Greg Gow is the Toronto Lovechild of Detroit Techno

Like many Canadian teens, Greg Gow’s career in music began in a college bar, mixing top forty and appropriated hip-hop music. But unlike many Canadian teens, his inauspicious foray into the electronic underground led to a decade-long tenure at the helm of his own record label, Restructured, and an acceptance into the fourth generation of Detroit’s techno elite.

For Gow, recognition on a larger stage first began after his first release on Detroit legend Derrick May’s label, Transmat, in the late 00s. “At that time, [Transmat] hadn’t released a record since the early 2000’s,” Greg explains. After reluctantly sharing tracks with May, he received an e-mail from him a few months later asking to connect in person. “He asked me to come down to Detroit and I drove down and met up with him. That was the first time I really sat down and talked to him properly. We hung out for a couple of days and went through the tracks.”

They selected what would become The Pilgrimage EP, released in 2009. “Even though I’d been making music and running a label for over ten years, I wasn’t really put on the map until then,” Greg says.

Two years later, Greg Gow’s second release on Transmat, the Twilight Soul EP, generated even greater buzz and the Toronto native found himself on the bill of Movement Detroit alongside Derrick May. This year he returns as an artist, teaming up with Kevin Saunderson to play on Monday, May 25. “It’s awesome to be playing on the Made in Detroit stage. Some people might give me heat because I’m not from Detroit, but it’s a big honour for me.”

His successes weren’t limited to venues south of the border, however. Gow held a residency at famed (and recently shut down) Toronto mega-club The Guvernment over the past three years and is still affiliated with key underground venues such as Coda and Comfort Zone, where he currently holds residencies. “The Toronto scene has almost become a world within its own,” he says, “sometime you’ll find yourself going out four to five nights a week.”

In sharp contrast, things are very different in his second home. “In Detroit the nice thing is you can focus on your craft, your music. There’s not as much shit to deter you from getting your music done.” Despite some differences between his two cities, the common element for Greg Gow is the most important: an unbridled love for techno.

Greg Gow is on Soundcloud // Facebook // Twitter

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