Fred Again has been one of the hippest electro musicians in the world for two years. From snippets of conversation and voice messages, he forms world hits with more than 150 million listeners. A conversation about Berlin, strange encounters and loss.
Fred John Philip Gibson became famous as an artist not too long ago through lonely video clips during the pandemic, last Sunday he played in front of several thousand people in the Berlin Velodrom. Surely more tickets could have been sold. A few minutes after the announcement of his European tour, all dates were completely sold out. The British musician strikes a chord with Generation Z with his sound.
Hardly any other artist represents as much of the global hype surrounding this young generation of British artists as Fred Gibson, better known as Fred Again. He gathers tens of millions of monthly listeners on streaming platforms and live performances like those from the infamous Boiler Room in London have been clicked millions of times. Both the Cannes-winning film “Triangle of Sadness” and thousands of TikToks are accompanied by his songs. It seems as if everyone could agree on this one young musician at the moment. Despite this, Fred seems nervous an hour before his performance in Berlin.
The 29-year-old producer and electro-pop musician is seated at a desk in his dressing room. The corridors are bare and gray mottled, inside you are welcomed with warm light, heavy carpets and the sounds of a Japanese composer. Fred’s demeanor comes across as one would expect from his social media channels: approachable and charming, but with a clear marketing strategy behind him. I would be the last person he sees before stage time, Fred assures me. After that he would just sit here and make music. To come down.
From star producer to acclaimed solo artist
Before the corona pandemic, the Brit was only known behind the scenes. He wrote hits for pop greats like BTS, Shawn Mendes and Rita Ora, but also for grime MC Stormzy. As a producer, he was also instrumental in Ed Sheeran’s “No. 6 Collaborations Project” in 2019, which earned him the Brit Award for “Producer of the Year”. Gibson is the youngest recipient ever. Today, on a cold, wet evening in Berlin, Fred no longer wants to talk about his former life. The step into the limelight would not have been difficult for him. Rather, it feels like he’s been looking for it all along.
“My first live show was the best thing I’ve ever experienced. It was very bizarre because it was right at a very big festival in London,” says Fred. “The last time I was on stage, I played the timpani in the school orchestra.” After a year of touring and two more albums, it wasn’t going to feel absurd anymore.
Fred Again brings memories to life
Fred’s sound could best be described as a mixture of James Blake and The xx. It is suitable for a thoughtful walk as well as for a long night of partying. The electro beats are sometimes melodic and soulful, sometimes wild and irascible. Just like real life.
Instead of describing people’s emotions, Fred simply lets them speak for themselves. He builds the lyrics for his songs from video snippets, voice messages and conversations with strangers on the street. This creates real, unplayed contributions that give the listener the feeling of being part of the music themselves. The verbal contributions of his own companions are at the heart of Fred Again’s DJ sets and albums. Like no other artist, he stands for the remix and sample culture that has been flushed from the clubs into the mainstream via Tiktok in recent years.
A momentous encounter in Atlanta
It all started back then with the construction worker Carlos, whom Fred met after a concert in Atlanta. Carlos introduced himself to the musician while he was enjoying a few drinks with friends. “He had this infectious way about him. When I woke up in my hotel room the next morning with a hangover, I had dozens of videos of Carlos on my phone. One of them kept shouting, ‘We gon’ make it through'”. That one short movement forms the basis for the entire first album by Fred.
You can find him on what is probably his most famous song “Marea (we’ve lost dancing)”. But there is also a song dedicated to Carlos. He would have tried to capture his spirit musically, says Fred. Accompanied by Carlos’ real statements, the song “Carlos (make it thru)” becomes a sentimental, musical memory. A kind of diary entry. The first sets with this sample not only get hundreds of thousands of clicks on YouTube. “I immediately fell in love with the work of extracting as much beauty as possible from simple encounters. I’ve been obsessed with it since that day.”
He later borrows poems he finds online for the dark sample of “Kyle (I Found You)” or a haunting monologue about living with depression at the beginning of “Sabrina (I Am A Party)”. Each song is named after the protagonist of the respective sample. Sometimes just “me” (I). For the track “Delilah (pull me out of this)”, Fred’s close friend Delilah whispers “Pull me out of this, you know how to calm me down”. into the microphone. It’s a sample of their own track “Lost Keys”. A panic attack in the club served as inspiration, writes Fred Again on Instagram.
Sunbeams fall through the club window
You can tell Fred Again that he lives for the music. He’d love to create music out of anything, anywhere, he says. That would get him annoyed looks from his friends. Probably the most absurd place he would have written a song was in a techno club. “It was six or seven in the morning. The sun was coming up and I thought I had to capture this moment. So I sat in a corner and just did it. Even with a lot of fucked up people around me.”
The 29-year-old says that he also had such an encounter in Berlin last night. He was sitting in a restaurant. Not a wild night, just four, five beers with the crew. There he would have struck up a conversation with a 60-year-old Berliner while smoking in front of the door. “We had a fascinating conversation about life in front of and behind the wall”. Maybe one day it will become a song. “Each of my tracks starts with the sample. It has to be special and trigger something in me,” explains Fred. “After that I spend many hours finding the right melodies.”
Three albums have been created in this way in the last two years. After the debut album “Actual Life (April 14 – December 17 2020)” and the successor “Actual Life 2 (February 2 – October 15, 2021)” followed in October “Actual Life 3 (January 1 – September 9 2022)”. It should remain the last part of the series for the time being.
Euphoria and the worry that it will pass
At this point in our conversation, Fred seems thoughtful and distant. His gaze is fixed on the bare wall of the arena catacombs. After all, Fred Gibson’s diaries, disguised as albums, also tell a different story. One of personal loss and pain. While working on his first album, a close friend fell seriously ill. The happy, euphoric melodies later become a more thoughtful sound. The first part of “Actual Life” later comes to a tragic end.
Also on the two following releases, there is always a tension between euphoria and the worry that one day this may suddenly be over. The artist himself describes it vaguely before his performance in Berlin: “The first album was about falling in love, the second about grief. The third describes a new level: acceptance.” For Fred, it’s a logical end to the issue and a mechanism to protect himself. “I have to stop writing about the same thing over and over again. It’s not good for me. But I’ll definitely find my way back to it at some point.”
His first appearance in Berlin after the “Actual Life” trilogy also closes a personal circle for Fred Again. Large parts of the first album were created here, he says, his eyes shining again. “I’ve always lived alone in Berlin for several weeks. Writing music during the day, partying in clubs at night. That was my life”.
During his performance, Fred also tells his personal history of Berlin on the red video screen behind his mixing console. Cheers break out. Again, it seems like his fans are very close to Fred. As if they were part of his personal journey. Then follows a sentence that has already been heard at many concerts: In two years he would hardly have looked forward to a concert as much as to this one. Fred Again one would like to believe it.