Gareth Emery

Gareth Emery
Background information
Birth name Gareth Thomas Rhys Emery
Also known as GTR, Rue De Gar, Runaway
Born 18 July 1980
Southampton, Hampshire
Genres Trance, Progressive House
Occupation(s)
Years active 2002–present
Labels
  • Five AM (2003–2008)
  • Garuda (2009–present)
Website www.garethemery.com

Gareth Emery (born 18 July 1980) is an English electronic dance music producer and DJ. Since 2006, he has been ranked in DJ Magazine`s annual Top 100 poll, peaking at #7 in 2010.[1][2]

Background

Gareth Emery was born in Southampton, England although he also has Welsh heritage, and he is an avid supporter of the Welsh rugby team.[3] He lived in Southampton until the age of 26[3] before relocating to Manchester, England where he had a studio and ran a night club and record label, both called Garuda.[4] He has a degree in Politics from University of Warwick,[3] supports Southampton Football Club,[3] and is trained in classical piano.[5] Prior to becoming involved in electronic music he played guitar in a punk band in the mid-nineties.[6] He now lives in Los Angeles with his wife Kat. Gareth Emery has a sister Roxanne Emery, who is also involved in music.

Style

Emery has a distinctive production style that has been described as a fusion of trance, house and progressive, and is described by Emery himself as 'simples'.[7] Although usually categorised as a trouse DJ, he has often dismissed this label simply stating that he plays good records regardless of genre.[8]

Breakthrough

Emery’s debut vinyl release was a white label remix of The Shrink's classic "Nervous Breakdown" which was released in early 2002.[9] In February 2002 Judge Jules broadcast the track live on BBC Radio 1 from the Mardi Gras festival, which brought Emery to the attention of the electronic music community.[10] However, the track that launched his career is generally considered to be his third release: GTR – "Mistral".[11] It was created entirely on a computer over the course of a two week holiday in Provence.[5] Paul van Dyk debuted the track live on the radio during the Nature One Festival in 2002 and it subsequently received support from some of the world's leading DJs, including Tiësto, Armin van Buuren and Ferry Corsten,[12] and received highly positive reviews in Mixmag, Muzik, and DJ Magazine.[13] Emery was ranked at #34 in DJ Mag's Top 100 poll in 2006,[2] #31 in 2007, #23 in 2008, #9 in 2009[14] and #7 in 2010. in 2011, Emery dropped to #13. He was ranked at #14 in 2012, and dropped further to #51 in 2013.[2]

Albums and remixes

Emery has released four mix CDs during his career: The Five AM Sessions (2005), The Podcast Annual (2007), The Sound Of Garuda (2009) and The Sound Of Garuda: Chapter 2 (2011).[15] His debut artist album Northern Lights was released in 2010, and achieved considerable success, climbing to no.1 in the US iTunes dance chart.[16] The album also contained one of his most successful tracks "Sanctuary", which was voted the 2nd biggest track of 2010 by listeners of Armin van Buuren's A State Of Trance radio show,[17] and then became the most played record of 2011 on US Sirius XM Radio dance station BPM.[18] In 2011, a remixed edition of the album was released entitled Northern Lights Re-Lit with remixes by acts including Hardwell, Arty, Giuseppe Ottaviani, John O’Callaghan, Lange and Ashley Wallbridge.[15] Since 2002, he has produced, remixed, or collaborated on around 90 tracks, with notable remixes for Britney Spears, Armin van Buuren, and Above & Beyond.[19]

On his podcast and his Twitter page in September 2013, he announced that he had a new artist album, due for release in early 2014. The build-up will include plays of complete 'classic Emery albums' on TGEP, and started with 'The Sound of Garuda' (Ep. 251). The album, Drive was released on April 1st and is a follow up to Northern Lights

Labels

From 2003 to 2008, Gareth co-owned now defunct label Five AM under which some of his biggest hits from the time were released (Mistral / This Is That / More Than Anything).[20] In late 2008 he announced he would no longer be involved at Five AM, instead starting a new label 100% owned by him called Garuda.[21] The first Garuda release was his own record Exposure / Metropolis released in May 2009.[9]

Since then all Emery's records have been released through Garuda. It is named after the bird-like creature from Hindu and Buddhist mythology, which Emery became aware of whilst touring Indonesia.[22] The label has released records by artists including Ben Gold, Tritonal, M.I.K.E. and Blake Jarrell.[23] The label also runs occasional club nights at Manchester superclub Sankeys, which was voted DJ Mag’s no.1 club in the world in 2010.[24] Guests have included Ferry Corsten, Markus Schulz, Above & Beyond and Sander Van Doorn.[25]

Emery is managed by Three Six Zero Group.

