G Flame aka Cisco Ferreira, is electronic music royalty. As The Advent (initially alongside Colin McBean aka Mr G and more recently, solo) Ferreira helped bridge the gap between Detroit and the UK in the mid ‘90s and has continued to refine his own, classically informed techno sounds since. As legendary as The Advent is however, our current focus is on Cisco’s output as G Flame following the announcement of ‘I Want You’, an LP forthcoming on Toronto’s No19 imprint which sees the producer dig into his vaults and delivery a striking LP of rugged house cuts which includes previously unheard material alongside stand out G Flame back catalogue. Naturally, we had some questions so managed to grab Cisco for a brief chat.

WWD: Hey Cisco, the past few years as The Advent seems to have been busy with some super high profile releases going on alongside hectic pre-pandemic touring so what was it that prompted the desire to return to the G Flame catalogue and how did the LP for No.19 come to be?

Yes Its been pretty hectic, I always keep my head & ears above the surface in this electronic music movement, and as I’m always productive 24/7 I’m always releasing, remixing, collating & podcasting, this process never stops, it’s what drives me to continue.. With G Flame there have been some releases here & there on numerous labels, but the “I Want You “ album came about through Art Department getting in touch and wanting me to release a single & a possible long player. I sent over material I had in the vaults picking and choosing tracks to submit to No.19, as this is what attracted house heads to that G Flame 90’s sound (pre tech house). My Ex was more constant with the G sound that I created & I let him run with it, but I’m forging my rightful place in this moment, where the demand is strong for that older G sound, especially as people seem to be going backwards instead of forwards (which is what I was envisioning all those years ago in the distant Past/ future).

WWD:  I read that thanks to YTS (Youth Training Scheme – an employment/training initiative in the ‘80s in the UK) you trained as a sound engineer which led to you working for legendary imprint, Jack Trax. Is that year dot for you when it comes to your love affair with house as well as techno? Is it fair to say that house and techno have always been running through your production DNA?

Yes Y.T.S. was a great scheme for inner city kids, it gave us an opportunity to study what we loved & some help from the Gov (No Government funding at the moment) and me at 17, studying & then being placed at a studio that later became the home of one of London’s 1st House labels, then later Techno. It was a good choice & the right time & place, although I did have to work hard from the ground up to claim my position as head sound engineer, and being an engineer at some truly amazing sessions. From P.I.L. (John Lydon) – Robert Plant, Maxi Priest, Loose Ends, Bonnie Tyler, even did an assistant session with Nellie Hooper “Wild Bunch” (Massive Attack), and this was all before House music, so by the time House music showed its pretty face I was ready to mix down these sessions, which was a turning point for me, from working with live bands, then transcended to machine made music, which was more my calling. By 100% learning & watching early pioneers like Adonis & Larry Heard, it was a great insight into what would be my future calling..

WWD: How was the physical mechanics of putting ‘I Want You’ together? Did you have to go digging for DATS, do any editing or re-mastering on the project?

Yes, exactly that (D.A.T.) I have a huge bulk of work spanning from the late 80’s all the way until the present. I record everything, even simple ideas that later became club hits, you want to capture every moment, not just completed full sessions. There’s so much that can be revisited, as long as you captured it, which I did constantly, maybe this was due to no “Total Recall” so really every session was a precious piece of work & you didn’t want to miss out any take or jamming session. So after digging into my G FLAME vault I found so SO much material, I just sent Jonny @ No. 19 a bulk of tracks & said pick what you feel.. so the final result is “I WANT YOU” all tracks are untouched, no edits needed..

WWD: Your career has been characterised by relentlessly pushing ahead and looking forward – did you have any second thoughts about this project as a result and how did you resist the urge to write new material for the LP?

There’s only 1 track that is recent “Turnmills”, the rest are from 1988 all the way to 1999. If you love the music as much as me & some of my peers, we are persistent motha’s, as we are driven by the artists that paved the way for us, the music & the search for that groove to make you move. This project was more about revisiting that 80’s/90’s time, which seems to be the sound of now, its evolution to present day 2020, almost every DJ playing TECH house & House DJ’s playing techno & vice versa? New trends most DJ’s will always follow the current flow, but in 94 I was touching on something unique that echoes in this future sound of dance music and good music stands the test of time & I guess this project is statement to that fact..

WWD:What other gems from the archives would you like to revisit if you had the opportunity?

Luckily I have all the machines from those times, the floppy disks, the old big 200MB Hard Disks, I hoarded all my gear & was never tempted to sell during the transition from analog to digital, I knew there was no digital source that could create what I had. Even though there are truly some amazing Plugins that can do great sonic emulations, you still can’t beat the real thing, now everyone wants to sound analog & they know digital doesn’t give you that punch that Analog can. Digital can be too cold; analog adds warmth & does stuff to your transients which digital doesn’t, you have to tweak & dig deep to get the results in the digital world.. so I can dig into my past NP..

WWD: Lockdown has been far from quiet for you with the launch of your DJ streaming nightclub, techno-club.net. How’s that been going?

Yes Lockdown was not what our scene was expecting.. so I had to really think on what my next move would be,, would it be join all the rest of the scene & stream for free & devalue my music as it seems that’s what was happening with the status quo. This free streaming is great for bigger mainstream brands, who lets face it, have made millions from our scene, so I can see the logic in that being free & them finally giving back to the public that made their success… but there is one big important factor that people seem to be forgetting.. The DJ’s performing on these streaming channels are not getting paid, the music they play isn’t being licensed, then come the copyright police, take downs, being blocked on social media, as lets face it most social media platforms are not licensed to play HD quality music & Video.

I saw an opportunity & NO one was thinking on the same level, so I decided to create it with some like minded people, my Partner “Dave Bate” we discussed & researched the best possible way to approach this platform idea. It took 6 months to put together & last 2 months we have been open 24/7 with amazing guests, we offer a true club experience which is lacking in other streaming sites, we are the only site with 10 multi rooms, so you can visit different rooms, music styles on the night, as you please. We decided to only focus on 3 main genres of music: House Music, Techno Music & Electro Music.. these 3 styles are the real blue print for today’s multi genres of Music.. We are building this brand which will take time, as we are not Mainstream, we are 100% an underground concept, so we want complete control & no interference from the outside.. Our terms only is crucial to make us stand out from the rest..

WWD: How do you see the streaming end of things panning out as we, hopefully, head back towards normality next year?

Yes well let’s hope 2021 is a year were we can see improvement, I’m still doubtful as the human race can be unpredictable, so let’s see what the future holds. Obviously I can see this mainstream free streaming events, is just part time for most to perform to their public until things get back to norm.. With our www.techno-club.net we plan to go beyond Covid and use our platform in real clubs, when we get back to so called normal, I will be streaming all my sets on a weekly basis around the world on all my tours, so my fans can still see THE ADVENT/G FLAME performing live & direct at clubs like Lehmann, Tresor, Stereo, FABRIK, ETC ETC etc from the comfort of their homes..

WWD: In honour of the project, can you give us some names of artists who you feel join the dots between house and techno in the way that G Flame does?

For me it’s about the DJ’s & Producers that paved the way for our sound, & we should always show respect. I have no care for present day artists, producers & DJ’s, as they are only a product of what was… DJ’s like Tony Humphries, David Mancuso, Ron Hardy, Colin Favour, Kid Bachelor, Jeff Mills plus to many to mention… Artists like Masters At Work, Mood II Swing, UR, Peace Division, Joey Beltram, Rik Davis, Jelly Bean Benitez, Alexander Robotnick, Kraftwerk etc etc.