A true pioneer in the trance community, Gareth Emery has been producing music for well over ten years. From when trance was considered underground to when big room dominated electronic, Gareth has remained true to his sound and his productions. Delivering with the highest proficiency on every release, Gareth has long solidified himself as a premiere trance producer in the industry. His Electric For Life radio show has been in operation for nearly two years now and has taken off since. Electric For Life partners with charities and donates much of its proceeds to vulnerable groups in society. Just last year, EFL went on a North American tour that featured extended sets from Gareth at select locations. He’s released five albums to date with his most recent, 100 Reasons To Live, that arrived earlier this year.
In addition to his music and charity, Gareth has also been active on other fronts. His widely known CVNT5 project gained recognition after it spoofed DJs that actively use ghost producers in their productions. In 2013 he would openly bashed DJ Mag’s Top 100 because of the huge marketing budgets involved with it. He’s claimed trance track of the year twice so far and his “Drive” album will always be seen as one of his best. RaverRafting had the opportunity to sit down with Gareth at Moonrise Festival in Baltimore and talk to him about his latest album, Electric For Life tour, and working in trance industry. Be sure to check out our exclusive interview below!
You recently wrapped up your Electric For Life tour, how was that? Do you try to do an Electric For Life tour for every 50 shows, or is it random?
Gareth: It was a tour we did nationwide, we did 13 different cities, it was totally awesome. I don’t tend to enjoy doing the numbers so much because I feel a lot of people do them. For example, Armin was the first mover there, then Above & Beyond sort of adapted the form, Aly & Fila too. So I think we sort of did do it for Los Angeles at The Shrine as that was such a big show. For me, I’m more inspired doing something different, but EFL is always a good buzz doing. We look for these big shows and we try to do something that reflects what we want in the show.
Have you ever considered an Electric For Life festival?
Gareth: I’d love to do an EFL festival at some point. I think the brand has got the chops for it, people really seem to love the brand. It’s funny because the EFL merchandise when we launched it was completely outselling the Gareth Emery merchandise we sell. We’ve got to build up to it though. You start off doing arena shows and this year we’re doing a couple festival stages as well. We also have a huge show in Vietnam that’s supposed to bring in around 20,000. We’re sort of dipping our toes in the water right now, tagging onto other people’s festivals. But give us two or three years and I’d love to be putting on a 25,000-30,000 festival of our own, multiple stages, and multiple genres.
Does your label Garuda pair up with Electric For Life?
Gareth: Garuda is kind of interesting because it was my label up until about three months ago. I handed it over to my sister who is also my manager so it’s in very capable hands. I think Garuda is more of a brand for the hardcore trance heads. EFL is a little bit more for the general population, it’s more of a party brand. Garuda is for people who like the nine minute mixes and the more underground DJs that we support. The way I kind of saw things was I’ve been releasing other people’s music for 13 years, I enjoy doing it, but from now I just want to be an artist. I want to make my own music and focus on my own stuff, I’ve got a couple other projects that I’ve been working on. Stuff like CVNT5 which you may have heard about, we’ve got some more stuff coming under that. I’m just focusing on my own artistic stuff right now, while still remaining on Garuda as an artist, but not as an owner.
But the Gareth Emery name will still be behind the Garuda label?
Gareth: Oh yeah! I started it, so it will always be heavily attached to me. I’m still the flagship artist on it, at least until they find someone that gets bigger than me, which I would actually love to see. Part of the reason why I handed it over was I don’t want to always be number one on Garuda. I want them to find some 19 year old who blows way past me in the next couple of years. So the label becomes established as a thing in its own right rather than be just Gareth Emery and his personal brand. So that’s kind of where I’d like to see Roxanne and the crew take it, but I’m there for support and to release my own music.
You collaborated with Roxanne on “Soldier” back in 2014, do you plan on collaborating with her again?