Podcast & SiriusXM show

Since March 2006, Emery has produced the 'Gareth Emery Podcast'.[26] Originally fortnightly but now weekly, the podcast is generally 60 minutes in length and features 15 or so tracks in a radio show style format, covering a wide range of dance music genres.[27] It is considered one of the first dance music podcasts, and has been nominated for "Best Podcast" at the Miami Winter Music Conference's International Dance Music Awards three times.[28] A feature called 'Podcast Player' involves DJs leaving an answerphone message and playing one of their favourite tracks of the time.[29]

In July 2012, Emery launched a syndicated radio show in North America called 'Gareth Emery Presents' on the SiriusXM channel Electric Area (Channel 52). The show broadcasts at 5pm ET Fridays with a repeat at 8pm ET Tuesdays.[30]

In November 2014, Emery announced that Episode 310 would be the final episode of the "Gareth Emery Podcast". He explained on social media:

"After doing the show more or less every week since 2006 I guess I'd become a bit too comfortable, and I sometimes felt like I was producing the show on auto pilot for the last year or so. Saying the same old **** and playing the same sounding music, and probably playing it a bit too safe, choosing the obvious bangers and hot promos rather than pushing myself to dig out those hidden gems like I always used to.[31]"

Emery then followed up with an announcement of a new podcast from his new SiriusXM show called "ELECTRIC FOR LIFE" [32]

Selected discography

Gareth Emery's production aliases include GTR, Cupa, Digital Blues and a house project under the meme Runaway.[5]

His production history includes collaborations with artists like Lange, Solid Globe, Jon O’Bir and CERN with releases on a multitude of labels including A State of Trance, Armada Music, AVA Recordings, Anjunabeats, Mondo Records, S2 Records, Vandit, Baroque Records, Lost Language, Multiply Records, Bonzai Records, and his native Five AM label.[9]

Studio albums

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

References

  1. ↑ "Gareth Emery Interview 2011". Sheffield Student.co.uk. Retrieved April 2011.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "7. Gareth Emery". DJ Mag. Retrieved November 2010.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "Exclusive – Gareth Emery Interview". maxumi.co.uk. Retrieved 2010-09-28.
  4. ↑ "GARETH EMERY INTERVIEW". Cool Thanks. Retrieved 11.08.2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Biography of Gareth Emery". Resident Advisor.
  6. ↑ "Interview Gareth Emery". Skiddle.com. Retrieved 2010-10-21.
  7. ↑ "Gareth Emery". Twitter.com.
  8. ↑ "Gareth Emery Interview". Skiddle.com. Retrieved 21 Oct 2010.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 "Gareth Emery Singles". Gareth Emery.com.
  10. ↑ "GARETH EMERY CLUB TOUR". Indie Vibe.
  11. ↑ "GTR – Mistral". Discogs.
  12. ↑ "Biographie de Gareth Emery (GTR)". Clubxtrem.net.
  13. ↑ Gareth Emery » Latest news, tour dates, videos and more » Home. Garethemery.com. Retrieved on 2012-03-27.
  14. ↑ "Top 100 DJs". DJ Mag. Retrieved November 2010.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 "Gareth Emery Discography". Gareth Emery.com.
  16. ↑ "Gareth Emery reignites his Northern Lights". Skiddle.com. Retrieved 2011-03-24.
  17. ↑ "A State of Trance Top 20 of 2010". Armin Van Buuren.
  18. ↑ "The Sound of Garuda: Chapter 2". Beatroom. Retrieved 2011-10-03.
  19. ↑ "Gareth Emery Remixes". Gareth Emery.com.
  20. ↑ "Interview with Gareth Emery". Trancesound.net. Retrieved 28 September 2010.
  21. ↑ "Gareth Emery - Metropolis". Trance.nu. Retrieved 9 May 2009.
  22. ↑ "Q&A with Gareth Emery". Rhythmism. Retrieved 22 Oct 2010.
  23. ↑ "Garuda". Gareth Emery.com.
  24. ↑ "Top 100 Clubs". DJ Mag.
  25. ↑ "Gareth Emery". DJ Mag.
  26. ↑ "Gareth Emery Podcast". Gareth Emery.com.
  27. ↑ "The Gareth Emery Podcast". Apple iTunes.
  28. ↑ "Gareth Emery". Enhanced Music.
  29. ↑ "Gareth Emery Podcast". Gareth Emery.com.
  30. ↑ "SiriusXM Electric Area". Gareth Emery.com.
  31. ↑ "Gareth Emery Facebook".
  32. ↑ "Emery Launches New Podbast".

External links