Name: Gerald Brunson
Nationality: American
Occupation: Producer, DJ
Current release: Brunson's Intimacy Between Friends EP is out via Rekids Special Projects.

If you enjoyed these thoughts by Brunson and would like to know more about his music and upcoming releases, visit him on Instagram, and Facebook.

For a deeper dive, read our expansive Brunson interview about minimalism.



Sometimes, album or EP titles can simply sound good. With Intimacy Between Friends, there seems to be a deeper meaning, though. What kind of personal experiences or ideas were at the heart of this material?

Yea, titles are always something which I try to use to communicate philosophies or inside jokes, etc. There is meaning to the title “Leaders that are really quitters in disguise”. That’s for a different interview.

The Intimacy title kind of evolved. It was "the levity between friends" at first, but the Intimacy of friendship is a concept I actively study.

There was a comedian doing a bit on how she envies her friends who marry their best friends, because she needs to complain about all the shit she hates about the person she marries or is dating to her best friend so she can keep perspective and save the relationship.

While I laughed, I deeply agreed with that sentiment. When you are growing up, your friendships can become extremely intense and intimate even though there is no sex going on. Best friends become chosen family or inspiration in a way you both define your brand by being synonymous with each other

I am not very into human interactions. I only have a few friends. Most of my friends have been animals. The track “Aminal” is an ode to my beloved spirit guardian, Dr. Jak L Turbo. He truly was my best friend. I am still very sad I was not able to keep him alive longer as him being a Dutch Shepherd made him genetically disposed to certain types of cancer that were not easily detectable.

Even in his death, he gave me the gift of achieving my life goals and a year or so after his death I was doing visuals and DJing globally and starting to produce as his death placed me in certain situations that showed me that up is the only direction to go! The level of love, commitment and intimacy between Jak and I is unmeasurable.

When I made this track 9 or 10 years ago, I played all the chords by hand with my left hand. I don't know how to do that very well, so I'm glad it worked. I had to use my right hand to flip this switch on this modded 606 being used to get the bass to modulate as well as change the cut-off and change drum patterns as everything was made as it was happening.

I truly was visited by Jak's spirit and was lucky to have been recording. You can hear the exact moment he entered the space as well as when he left back into the ether. I always wonder what other people hear when they hear that track. I just hear my buddy nestling his head on my chest while giving a long exhale through his snout.

I met my friend Ryan through my ex-partner (I've only dated a couple of people in my life, so that was a pretty intense experience for me). He was always a cool dude, then he just kind of turned into my ace boom. We speak to each other in made-up languages, and there was a two-year period where we only communicated with quotes from Paris is Burning and Best in Show. I could talk for hours about how awesome Ryan is. He figured out how to activate these spinning LED hologram fans just in time for the Model 500 Tresor show at Tangent Gallery in Detroit last year (which went over huge!!). He also drove out from Colorado to Detroit that year with me, which was clutch because I would not have been able to get out there with my lasers if he didn't. I have so many stories like that.

I remember that one time on the 4th of July, I was able to get him to go see Maetrik on a 4-point surround Funktion One system. Maetrik would hit this effect and then make the effect loop pan around the system. I was a little wavy that night and I loved the effect and would get caught in it. I would start kind of falling backwards with my eyes rolling in my head; every time, at the last possible second, Ryan would grab me by my shirt and keep me from falling. I cannot explain how awesome it is to have someone who will catch you at the last second when you are balls deep in a Maetrik effect loop panning on a 4-point surround system! It really is way more amazing than it reads.

Oh, wait, that one time at RecordTime in Detroit, he lent me some kinda absurd amount of money to buy the stack of records I amassed. Mike from RT came out with this tub of records, and Ryan was very adamant about just getting the tub and selling what I didn’t want he’d cover me no problem. I was pretty firm on I’ll come back next year to buy it; RecordTime closed shortly after that. I regret not taking him up on his offer, I know there was serious heat in that tub. He also had a puppy named Ajax, that was just such a main character I was honored to be a part of their life.