Gareth: Yeah definitely, it’s kind of strange. There would have been a song with her on the last album, 100 Reasons To Live, but I don’t think we ever got the time to record one. Then the album was near finished and it was sort of too late, but it was never an intentional thing. I definitely think there will be some in the future, but “Solider” which was on Drive was a huge fan favorite. So it’s kind of cool for her, being a vocalist in the electronic scene is tough. DJs have it very easy, they can plug in their USB and bang it’s done. Vocalists you really need a specific set up, plus they only do 20-30 minute sets. She’s in an amazing position because she can sort of pair in with my show. Yet she doesn’t need to rely on that solely for income, so it’s a cool place to be.
Christine has performed at many of your shows, does she tour with you often?
Gareth: No, no, we’re tight because we did Concrete Angel together, Dynamite, and Save Me. So we have a good rapport on an artistry level. I kind of mentored her to become a DJ. Early on she was a rock girl, she would do a ton of rock shows. Then she did Concrete Angel and all of a sudden everyone in electronic wanted a piece of her. So she wanted to become a live vocalist and my advice to her was to become a DJ. You can still do your live vocals, you can still sing your songs, but if you’re a live DJ you can do what Nervo are doing and travel around the fucking world and your life will be a lot more interesting and easier to sustain yourself as a career.
Gareth: The fact that Christine is a rock star is very helpful as well, she looks amazing and she’s a star. She picked up DJing really quickly and to start promoters were sort of iffy because she is originally a vocalist. She then offered to sing their five songs and then DJ for an hour and a half for the same price and they would obviously agree. Then after the shows they would be going on and on about how amazing she was. Now she’s doing these huge tours around Asia and she DJs and sings as well, so I couldn’t be happier for her.
When you released your 100 Reasons To Live album, you wrote a long post about it on your social media accounts, what can you tell us about that?
Gareth: It was a journey of positivity and I saw myself turning into this miserable, entitled DJ. It’s sad, but there are so many artists like that out there. You might even see them walking around today with these long faces and they get pissed off if their trailer isn’t ready on time or if the champagne isn’t the right temperature. It’s very easy to fall into this entitled mentality and I did it myself for awhile. Then I took a look around and realized you’re being paid large amounts of money, more than what some make in a year. And you get on stage on a weekend and play music that you’ve made for other people. So nobody cares if you’re tired or hot or if your fucking drink is warm. You’re lucky to be doing it, so learn to be grateful and shut up. It’s learning to be grateful rather than entitled.
Gareth: Being appreciative of this insane job which led to much better productivity on my music. I’ve always tried to make albums that reflect where I’m at in my life. Northern Lights was moving to Manchester, the north of the UK; you look at the cover it’s grey and it’s grim because that’s the scene. I look hungry because I was just blowing up as an artist, so you can almost see that desire to succeed there. In Drive I had just moved to the United States, so I was into road trips and that’s why the album cover is that. 100 Reasons To Live reflected this new phase in my life so it tells the story of that.
In this new phase, do you perform less shows or about the same?
Gareth: Last year I definitely performed less because I became a dad for the first time. I wanted to be closer to my family, closer to my home. I wanted to be present as a parent which was also quite incredible in gaining gratitude as well. I didn’t do much last year festival wise. I did Vegas, I did Miami and that’s it. I didn’t travel outside of North America at all. The year before I was operating on two hours sleep in Bulgaria and it was hot as hell and my flight got delayed like eight hours. I thought to myself, why am I doing this?
Gareth: Last year I missed touring, I missed European touring even though it can be really tough. I thought to myself, right now I was I was in Bulgaria being delayed eight hours because I would of done an awesome festival. This year, when I have those tough moments I just think to myself that this is life and I played a great show last night and I try to see the good in situations. Taking a year off was great for that, otherwise I’ll be doing the same stuff for 10 years. When you do something over and over again you lose appreciation for it. So a little time out and coming back to it fresh was very good for that.
A lot of fans only see DJs and producers for the huge shows they perform at and the music they produce for fans, do you think there is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a touring DJ and a producer?
