Artist Profile: CECIL GREY
The Brooklyn based producer, songwriter, musician, DJ, director and curator of Knights of Pan.
Cecil Grey began his music career at age 15 as lead guitarist in the Los Angeles Joy Division-influenced band The Thorns, co-writing and playing opening slots for Christian Death and other luminous goth-rock acts. In 1994 he relocated to Las Vegas and ventured into electronic music as a collaborator and vocalist with ex-Machines of Loving Grace members Lost Prophet, learning his way around the recording studio and achieving radio play on West Coast college stations.
After relocating to LA, he then finished his communication arts degree at UCLA in and relocated to San Francisco to become a contributor for Permission Magazine, and eventually a featured writer and reviewer for Urbansounds, an electronic magazine focusing on minimal techno and IDM artists.
In SF he became involved in the emerging Drum’n’Bass dance scene from ‘97-’01, and began producing a slew of original tracks. These included “Operator” and “Highway 2 Hell”, which were being played out by heavyweight DJs Dara and DB of Breakbeat Science Records in New York.
In 2001, Cecil Grey began recording a new solo project under the alias Sexkult. The full length album eventually became The Utmost In, an eclectic blend of underground dance music production with melodic guitar work and lyrical songwriting. This self released album was released first on CD Baby, and eventually available through iTunes. A cut from The Utmost In CD, titled “I’m Your Beast”, was featured in the independent film Mango Kiss.
In 2004 he renounced modern music as a whole, and moved to San Rafael, where he studied under the world renowned classical Indian music master, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. The 85+ year old teacher was the son of Ustad Allaudin Khan, widely considered a musical saint in India, and has taught many famous musicians in his lifetime, including Ravi Shankar.
Taking this new perspective on music composition and theory, Cecil Grey began reconstructing his studio based around organic analog instruments and acoustic instrumentation using ancient sounds and formulas. By synthesizing this with modern electronica, Cecil Grey has brought fresh new ideas to the music scene.
He moved to New York City in 2006, and founded Knights of Pan Music, the label, publishing, and studio home base for Cecil Grey’s music projects. He has recently completed several original remixes for seminal NYC artists Whore’s Mascara, Indo-dubstep collective Sub Swara, and a recent remix submission for Depeche Mode. He is currently a resident DJ & co-conspirator for the underground Brooklyn monthly event Vitamin B, hosting renowned underground artists such as Wavewhore, Phunkae (Chunk’n Attack), & DJ Fixx.
Contact us through the address on the ‘About’ page on this site for further details.
