I think the sound is great at CIRCUS... louis does the djm-1000 have better sound output or same engine? a djm 1000 with an efx1000 could do the trick!
Knight
Gareth Emery did the guestmix on Markus Schulz's today's show, check it out :
I have to agree DJM 800 output sucks ass when loud.... sure it is easy to use and has some pluses.... But the rane beats it by a mile... I have both mixers at the moment and even on my KRK RP8s I see a noticeable difference.
FunKenLouis
T_ALI
IN!!! first time at Circus...should be a blast :D
Knight
5 days !!!!!!!!
cmccann87
In.. First visit to montreal for me :D Trance b2b nights!!
Knight
Brand New Arnej production !!
FunKenLouis
INTERVIEW WITH GARETH :)
quote:
Gareth Emery: Exposed
Progressive trance dj Gareth Emery makes huge impact in 2009, returns to headline Circus’ & BBCM’s Odyssey 2010/Bal des Boys NYE party.
By Danny Legare
It’s not everyday that one comes across a dj/producer who always seems to be ahead of his game. UK’s Gareth Emery shot to international stardom when he released his seminal trance anthem “Mistral” under his ‘GTR’ guise, then garnering himself a hefty slot on Tiesto’s Nyana compilation in 2003. Since then, Emery has re-wrote the rules of production in the trance genre by incorporating progressive, electro, house even in some cases tribal into his own distinctive, unique sound. 2009 was the year of Gareth Emery as his own releases were fortified by countless remixes, dj gigs, his short’n’sweet podcasts and the release of a dj-mixed compilation called “The Sound of Garuda”. I caught up with the “thinking-man’s” trance dj/producer, Gareth Emery as he prepares his second visit to Montreal in less than six months, headlining at Circus Afterhours this New Year’s Eve.
Danny Legare: As a record label owner and dj, how has the impact of the digital age changed your perspective on the electronic dance music scene?
Gareth Emery: From a DJ’s perspective, it’s been great. It’s meant that people in countries that we weren’t previously reaching can listen to your music through downloading sets, or in my case a podcast, which means touring to play in far more countries than we were able to in the pre-digital age. As a label owner though, it’s much harder to be positive. Income from sales of music have collapsed, and it’s incredibly difficult to make a full time living out of selling dance music. The same goes for production: being a full-time dance music producer just isn’t a job any longer. And whilst that’s OK for those of us lucky enough to be relatively successful DJs, if you’re only a producer, you’re basically out of work. We’ve lost a lot of good people who’ve had to leave the industry for stuff that’s paid the bills, and we’ll continue to lose more until we find some sort of model that pays producers properly for their work. Despite all the signs to the contrary, I remain hopeful.
DL: First it was disco, then northern soul, then came house, rave, techno and trance and then the ’genres’ of electronic dance music just imploded from there. How do you feel about ‘branding’ a particular sound to a particular dj?
GM: I suppose pigeon-holing a DJ can be a curse and a blessing. It’s inevitable that DJs will get branded as trance, house, progressive, or whatever, but unfortunately it can lead to people making incorrect assumptions about the music that you play. People can often hear the word ‘trance’, which has been sadly hijacked by some commercial acts, and think you’re playing Ian van Dahl or Cascada records – not really the case.
How do you feel the sound of trance music has evolved since the days of “Mistral”?
It’s slower, groovier, and probably has more influences from other genres like house and minimal, but honestly, I don’t think it’s all that different. The genre still has all the characteristics that led me to fall in love with it over 10 years ago.
It also seems to be more predominant these days to see remixed classics hitting the clubs again, for example Breakfast’s re-rub of Saint & Sinner’s “Peace” as well your take on M.I.K.E.’s “Sunrise at Palamos”. Do you think these updates have a place on the dancefloors of today or should we just leave the classics alone?
Classics remixed are great, if they’re done well. The problem with really old classics, is that dance music production techniques are rapidly evolving, and a lot of tracks that are five years old or more are incredibly difficult to fit into a modern set, because they just don’t sound as punchy or well made as tracks produced with modern techniques – you have to be really careful playing them as they can kill the energy in your set. A good update retains the fundamental elements that made the classic good in the first place, but brings the production up-to-date so it works in modern sets, and will introduce the classic to a whole generation of younger clubbers who often won’t have heard it the first time around. The problem, that often gives classic remixes a bad name, is that far too often producers remix classics simply because they can, and labels release them for some fast cash. People should treat classics with the respect they deserve, and should ask themselves the hard question “is this any good?” before they put it out there.
