Just Fame recently got a chance to interview artist Tanner Christian Gesek in regard to his album For My Brothers and Sisters. We got insights into his music, his upcoming projects and much more!
Q. Welcome on our platform! How are you doing?
Thanks, doing pretty great – about to move to Malaysia for two months, really excited.
Q. Our team loved your new album For My Brothers and Sisters, and we will talk
about it. But before that, please tell us what made you embark on this journey of
Music?
Definitely. Music’s been a part of my life as long as I can remember– I started playing piano when I was four, actively studied classical then jazz the next fourteen years while also learning guitar and drums and bass, taught music during high school, and of course wrote and performed music wherever I had the chance (a rock band with friends, at the church I grew up in, at weddings, evening parties, etc.). So, from the start, I don’t really feel like I embarked on the journey really – I more woke up already within the journey, it’s always been with me, and I’ve just been learning how to deepen that relationship with music.
Q. Who has been a major influence in your life?
Musically, you mean? Yeah, hmm – I remember in high school coming across Kyle Landry’s cover of Yiruma’s “River Flows In You” on Youtube, which, early on, meant Yiruma’s work captured my imagination for the beauty that so-called simple piano songs could convey – how much emotionality, how much sensitivity, depth, etc. I haven’t listened to Yiruma in a long time, but he was really important to me early-on in learning about how to compose music for the piano, and I’m certain his influence has carried on within me.
Non-musically, I was a big admirer of Dr. Paul Farmer’s work in Haiti and Russia and Peru and elsewhere (as well as the biography about him by Tracy Kidder, called “Mountains Beyond Mountains”). He was kind of an archetype of what being “a person for others” really looked like, and he was a really inspiring person because of that others-orientation, and I was sad to learn of his surprising passing a couple years ago.
Q. Your new album is marvelous. Please tell us about it and what inspired you to
create it?
I’m glad you liked it, thank you!
The honest truth is that music is just with me constantly, moving within me constantly, and that sitting down to create doesn’t really need inspiration – so in this case (like always, really), there wasn’t any particular theme or idea that I was intentionally setting out to express.
So, yeah, the process really looked like a continuation of the rush of creativity that my prior EP, Charisma, emerged from too – I began writing in a focused way in October 2023, then even after Charisma was ready I kept writing and writing and writing, until I had nearly 100 concepts for songs. Eventually when I listened to them all in-depth, certain concepts seemed super consistent with each other, like they were telling the same story from different lenses, and so I began to work more on those. So ultimately what became “For My Brothers and Sisters” was that result of that period in early 2024, where I found my favorite ten songs out of the hundred that happened to cohere really beautifully together.
Q. If you get a chance to collaborate with one artist who would that be?
I think getting to collaborate with Baths on something – anything, really – would be very cool. I think his melodic instincts and the textures and rhythms that he crafts are wild and creative and super interesting, and I’d love to absorb some of that independence and musicality by osmosis somehow.
Q. What is the importance of art/music in life according to you?
Art generally, and music specifically, has this (obvious, yet still) remarkable capability to transmit emotion, in such a direct way from the artist to the listener. I love that music is basically, to me at least, the most egalitarian art form – like, as a listener you don’t need a deep or specific theoretical framework to understand what the artistic choices mean (like in a discipline like architecture, for example) – you simply can encounter music, and feel differently because of what you’ve heard, and not just differently but similarly as maybe the artist felt while they were creating it. I love that about music, and love the idea that, if created sensitively enough, maybe the emotions from some of the higher angels of my own personality – some optimism, some adventurousness, some beauty even (if I can be so dramatic) – can be transmitted directly from me to you.
Q. Any tips or advice for the young artists?
Maybe foolishly, I still consider myself somewhat of a younger artist, at least in terms of how recently I’ve begun publicly releasing music (just the past eight months!) – so maybe I’m not the right person to be giving advice yet. But if you pressed me to share something, I would say it’s probably worth it to courageously own and shape whatever type of music the emits most naturally from you, whatever that may be. Even if what you create isn’t what you exclusively listen to, or even if it’s not your favorite type of music as a listener, I think it’s worth owning what you feel you can uniquely contribute to the musical conversation of humanity. That’s better than trying to pitter-patter too closely behind the tracks that other artists are leaving in the sand.
Q. Kindly tell us three favorite song of yours? And what do you like specifically
about these songs?
“God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys. I came to Pet Sounds pretty late, in my mid-20’s– somehow I’d totally missed listening to it – and, unsurprisingly, several of the songs became very important to me at the time, mostly due to just personal chaos in my life and the youthful lyrics that spoke as someone who knew what that was like. “God Only Knows” perfectly expressed a sense I had at the time, and I loved it for that.
“Broadback” by Baths. I’ve talked about Baths already so, this is twice in one interview! But, the sheer wildness and pace of the song’s music just makes me want to dance (and I never dance).
“Note to Self” by From First To Last. Most people know From First To Last as the band that Sonny Moore (aka Skrillex) was the lead singer for, before he went solo. But the drummer in me loves the energy and intensity of the song, and I return to it often, even now.
Q. Any hints for our readers about any upcoming collaboration or new projects
that you are working on?
Yes! Working on a new album now, and dreaming about new possibilities and new directions for sure – I’m really excited about “For My Brothers and Sisters” and so I’m focused now on getting that out to the world properly, but definitely exciting things to come very soon, too.
Q. Lastly, as we ask all our guests on our platform, do you have any closing
thoughts that you would like to share with the world and our readers?
Music is so important, and honestly so magical, that I hope everyone reading continues to see past the “music as entertainment” lens into the “music is magic” perspective. It’s truly magic, and its possibilities for transforming our lives (as listeners, just like as artists) I think are just beginning to become clearer again. I hope my music can play a small part in speaking to those parts of you that resonate with optimism and wonder. And I hope you’ll stay along for the journey as I keep learning how to express new possibilities through the instrumental music I love to make – in all kinds of new forms, and new experiments, and new attempts. We’re all on the musical path together, and for that I’m very grateful.
About the artist: Tanner Christian Gesek is an American multi-instrumentalist composer and pianist. Originally from California, Tanner’s formative years were in Texas, where he returned after years in New York City. His melodic music is known for its vibrant nature, transporting listeners to lighter places, with optimistic energy.
For more details visit: www.tannerchristiangesek.com
