He returns to Paris. After selling out two Zéniths in the capital in September 2023, Fred Again will perform on Friday, August 23 at Rock en Seine, headlining this third day. Two years after his first appearance at the festival, the British producer has gained even more notoriety, definitively establishing himself as one of the world’s biggest names in electronic music.
What is less well known is that the 31-year-old musician patiently waited for his time, working in the shadows for the success of other great artists. A look back at the genesis and rise of the Fred Again phenomenon.
It was on July 19, 1993, in Balham, a district of south London, that Frederick John Philip Gibson, his real name, was born. The Englishman was born into a privileged environment, from two lines of aristocrats. His father, Charles Anthony Warneford Gibson, was a King’s Counsel, a high-ranking lawyer appointed by the monarch of the United Kingdom, responsible in particular for providing legal advice to the king and members of his family. Through his mother, Mary Ann Frances, Frederick also has many ancestors with countless titles of nobility, including barons and other viscounts.
To complete the young Frederick’s bourgeois education, his family sent him to Marlborough College, a private boarding school where he stayed for five years, until he came of age in 2011. Fred Again’s encounter with music began in childhood, when he was playing with an eight-track Boss recorder. At 16, he was invited by a neighbor to attend the rehearsals of his a capella group. This family friend was none other than Brian Eno, a British pioneer of experimental music and artistic director of David Bowie in the late 1970s. For young Frederick, it was difficult to find a better tutor.
After two years of apprenticeship at his side, the young Londoner saw his tutor entrust him with an important task. At only 18 years old, Brian Eno asked him to co-produce two albums that he was preparing with the musician Karl Hyde (Someday World And High Lifereleased in 2014). The career was launched for Fred Gibson, his first artist name. With his multiple roles as author, composer and producer, he initially collaborated with British rappers such as Roots Manuva, Stefflon Don Or Flowdan. Then come more mainstream names: Ellie Goulding, Charli XCX, Shawn Mendes, the K-Pop group BTS and the singer Pink. Hyper prolific, Fred Gibson is gaining even more reputation after his other collaborations with Ed Sheeran and the rapper Stormzy.
Discreet and relatively unknown until then, the producer is nevertheless at the origin of numerous hits, including Own It signed by Stormzy, Ed Sheeran and Burna Boy. Always in the right musical groove, Frederick Gibson is involved in a third of the singles that have occupied the first place in the charts in Great Britain, recalls the daily newspaper from across the Channel The GuardianAnother consecration: in February 2020, the artist became the youngest winner of the 2019 Brit Award in the best producer category.
Like the entire planet, Fred Gibson suffered the Covid-19 pandemic the following month. He did not suspend his musical activities, however. These events would even become a determining artistic driving force for the man now known as Fred Again. The producer samples voice notes, recorded with his smartphone’s dictaphone or sent by his loved ones, to build a musical diary. Actual Lifehis very first solo project, thus comes to life in April 2021, all against a backdrop of lo-fi sounds. As its name suggests, the album is inspired by everyday life, completely turned upside down by the arrival of the pandemic. The sound Marea (We’ve Lost Dancing)featuring The Blessed Madonna, brought him definitive fame.
Six months later, Fred Again does it again with Actual Life 2in which he continues to forge this musical space which honors a melancholic youth of time lost during the health crisis that it will never make up for. “It’s amazing how sounds I consider tragic are actually perceived as joyful. by the publicthe singer told GQ Australia last February. It’s entirely up to them to make their own interpretation. I try not to think about it too much and just do things as they come to me.”
The producer concludes his trilogy with Actual Life 3unveiled in October 2022. In the meantime, he had already released a notable USBwhich featured huge names in the industry, from American DJ Skrillex to Swedish dance group Swedish House Mafia to American rappers Baby Keem, Lil Yachty, Future and Playboi Carti. In July 2022, Fred Again also attracted attention for his hour-long performance in a London “Boiler Room” [live enregistré en petit comité puis diffusé sur internet] which now has 37 million views.
In France, his music circulates more slowly. The good old method of word of mouth, between connoisseurs, marks the first step. Then the TikTok application, as the absolute springboard that it has become to make certain confidential music pieces heard by all, finished the job. Fred Again is now moving crowds, even in France. He filled the Moulin Rouge in April 2022, the Élysée Montmartre in December of the same year, as well as two Zénith last September.
Appearance of the ideal son-in-law, gifted in music and friendly allure: isn’t Fred Again too perfect? If he is unanimous among the general public, certain debates on the DJ exist in the music scenes located off the radar.For many, he is a symbol of a decades-long problem in which privileged artists can draw inspiration from the underground, Add a certain business sense and the spotlight of a record company to all this, and you can make millions in the process.“, teases the British cultural magazine The Face.
In any case, in the eyes of the institutions, he is fully recognized. Last February, he won his first Grammy Awards in the category of best dance/electronic album for Actual Life 3, as well as another trophy in the category of best dance/electronic recording for the track Rumble designed with Skrillex and Flowdan.
“This gifted thirty-something is a singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist, as we were already able to see during his first visit to Rock en Seine in 2022. His trajectory resembles that of a meteorite.“, boasts the festival on its website. The public will judge for themselves on Friday, August 23, before waiting only thirteen days to listen to Fred Again’s new album: Ten Daysscheduled for release on September 6.