Gareth: I’m not going to say it’s like this for everyone. There are some people who are just happy, upbeat people who tend to appreciate what they’ve got, whether it’s a lot or a little, they’re just very gracious people. There are those people who always have a smile on their face and always able to appreciate. That’s maybe 5%, for the other 95% you’re a workaholic, you’re working extremely hard, and you’re touring like crazy. You’re making a lot of money, but you probably also have a very expensive life style because you’re buying expensive watches and fancy cars.
Gareth: So it doesn’t really matter that you’re making a lot because you’re also spending a lot. So you have financial pressure, time pressure, and career pressure. At every moment there are 10,000 nineteen year olds that are as good as you are and are working harder than you are. They want to be where you are. You have pressure above from people that are bigger than you trying to push you down. You have pressure below from the next generation trying to take your position. That’s a lot of pressure. It takes either being a sensible person or a bit of practice to live in that crazy world. Otherwise you’ll go crazy, you’ll be on social media everyday and all you’ll see is that person that is getting bigger than you. Probably 60% of artists are kind of unhappy because they’re always on socials and they’re so concerned about numbers. How many followers they have or how many retweets they get. If they see some kid who is a smaller act getting more followers than them, they’ll freak out thinking they’re losing their position.
Gareth: You’d be amazed at how statistical wise and business wise the world is. A lot of artists I know, their management teams will every week hand them a social media report. It will have many followers they’ve gained or lost and it will compare those numbers with the competition. How can you be happy as an artist when you’re living in a world of comparing social media followers to your fellow artists? You think The Beatles had that stuff? That makes a lot of people unhappy, it’s a recipe for unhappiness. I want to be an artist, I want to be happy. I had to make a conscious decision to remove myself from that world and not care where my name was on a flyer. I’m here to make music and perform for fans, and ill be a lot happier as a result.
Do you think certain artists have different pressure depending on their genre of music?
Gareth: Trance is a world where everyone did hate each other for awhile, but I think it’s become a little bit more friendly. EDM is probably the most brutal and most competitive. Only because there is such high turnover. The trance guys, at least when you get to my sort of level, you can be reasonably secure in that I think I’ve done enough in the trance world. I’ll probably be a trance legend for a good 5-10 years or whatever it is. You look at EDM and the biggest acts in EDM four years ago they weren’t Hardwell, Martin Garrix, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, it moves very fast. From the top to guy number 50, it almost completely changes every few years. EDM is tough, in terms of the top guys, it depends. Tiesto is an interesting one, he always seems very happy and accepting in what he does, but name three acts as big as Tiesto who are miserable. So I think a lot of it depends on the individual rather than the world they’re in.
Are they considered “top guys” to you though? They’re big room/progressive and you’re trance which is sort of in its own category.
Gareth: Well, you know the acts that are definitely bigger than you, like Tiesto or Armin Van Buuren for example. It’s hard to compare people that are in different genres. A lot of it depends on the sigil, because we did like 5,000 people for EFL at the Shrine in LA with no support, just me. I look at that and see we did 5,000 people and there are very few acts that do those sort of numbers. Two years ago I could of spoke to you in length about my position in the business.
Gareth: I really just don’t think about it too much anymore, I have a great team that runs all my socials for me. My focus is and it’s going to sound contrived, but it’s making art. It’s making music. I have a crew that handles the numbers and they can come to me if we’re heading for disaster. If they told me “hey man, it’s time to make some new hit records”. Otherwise, I focus on the art and I let the suits do the business.
RaverRafting would like to thank Gareth and his team for helping set up this awesome interview, definitely one of the best we’ve done!
Connect with Gareth Emery:
https://www.facebook.com/garethemery
https://twitter.com/garethemery
https://www.instagram.com
https://soundcloud.com/garethemery
http://garethemery.com/home/
Connect with Moonrise Festival:
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http://www.moonrisefestival.com
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