The Great North

To produce and perfect one Electronic Dance Music track on the program FL Studio takes about 20 hours.

About three years ago when Tim Gesel was a senior in high school, he became interested in how electronic music was made. So he downloaded GarageBand on his phone to lay down a track.

Fast forward and Gesel is now part of an electronic music dance duo.

Twenty hours is a far step ahead of playing around with a phone.

It’s this labor of love that brought together Tyler Walsh and Gesel to form The Great North.

The young men know each other from attending high school at Williamsville East together. They were a few years apart and reconnected about three years ago for the first time on Twitter.

It all started in December of 2015 when the pair decided to work together on a song. They decided to partner to form The Great North in May of 2016. Ever since, it’s been their dream to advance their music careers.

Walsh’s music background has helped in the creation of The Great North. He is the founder of Attaboy Records and has gained popularity as a DJ in the Buffalo area.

Gesel is currently a student at Miami University, majoring in mechanical engineering and studying through the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps.

But being far away doesn’t stop him from going all in with their music.

The pair always find ways to collaborate and produce music together.

“We’ll Skype for hours at a time once Tim e-mails me an idea and I start to work on it,” Walsh said about the long-distance collaboration process.

The pair is really looking for that “hometown support.” Their last performance was at Mohawk Place in Buffalo as part of the Fresh Start Tour.

Their 2017 goals include working on getting signed. Both mentioned that a few major labels have shown interest.

“We’re really trying to make this into something big. We’ve both been interested in music for years,” Gesel said.

The Great North is going full speed ahead planning a summer tour and trying to schedule performances.

“There’s no language barrier with music,” Gesel said.

“It just makes people happy. I really think that’s where our passion comes from.”

To keep up with The Great North and find out about performances, follow them on Twitter @GreatNorthEDM. - Amherst Bee