Thomas Gandey


Thomas Gandey is an English electronic music producer, vocalist, keyboard player and DJ born on 21 March 1976, known for work under his own name as well as under his Cagedbaby pseudonym. He has remixed the likes of Shirley Bassey, Ocean Colour Scene, Empire of the Sun, Fatboy Slim, The Temper Trap and Grace Jones and DJed and performed at many of the world's best-known clubs and festivals, including Womb, Glastonbury Festival, Fuji Rock Festival, and Tokyo's Big Beach Festival. He has been a resident at We Love Space Ibiza and Barcelona's Razzmatazz.
He lived in the UK until 2006, and now splits his time between Bordeaux and Berlin.

Early life and career

Born in Brighton, England, Gandey grew up under the musical influence of his grandfathers, one of whom was the conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the other a ragtime and boogie-woogie piano player. He learned to play the piano from the age of 4, and after living next door to a church at the age of 6 where he would practice the organ, he began playing the instrument in school assemblies.
His first efforts at making a career out of music were as part of grunge band Airport and punk band Thrillcreem. He discovered electronic music while working as a sound engineer at festivals, and soon took his musical endeavours in this direction. Meanwhile, his piano playing talents saw him become a session and touring keyboard player for acts including Kylie Minogue.

2004 - 2014: Cagedbaby

After spending several years playing keyboards in the shadow of other musicians, Gandey decided to pursue his love of electronic music with his own project. Gandey chose the name Cagedbaby for his first major electronic music project. "Either it's something to do with being linked to the earth, chained to Mother Nature by an unseen umbilical chord" he said in one interview in 2005. "Or I chose it because my releases would end up being next to The Chemical Brothers in the racks at HMV." In another interview in the same year, he claimed "the actual truth is that it was my email address on Hotmail when Hotmail first came out."
In 2002, he took some demos of his music to the Winter Music Conference in Miami and gave them to Fatboy Slim, who was suitably impressed with his music to sign him to his own Southern Fried Records label. His debut album Will See You Now was released in 2005, receiving a 4-star review from UK newspaper The Guardian and was followed by a stream of singles and remixes for pop and underground artists alike. The success of his album led him to becoming a tour DJ for Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers and Underworld. 2006 saw him mix BBC Radio 1's Essential Mix show.
He began contributing vocals to other producers' and bands' projects in 2009, when he appeared on a track by Italian duo Analog People In A Digital World. 2009 also saw him play the main stage at Scotland's RockNess festival, and take part in a collaborative art project with photographer Rankin for Youth Music.

2010 - current: Thomas Gandey

Gandey has been producing records and providing vocals under his own name since 2010. He released further tracks on his 'home' label Southern Fried Records, German house/techno label Get Physical Music and on BBC Radio 1 DJ/producers Andy George & Jaymo's Moda Black. He has provided vocals for producers including Hot Since 82, Blond:ish and German Brigante.
He was also a writer and producer for the 11-times Lucille Lortell Awards nominated Imelda Marcos musical Here Lies Love created by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim, and worked as a producer, programmer and keyboardist on Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds – The New Generation a project, also featuring the likes of Gary Barlow and Liam Neeson.
In 2012, he created a guest mix for Annie Nightingale's long running BBC Radio 1 show.
He has provided vocals for a track on UK house music producer Huxley's debut album Blurred, called 'Never Easy', due for release on 20 October 2014.

2012 - current: MATOM

MATOM is Gandey's techno project alongside fellow English producer Matt Edwards, which came to being after the duo were asked by Red Bull Music Academy to collaborate for a special live set at Berlin's Berghain club in September 2012. Follow-up shows were booked in Berlin, France and Poland, and the duo have produced an album that is slated for release on Carl Craig's Planet E Communications.

Selected Discography

Albums