Geordie Greep

Geordie Wade Greep (born 20 August 1999) is an English musician.

He is the frontman and lead guitarist of the rock band Black Midi.

With him, they have become one of the eminent bands of the emerging wave of British rock music that has come to be known as the Windmill scene.

He met bandmates Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin, Cameron Picton, and Morgan Simpson at the BRIT School - from where they would then go on to form Black Midi.

The group got their start performing gigs at Brixton pub The Windmill, which had been the only one to accept Greep's emails sent to various music venues.

Geordie Wade Greep was born on 20 August 1999 and raised in Walthamstow.

He has considered his upbringing in the town beneficial, citing its cultural diversity as "brilliant for a young person".

He has credited his father with helping him developing a taste for music in his youth, teaching him that "there are [sic] good and bad music, and there are no boundaries between genres".

His mother worked at a salsa club during his childhood, and it resulted in him growing a distaste for the music.

However, when revisiting salsa music as an adult, he acquired a newfound appreciation for it.

He listened to his father's record collection of progressive rock, classical music, and country and was also interested in the "whiz-bang impact" of cartoon scores.

Greep first took interest in the guitar when he was given the video game Guitar Hero for his seventh birthday.

He grew fond of the music featured in the game, in particular "Take Me Out" by Franz Ferdinand, and later received an electric guitar for his eighth birthday.

Around this time, his father would lend him CDs of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin from his own personal collection, as well as those of progressive rock bands such as Pink Floyd, Genesis, and King Crimson and jazz musicians such as Miles Davis.

His first experiences playing live music came around age 11 when he began playing gospel music in churches despite not being raised religious himself.

The performances had a great effect on his musical development, bringing him experience in improvising while playing, an aspect he has stated to be lacking in the education of secular white musicians.

What would become Black Midi first began when Greep met fellow guitarist Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin at the BRIT School, where they both attended.

During this time, he and Kwasniewski-Kelvin would begin regularly performing together, busking in Bromley.

Through their MIDI lessons at the school, Greep would learn of the genre of black MIDI.

He admittedly knew little about it, but pitched it to Kwasniewski-Kelvin thinking it would make a good band name anyway.

The two later met drummer Morgan Simpson and their sound began to take on more rock and funk influence.

Their lineup would be completed when they enlisted bassist Cameron Picton a month before their first show at The Windmill, in Brixton.

After a later show at The Windmill, the group would find themselves approached by record producer Dan Carey, with whom they would record their debut single, "bmbmbm".

Their experience with Carey was positive, and the band naturally decided to work with him again for their debut studio album Schlagenheim.

Greep said of the process: "it went really well and started such a good relationship, so when it came time and we had the means to make an album, he just seemed like the best choice. I could just tell from the way he was talking about the music that he got it completely."

However, instead of being released under Carey's Speedy Wunderground label, Schlagenheim was released under Rough Trade Records, which the band had signed to earlier that year.

After being signed to Rough Trade Records in 2019, the band has since enjoyed critical acclaim with their three studio albums, Schlagenheim, Cavalcade, and Hellfire.

Greep has been characterized by his unique singing voice, considered a result of his accent, which has been described as "geographically unclassifiable".

He often writes dramatic narratives in his songs, with many centered around a specific character seen in Black Midi songs, such as "John L".

Schlagenheim was released to critical acclaim, being nominated for the 2019 Mercury Prize.

Following the release of their single "Sweater" in 2020, Black Midi looked to move in a different direction with their next album.

Their songwriting process moved away from jamming and improvisation.

According to Greep, they would start bringing in songs they had completed on their own and would then play together.

In order to capture the new direction of their sound, they worked with producer John "Spud" Murphy for what would become their sophomore studio album, Cavalcade.

The lyricism of Cavalcade's songwriting would put greater emphasis on narratives, consisting of stories centered around characters written from third-person perspectives.

Cavalcade was similarly acclaimed to Schlagenheim, with praise being directed at it being more ambitious and difficult.

That following year, Black Midi would release their third studio album, Hellfire.

The title Hellfire is one the band had history with, being one Greep originally suggested for Schlagenheim.

The role of producer was this time filled by Marta Salogni, whom the band previously worked with to record "John L" from Cavalcade.

In contrast to the third-person narratives of Cavalcade, the songs of Hellfire are largely written in first person.