Indeed, the man’s varied tastes are no better captured than across the sounds and genres he delivers on when he’s playing a gig. But keeping it simple, he argues that his music is “predominantly good vibe party hip hop with hints of breaks and reggae, as well as bass heavy ghetto funk and glitch sets,” when he parties with his crew, The Brotherhood Of Beats, as well as during some other, strictly downtempo beat excursions.
From the beginning though, Gaden was channeled into music via his mum who is a gifted musician in her own right. “She started off playing tuba and then later double bass,” he explains. “She encouraged me to pick up the trumpet when I was in my early teens and we listened to a lot of jazz in the family home. A few years later I switched to sax, sticking with it all through my time at performance arts school, where I learnt improvisation and music theory. To this day I have a fondness of bass and passion for jazz, both of these attributes I picked up from her and that was the beginning of my musical journey!”
And from that, his approach to production leans on his upbringing but also elements of the new school – particularly sampling. “I’m all about chopping up old or new tunes, borrowing bits from here and there,” he says. “There has been so much amazing music recorded in the past with such soul and feel to it that it would be rude not to take things from it. I like to be inspired by something I hear and then put my own spin on it.”
Using Logic to produce all his music, with a combination of turntables, keyboards and saxophone, Gaden rather enjoys his unique and varied take on his production. Even his recent EP underpins his flexibility as an artist with tracks that include a chilled out hip hop number, a disco boogie thing and even a party banger. Plenty of other exciting things are on his agenda too, with a series of tracks with D’Fro (The Psyde Projects) coming up, which will form the base of his upcoming LP, The Universal Funk. And further, the third installment of his reggae mash-up collaboration on the Booty Fruit label with DJ Maars titled The Glad Professor is nearly done too.
So as an artist with a finger in a couple of different pies, it would be an oversight not to mention that Tom runs a Sunday session called Easy Now at The Penny Black with Agent 86 and DJ Maars. They play what he terms ‘all the sounds of summer’ so he gets to spin heaps of dub, which he loves as well. And in addition to spinning records he also tells me about his band Showtime Trio with Zvi ‘Zedsix’ Belling on double bass and Conrad ‘Defcon’ Tracey on drums. “We play a style we’ve coined ‘boom bap jazz’ and our new sets showcase not only my tunes, but covers of Nas, Beastie Boys and Eric B & Rakim classics, with D’Fro delivering his own rhymes out front. Watch out for shows coming soon.” Sounds exciting.
So finally, Tom is pumped about his upcoming gig at Blue Bar. “It’s always a party,” he suggests not unexpectedly. “It’s about ‘hands in the air’ rump shaking tunes, good vibes and plenty of dancing! I’ll be debuting my new AV show with some live sax, playing all the tracks from the EP and more. There’s a very special guest from Sydney, every B-boy’s favorite DJ and Play Bar owner, Benny Hinn, plus residents DJ Ayna and DJ Maars. There will be hip hop. There will be breaks. See you by the bar!”