2009 has been an extremely busy year for you. Alongside releasing the double A-side “Exposure/Metropolis” and remixing countless of floorfillers this year, your gigs have brought you all around the globe. Do you feel it just as important to release remixes under your name as it is to release your own productions?
Both remixes and original tracks are important. For me, I don’t tend to go overboard on the originals, and instead release one or two really good tracks in a year. So in 2009, it was “Exposure/Metropolis”, in 2008 it was “This Is That” (and the now imfamous “This Is Silence” bootleg), and in 2007 it was “More Than Anything”. But my plan for the future is to focus a little more on originals rather than remixes.
Is there a Gareth Emery artist album in the works?
Yes! I’ve written a lot of material for it already, but the real work is in producing the thing, and that is my sole goal for 2010. I’ve been promising an album for far too long and I badly need to deliver it soon.
Vocal trance is massive these days and it isn’t just about Jan Johnston anymore. Producers nowadays have a wide variety of female vocalists to give a voice to their tracks for example Emma Hewitt on “I Will Be The Same”. How do you choose which vocalist to work it?
Emma is unquestionably one of the best vocalists in dance music and someone I’ve been interested in working with for years, so when she sent me the amazingly, haunting demo of “I Will Be The Same”, I knew I wanted to make a track around it. For my album I’ve been writing with some great vocalists, none of whom have ever done dance music before, which keeps things pretty fresh.
A very popular mash-up this year was “Metropolis” vs Oceanlab’s “On A Good Day”. Being a producer yourself, are you extra picky when people take on your own tracks? Why weren’t there any official remixes of “Metropolis” or “Exposure”?
Yeah, I’m very picky with remixes. For “Exposure” and “Metropolis”, we did plan remixes, but the original versions of those tracks ended up being so successful, there just wasn’t a need. Pretty much all the big DJs in the genre were playing the tracks, and a lot of DJs are still playing the original mixes six months after the release, so having remixes made turned out to be a bit pointless.
You were voted the No.9 dj in the world according to DJ Mag’s annual dj vote for 2009. Does it make any difference to you that in DJ Mag’s Top DJ list, the top ten list itself hasn’t deviated much in the last few years? How important for you as an international artist to be acknowledged on the list?
I try not to take the list too seriously, and I know that when people are coming to see me, it’s generally because they like my productions, my track selection, my podcasts etc, and not because I’m no.9, or no.23 (which I was the year before). But that said, it’s a huge honour – very humbling, and very flattering. I knew 2009 had been a great year, so I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t expecting to go up a bit in the poll, but I was really expecting being 13 or 14 at very best. Making the top ten was completely unexpected, and I owe it in a big way to the fans all around the world that voted.
What would you consider to be the “Sound of Garuda”?
A blend of trance, progressive, and house. It’s a difficult sound to put my finger on, but I imagine most people who’ve seen me play a set could hear a track and know it’s got that Garuda / Gareth Emery sound.
Your new 2-disc compilation, “The Sound of Garuda” features a plethora of bootlegs and edits exclusive to the release, and it seems to be split into two parts. How did you choose the tracks to figure on compilation?
Well, CD1 is full of new stuff, and CD2 is a retrospective of the past year. So CD2 picked itself really – it was just about choosing the biggest and best tracks in my sets over the past year. CD1 was slightly more difficult, and required lots of buttering up artists and twisting the arms of record labels to get exclusive material licensed. The whole process was quite hard work, but totally worth it: I’m so happy with how the album ended up, and the public reaction to it has also been great – I’m already looking forward to next year’s one.
This is your second visit to Montreal in the last six months. Is there something you feel from the Montreal crowds that is distinct from any other audience?
Montreal has definitely become one of my favourite cities to play over the past few years, because I love the fact the crowds are so musically open minded and used to DJs playing long sets. It means you can play for 3-4 hours, and rather than being expected to bang out all your big hits from the word go, you can build it up and down, play a huge variety of music, and know you’ve got a crowd that understand the journey that a long set brings, and go with you on it. That’s why I love playing in Montreal.
