Teva (Jay Gilbert) is a new artist hailing from the UK, his beats are soulful and groovy bringing a whole new level to dance music. His classical background in piano simply brings out the best of him. He will be on tour next month in India, spreading the truth of house and deep house to the masses there. He has produced under other monikers, but is currently exploring his piano influences under this one.
When Sasha drops a track, it’s for a reason. He knows what he’s doing. So when Sasha dropped Teva's track 'Must I Go', it’s no wonder that it’s smooth, groovy, and sexy. The twangs of the basslines just hit that “move” button on the dance floor. If you’re not dancing to this, then you clearly don’t know how. That was the first song that got me hooked, and I went on a hunt for more on his soundcloud page. Honestly, and I believe when I say so, Teva is up and coming talent. Currently on ALiVE Recordings, his tracks definitely carry the sound of a longtime heavy weight. Young as he is, the soul that this track as well as his others pack belong to another time.
Teva - Must I Go [ALiVE Recordings] by teva
I sent him a few questions to find out more about his background, style, and work. Here is what he had to say.
What was your prior moniker and what would you say was the style of tracks you released under it?
Well, there lies a secret I have tried to keep under wraps for a bit, so there was no confusions for my new (ish) teva monika!
When I first started producing in early 2009 I went under the monika 'no brainer' and had a few original releases, the first being on Jim Rivers's own imprint - Misfit in december 09. Style wise I grew up listening to Faithless, Chicane and Tiesto's 'In Search Of Sunrise' mixes, then alos alot of UK garage artsist's in the 90s so was heavily influenced by rich melodies and chord progressions and bass lines, so No Brainer was an avenue for my more progressive productions of the time.
What made you decide to move on to your new name, Teva?
As I got more deeply involved with the music scene my musical tastes were influenced by new artists and music i was listening too and i felt that No Brainer was not the direction i wanted to continue in for now, so i created Teva 
I have a huge love for melody and chord progression so i still like to involved that in my productions today, just in a more subtle/deeper way from before.
Do you ever produce under your real name?
I haven't done.... It's something I have in my head that my name probably isn't very cool so I will probably keep that as it is!
Did you always know you were going to study music in college? Is your family musical as well?
The music at college thing was where it kinda started for me. Although I had been heavily involved in music from a young age - played piano from 5 but in a more classical way. So when I got to college, having left school at 15, I was looking to do music in some sort of fashion and found a music technology course that grabbed my full attention. I spent every second of the 2 year course living in the studio at college and got to learn the ropes of an analogue studio. There's not a massive musical background in the family, especially not an electronic one. My dad was taught the piano from a young age by his grandma......my great grandma i think......and she was a pianist for the London Philamonic Orchestra in the 1940's... but thats about it really. My tutor at college (who had his own 'Pet Shop' esq electro pop group) kick started my love for synths and analogue bits of studio kit.
What led you away from the current craze of progressive/electro house and into house/tech-house?
Erm, I think slight bit of boredom really, I wanted something fresh to work on. Genres will come and go as far as popularity goes, but they will all come round again so it wasn't a case of following the crowd. I found myself getting stuck in the same progressive movement as far as song writing went and I wanted to 'step outside the box' a bit.
My music now still has progressive influences for sure, but its also got influences I've picked up along the way from all sorts.
For Americans who have never been, how would you describe the electronic music/club scene in England? Is it it difficult to break out as a producer there versus the rest of Europe?
Haha, depends where you go and who your with pretentious? in some areas....Great fun in others. Unfortunately, we lost some of the best clubs in London like 'The End', Turnmills etc., so more and more raves have ended up in Warehouse spaces in London. Warehouses aren't much fun though in the winter when they are wet and cold!
There are still some great clubs though, obviously not mentioning Fabric, but Cable is also a cool space with a big system. Centre point is London's version of 'Weekend' club in Berlin, top floor space with great views of the city.
London is a fairly busy place for djs and more and more producers are popping up too but it is still outweighed by the number of djs, which does make it hard to break out for new comers, so that's why productions plays such a big part now to a success of a dj.
I'd imagine its a similar vibe through Europe, and with it becoming ever more accessible to produce with loops and samples, you really a lot of musical ability money to make music, unlike you used to have to. So its nice to see more tracks breaking through now, that are all about the music and less about picking out sample and putting them together like a jigsaw.
Your new track 'Must I Go', how did that one come about?
Ha this actually came about from me running a set of online courses for a London productions school company where I was running through the basics of logic synth and I came up with that bass sound in the ES2 and wrote the bass line off camera...!
The week before I had also been round a great friend of mine and sat in his studio recording percussion hits from his 808 drum machine which then I decided to use in the track. So it kind of fell together after that.
What's the next destination you wish to play in?
Ha America of course besides that it would be Japan and other areas in Asia. It would be a real to treat to travel to these amazing places and play my music to them, even if they didn't like it
Teva - She's Playing (Version 1) [ALiVE Recordings] by teva
Teva - Peace Of Mind [OFF Recordings] by teva
If you would like to hear and read more, here are his social links.
Teva's Soundcloud
Teva's Twitter
Teva's Facebook