The day I made this track, I was just jamming in the laboratory, waiting for Ryan to arrive, as we had coupons for BOGO at Cold Stone Ice Cream. We were gonna go for ice cream lol. I was just playing a cool tune, he popped in, was grooving, then I just ended the track and we left and had the ice cream. I came back and made “Eise Creme” and “Eise Freeze,” which are other tracks, but the feeling of the day is very much the feelings that are overly present in that track … I feel it exudes the feeling of elation and joy that defined that day. I love that warm, lush pad sound; it just feels good!

It's really an EP that celebrates the intense love present in a relationship of true substance, whether it's human, animal or sonically. My friendship with techno is extremely intimate and personal to me, and I want to share it with others and build a better place in which to exist.

What were some of your starting points for the Intimacy Between Friends EP?

Just losing Jak, going insane, not really having a purpose, moving to Detroit again for a few months, growing as a human, embracing my failures, embracing my successes, my ex buying me a JP 8000 that I never really used back in 2003, years before I made that. These are all tracks made 7-10 years apart.

I would say when I listened back to the “Aminal” track and sent it to Mike (Banks), I figured if he could hear what I was feeling, then I was getting closer to being able to make worthwhile tracks. He heard it and shared it on BBC radio, which caused the spark to release it. Matt went out of his way to track me down via random comments on a BBC video.

I don't know how to answer this question.

The sonic palette of the album, perfectly in line with the title, feels organic and warm. What were some of the most important pieces of gear for this release?

I'd say the signature sound of this release is the chord pad sounds from the Roland JP 8000, though it's only in “Aminal,” the modded TR606 Detronik created is legendary. I miss that device and Micho every day!

This cool Jomox Moonwind filter unit is rad.

Michigan Synth Works built me a Yocto2 808 clone that really sells the WAV Surfer and “My friend Ryan” track is cool. You can do multiple different time signatures in the same sequence. I can spend hours programming that thing. Also the 303 clone he built me is clutch in these.

People seem to hate it, but “Surf Breaker” and “My Friend Ryan” both use the RMX 1000 effects unit. Oh and this crazy unit Michigan synth works built for me called a Dervish. Find one if you can; it’s fucking insane, for real!!

Would you say that you approach equipment and gear with a minimalist mindset? Or do you need a wide choice of instruments and tools to make music?

I have tables full of machines and I turn them all on, then mute out the channels that are not relevant and go from there. Back in 2019, I played Globus at Tresor for the Atonal Festival, and I did a live PA. I don't write stuff or do duplicate sets; it’s all live, off the cuff, so I had two full tables of drum machines and synths. I had so much stuff Tresor was kind of annoyed.

I noticed my artist care guy was paying attention to what I was using gear-wise. I would write something, jam it out, then cycle over to the other units and program them. By the time I cycled through all the shit I had, my three hours were up.

My care guy was very impressed, he stated that he was amazed I used everything except for the vocoder microphone. I quickly pointed out I did use it; I couldn't get my voice to go through it without squelching, so I pointed the mic at the speakers and vocoded the feedback and that I could have used a TR 505 even though I had TR 8, TR 8s, TR 606, the Yocto and an MPC 1000, there was no room for it, but they understood that I use everything - just not at the same time.

From my listening perspective, the grooves of these pieces are hypnotic – yet at the core of Intimacy Between Friends are the pads. Some of them have that special quality of pulling the listener in a deep space of reflection – they are almost pieces in their own right! How do you find these evocative atmospheres, and how do you know which of them has true “staying power?”

I just use my ears.

“Aminal” is me playing by hand, I think those are major chords, but using this eight-voice dual-layered pad that has a layer of voices that are an octave or two lower than the main ones really creates a moment.

“My Friend Ryan” was a Kordbot, so it was complex chord theory reduced to one key pressing. But again, it’s an eight-voice dual layer with different octaves with chorus on it. I think it’s old jungle that has me change notes in that manner. You know you hold it, then you go lower note, then you contrast it by hitting a high chord kind of interrupting the middle chord length.

