An Illawarra musician and a Polish producer have teamed up for a one-of-a-kind collaboration.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Greg Mineeff is a multi-instrumentalist living in Berkeley, playing a style of music he refers to as "ambient instrumental", or "rock music without drums".
His self-released debut album GRIND was issued last year, and was later picked up by Greek-based independent label Cosmic Leaf Records.
Mineeff, 38, has now released a new remix project with Polish producer Sundrugs on Cosmic Leaf.
Sundrugs is the solo ambient/drone project of Patryk Kawalarz, a composer and producer based in Warsaw.
"We chose a song from each other and remixed those tracks," Mineeff said.
"He did a dark, ambient remix of my track I Knew That I Loved You, and I did a remix of his track."
Mineeff's music draws much of its influence from the Illawarra. For instance, GRIND contains a song named after Mount Keira.
The video clip he created for his remix of Sundrugs' track Take Your Seats So We Can Begin features the Port Kembla steelworks.
"Lake Illawarra hugely inspires me, but I'm equally fascinated by the steelworks and Port Kembla, that whole area, and I thought that track suited it really well."
Mineeff said one of the benefits of the digital age was being able to collaborate and communicate with musicians internationally.
"It's one of those amazing things, the amount of collaborations you can do across the world," he said.
The online world has also made it more accessible for those operating within a niche musical world to find other like-minded artists and fans, and establish a community.
"You hook up with similar artists, and the tracks that have been released this year from me have been played on radio shows in France and Germany," he said.
Mineeff, who performs solo at live shows, said there had been discussions about heading to Europe to tour in the future.
"There's a bit of a festival scene with ambient music over there, and being summer over there at the moment, that's their festival season," he said.
"It's a style of music that's maybe more widely accepted overseas."
Closer to home, Mineeff will appear at Beats for the Blues at Ryan's Hotel, Thirroul on August 17.
The festival will seek to shine a light on mental health, with proceeds going to Beyond Blue and Support Act.
"In my work as a teacher I work with students with mental health issues and disabilities," he said.
"Aside from my own experience with mental health issues, my family have had some mental health issues in the past, so I thought it was an important cause to get involved in."