GEMINI on Inspirations and What To Expect at the “Still Blue” Tour
Unbound Entertainment Group
GEMINI only debuted in 2020, but next week he will begin a North American tour that is already close to selling out several dates.
The “Still Blue” tour, which is in support of the album of the same name, begins next week in Toronto on March 12 and brings GEMINI to 12 cities, including New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and Fort Worth. “Because [this tour] is the first step, I’m really nervous and excited about what’s to come,” GEMINI said at a PR event held on Zoom Tuesday night. “I’m having a lot of fun preparing for this tour, and if you come, I think you will enjoy it,” he promised.
GEMINI is new to the Korean hip-hop and R&B scene, but “Still Blue” has allowed the singer to carve out a unique path for himself, one that eschews the idol persona many Korean artists must possess. On Zoom, he was dressed casually in a black hoodie and no makeup. This freedom to be himself is largely thanks to GEMINI’s label AT AREA, founded by producer GroovyRoom in 2021. AT AREA is making big moves to steward a roster of up-and-coming risk-takers in K-R&B, including new signees BLASE and DAWN.
The release of “Still Blue” comes from what GEMINI describes as “a very rebellious place in music. There were a lot of things that I wanted to express in my music that I couldn’t do at first,” he explained. “But when I met with my producers, I could tell them what my vision was for my music and then they could create the album based on that vision.”
“Still Blue” opens with the haunting “Love Is Banned”, which samples an unexpectedly demented version of Frankie Valli’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”. It’s a song that GEMINI called his “favorite” but added “my favorite tracks change every day. Yet, for me, “Love Is Banned” exemplifies GEMINI’s ability to merge curate a collage of sounds in one song, including grunge, hip-hop and R&B often into one song.
Unbound Entertainment Group
“I created this album as one story. But since the first song is ‘Love Is Banned’, I don’t think there is an end to the album,” he said. “There is a beginning and the middle, but the beginning of love is the end of the story.” GEMINI doesn’t find love on “Still Blue”, and that was by design. The story won’t end until he finds love.
“I really like the movie Fight Club and there is a melancholic feeling to that movie that I wanted with the album,” he explained, citing Frank Music’s as a second inspiration. “You can enjoy the feeling and that the inspiration for the album came from the movie.” “What results is a dark album that vibrates with intensity. If GEMINI is Brad Pitt’s Tyler Durden it’s because he never once flinches from the pain that comes with love.
Many of the songs on “Still Blue” have changed since they were first made. “’Bad’ changed the most,”GEMINI said. “It’s actually a song that I made one or two years ago, and I wanted to recreate the song to be fresher.” The album came together organically, with no expectations, as GEMINI described in a short documentary that premiered with the film. On Zoom, the singer described himself as a “spontaneous songwriter” who works best with collaboration. “My producer is really good at playing guitar, so when we’d have our jam sessions and a good melody would come through, we’d add music to it and the inspiration would follow.”
Though GEMINI recently played a set for the AT AREA in Paris show, the “Still Blue” will be the first time he’s performed the album in full. But he’s pushing the concept further than just this album. “Since it is the ‘Still Blue’ tour, I want to portray the feeling and atmosphere of the album. So, I am thinking about rearranging and remixing my older songs to fit this concept,” he teased. “I’m preparing really hard for this concert,” he said. “So I hope my fans will come, have fun and relieve their stress.”
You can buy tickets for the “Still Blue” tour NOW. Be sure to follow GEMINI and Unbound Entertainment Group on Instagram as the tour begins!
