Wolfgang Gartner constantly goes against the trend of what’s expected from most electro-house DJ’s, making him one of the more intriguing fellows in all of dance music. He often gives candid opinions of hot topic EDM subject matter and doesn’t shy away from criticizing his DJ peers.
Mr. Gartner recently sat down for more than two hours to hold an AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Reddit.com. He provided insightful, personal answers to all types of serious and quirky questions that he hadn’t answered in previous media interviews. Below are 15 of the best things we learned from the session.
1. Props to Avicii.
He respects Avicii’s success with “True” for doing something different and moving in a separate direction from the “big room” sound.
2. Admits to drug use during past performances.
When asked if he’s ever rolled on molly or ecstasy while performing — “Pretty much every time I ever performed up until i was 20 or so, yeah. Hundreds of times. It was pressed pills back then though. and it definitely wouldn’t be conducive to performing now. Waaaay different scenario. I would be a mess.”
Very bold admission, but it’s clear this was a period of time that’s far back in his rear view mirror.
3. Sasquatch Festival 2011 was his favorite festival to perform.
This festival is quite similar to Bonnaroo but held in Washington state. Interesting, but not surprising, that his favorite festival performance was a non-EDM festival.
4. Rap music is the inspiration for most of his recent tracks.
He makes it known several times throughout the session that he can’t stand the Beatport Top 10, “big room” house trend currently taking place. The way he produces music right now is to, “pretty much listen to rap and translate that attitude into house music.”
5. Has an unfinished collaboration with Kaskade.
It began many years ago but just faded out. They actually did a remix swap for each others labels many years ago when they were each doing the deep house thing.
6. Secret to getting signed to his label, Kindergarten Records.
If you want to get signed to his label, it has to be a song he “really likes”. In order to achieve this, it’s a safe bet you’d have to stay away from the “big room” sound and infuse sounds from other musical genre’s.
7. Favorite artist to collaborate with was deadmau5.
The mau5 is his favorite artist to collaborate with because their thought processes when working on tracks is similar. The way they worked was, “very symbiotic and good for creativity.”
8. Admits his cat would lose in a fight to Meowington’s.
His cat is quite old and doesn’t move well while Meowington’s (deadmau5’s cat) is a young and spry fellow. His cat wouldn’t be the one to pick a fight anyway because he’s a lover, not a fighter.
9. Travels an average of 220 days per year.
Not too shocking as many DJ’s travel endlessly, but imagine if you spent 60% of your time traveling? This is just the average, some years could be upwards of 90%, which is staggering.
10. He can recall almost every show he’s played in the last 5 years.
With the huge volume of gigs over a 5 year span, one would think shows just blur together or he only remembers certain nights. Amazingly, he says the way his brain works he can remember the hundreds of shows played in the last 1825 days.
11. Uses natural methods to relieve stress.
To relieve the stresses of traveling and working all the time, he gets lots of massages at spas and intakes “herbal remedies”. However, he does make it a point to say that producing songs in the studio doesn’t cause stress, it’s a stress reliever.
12. Formal music training as a child has helped him as an adult
He’s built his foundation of musical knowledge from taking piano lessons and learning musical theory for eight to ten years as a child.
13. CDJ’s aren’t so bad.
The perception is that CDJ’s allow the David Guetta’s of the world to press play and wave their hands for two hours. Wolfgang says CDJ’s allow him to sample and mix effects and also keep playing music while interacting with the crowd.
14. “Anaconda” was his favorite track to produce.
This is because the idea to create it came to him naturally and instantly. In contrast, his recent single “Pirhana” took twelve hours of work per day for four days to compile.
15. His favorite song of 2013 was Ace Hood’s “Bugatti”
What else would you want to wake up in?
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We here at WhiteRaverRafting love you Wolfgang Gartner. Keep going against the grain to produce songs that inspire all house music lovers worldwide.
Read the entire Reddit AMA here
Cover photo provided by RUKES.
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