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.

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.

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.

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:ishand 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.

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.

Albums

• Will See You Now (2005)

Singles & EPs

• Cagedbaby - Star (2003)
• Cagedbaby - 10 Inches Of Blue Eyed Soul w/ Grandadbob (2004)
• Cagedbaby - 16 Lovers (2005)
• Cagedbaby - Disco Biscuit (2005)
• Cagedbaby - Golden Triangle (2005)
• Cagedbaby - Hello There (2005)
• Cagedbaby - Bordeaux w/ Infusion (2006)
• Thomas Gandey - Behind The Mask / Here's What You Do (2010)
• Thomas Gandey - Get It On / Mercy Hump (2010)
• Thomas Gandey - That Piano Track (2012)
• Thomas Gandey - The Organ Track (2012)
• Maxxi Soundsystem & Thomas Gandey - Shake Your Head (2012)
• Thomas Gandey & Zeb Wayne - Trust Me EP (2012)
• Thomas Gandey & Zeb Wayne - Breathe (2013)
• Thomas Gandey - The Cube EP (2013)

Remixes

• Armand Van Helden - My My My (Cagedbaby Pace Mix) (2004)
• Sugababes - Red Dress (Cagedbaby Remix) (2006)
• MJ Cole feat. Laura Vane - Badboy (2006)
• Dame Shirley Bassey - Get The Party Started (2007)
• Ocean Colour Scene - I Told You So (Caged Baby Remix) (2007)
• Tracey Thorn - Raise The Roof (Cagedbaby Remix) (2007)
• The Brighton Port Authority feat. David Byrne & [Dizzee Rascal] - Toe Jam (Cagedbaby Remix) (2008)
• Empire Of The Sun - We Are the People (Cagedbaby Remix) (2009)
• The Temper Trap - Sweet Disposition (Caged Baby Paradise 54 Disco Mix (2009)
• Grace Jones - Love You To Life (Cagedbaby & Guy Williams Paradise 45 Rework) (2010)

Vocals

• Analog People In A Digital World feat. Cagedbaby - Circus (2009)
• Blond:ish feat. Thomas Gandey - Strange Attractions EP (2012)
• Hot Since 82 - Things You Do To Me (2013)
• Thodoris Triantafillou & CJ Jeff feat. Thomas Gandey - Body Clock (2014)
• KatrinKa feat. Thomas Gandey - The Nameless One EP (Chapter 24 Records, 2016)

Compilations

• Southern Fried & Tested w/ The Mighty Dub Katz (2007)
• Thomas Gandey - 2010 Collection (2010)
• Southern Fried & Tested 3 w/ The 2 Bears (2011)