It's why I love old jungle and old jungle was very inspired by Detroit techno. Back in the day, you'd take “If Mojo Was A.M.” or  “Bug in the bassbin” by Carl Craig, put that bitch on 45 RPM and you had jungle. So that chord vibe or progression feel is def rooted in Detroit.

Maybe I should release some of the straight chord-only-tracks I have of me just making chords. Sometimes I can't figure out how a beat would fit into the space, so I leave it out. I have an Acid Jakal track called "Xero Gravity." I think it's on YouTube I put it on a white label as an "ambient track."

The chords are a placeholder for my feelings, they are beautiful, of substance, can be joyful or melancholy, sometimes change directions, sometimes are muted and disregarded, pushed aside with a focus on other elements.

I'm also drawn towards tones, sometimes I'll hear a tone and mess with it until it does the right decay release etc. get the LFO to hit just right. I can hear the way a sound is and can tell what is going to make a powerful chord sound. It gets to be wild when you craft the sound with reverb and chorus.

I love how many of the atmospheric elements of the tracks are mixed way upfront, as if to envelope the listener. Tell me about the mixing of the music, please.  

Nothing too advanced on my end. I have a Mackie 1604v Onyx or whatever it takes USB for DAW multi-tracking. I assign a unit to a channel and it lives there forever. I then start messing with the channel EQ, pan etc then just dial it in. Then I record stuff and listen to it in my car and figure out what needs to be adjusted. Then, when everything feels good, I just run it and make tracks till my brain hurts.

I end up with hundreds of hours of track etc. I send stuff to the labels, and then they get them mastered and they sound way way better with more dynamic intent. If they were multi-tracked they would sound even better.

Next to the pads, drums also seem extremely important for the sound of the EP. How do you approach drum programming, processing and production?

Polyrhythms. I layer lots of drums to the point of getting sounds from the sounds being cancelled out.

The TR 8S is actually pretty crafty, there's an annoying issue with the Yocto so I haven't been able to use it, but I’m finding some of its different time signature options in the TR 8S, I find 32nd hi hats to be a fun rabbit hole to fall down.

Having a solid 4/4 kick is always a good fail-safe; mixing different broken bass kicks from different machines is key for me as well. Running them through effects processors is also pretty keen as well gives you more sonic options.

On “Aminal”, there's a magical moment - to me at least - around the six minute mark, when the beat suddenly goes from a simple four to the floor into something with more swing and propulsion. How did that moment come about and what's the importance of patience in your work for creating these subtle but so incisive transitions?

That's so wild you can hear that lol. I don't know how to describe it, but that is what techno is all about to me. When you listen to the track, I feel at that exact moment in the journey, you need that to happen right there, nothing huge, just reworking in an element from earlier that subsided to allow tension in another area to mount,

I felt the point that cut out all the hi-hat percussion was huge as well. You reach that peak in the track and it cuts down to just that pounding kick drum bringing emphasis to the synths and letting it gain enough wind under its wings to reach a high altitude, once there it spreads its wings to glide. That's what that high hat is when it kicks back in its that extra wing flex that allows the bird to effortlessly glide at cruising speed.

I used to listen to DJs such as DRC, Graeme, Terry Mullan, Nigel Richards, they would really pay attention to the tension. I remember this one set, Miss DRC cut all the hi-hats etc out with the eq and was balls deep in this mix. We knew it was gonna pop off when it hit and we knew she was pressure-cooking with accuracy. She would take us just past the edge and then drop back in the open and closed hi-hats and we would flip the fuck out. Then, when we were in the middle of flipping out, she'd kick in the snares and claps and it was so high on the energy level I lived for those moments.

Nigel would do that shit too, even Hawtin - he'd have you on your knees fucking with you. He would have the most infectious hi-hat with a swing pattern and just tease you with it for an hour and then maybe let you have it, or he'd just mix to the next track and let it burn in your brain for a couple of years.