the challenge. 

This one is another killer, listen to how Gez has been able to slightly change the tonality of the track, especially in the verses. A True Masterpiece... BANDCAMP Page here

5) Are you already working on new tracks? What’s ahead for 2025 in your musical world?

I never stop writing, it's a constant learning process. I've been lucky enough to have been asked to remix a couple of tracks for the Music for Dreams label which will be out soon and continue to explore new possibilities of reworks. I would love to be able to present my work live in the next year and create something to bring my work to a wider audience, like most artists I suppose.

Thank you so much Gez for this!

Thanks so much for taking an interest in my work and thanks for listening!

Big Love