Following the release of two new singles, we had a chance to catch up with electronic duo Gilligan Moss. Chicago natives, the two have known each other since preschool and have been making music together since 2015. After a series of successful releases, tours, and festivals, Gilligan Moss connected with ODESZA’s Foreign Family Collective for the release of their new singles “Ultraparadiso” and “Ferris Wheel”. Check out what the duo had to say below.
BTS: Your music seems to transcend many genres and vibes. If you had to choose an ideal place for someone to listen to your music, where would it be?
Gilligan Moss: We played a show in a treehouse community in upstate New York a couple years ago + as far as we are concerned it was about as ideal as possible- in the middle of the woods, surrounded by friends, illuminated by headlamps.
BTS: You two have been friends for practically your entire lives, do you think that has played to your advantage as a duo?
GM: Of course! our music is kind of the sum of both of our interests and upbringings- there’s enough difference to make it interesting and enough in common that we can speak the same language.
It also makes touring a lot easier – we can spend profoundly long amounts of time together without completely wanting to kill each other.
BTS: When looking for sounds to sample for your music, do you have a tried and true method for the process?
GM: We’ve got a couple ways to do it, but in general we are always looking for things that have a unique recording quality. Fidelity (both high and low) is important. We try to listen widely, so the hunt for sounds can really take us to some strange and wonderful places.
We keep a master library called the SOUND VAULT that contains samples of all lengths and categories – it could be as simple as a little bell noise we hear on a record all the way up to an entire song. A lot of times we are just sampling stuff as we come across it, then we’ll toss it in the sound vault and it may make its way into a song months or years later.
BTS: Your recently released music under ODESZA’s Foreign Family Collective, how did the relationship with the label come about?
GM: Completely organically! We were on tour (RIP) opening for Tourist and played an amazing venue called Neumos in Seattle. After the show we were chatting with a bunch of friends and some people came up to say they loved the set- turns out it was Odesza and most of the FFC label who had come to see Tourist. We started talking on Twitter and sort of made things happen shortly thereafter. Kismet.
BTS: How did the connection with Swedish duo Rebecca & Fiona come about for your new song “Ferris Wheel” ?
GM: Just reached out- we had been digging their stuff for a while and made the instrumental for Ferris Wheel and thought they would fit nicely on it, and they did -to say the least. It was really fun to work with them; they dove head first into the songwriting and we had a few video calls to go over parts and lyrics and stuff. The whole thing was actually really easy and quite fun.
BTS: Any artists or songs you’ve been digging lately?
GM: Been listening to a lot of Vegyn, Jim-E Stack, the insane amount of new music Hudson Mohawke just released, the Bella Boo album from last year is still in heavy rotation. In terms of older stuff, I’ve been listening to a lot of Allman Brothers and some Derek Trucks solo stuff.
BTS: What’s next for Gilligan Moss?
GM: A string of #1 hit records!
Stay up to date with Gilligan Moss!
- Get to Know: Zanski - October 1, 2021
- Get To Know: Arrested Youth - June 25, 2021
- Get To Know: ford. - June 8, 2021
