“Fuck it, I’m gonna make whatever I feel like making from now on…” Wolfgang Gartner is Back. Amen.

Wolfgang Gartner took to Facebook yesterday to give a very long and detailed explanation of what has been going on in his head, his new album that he’s been working on since July 2013, and much more.

I started working on this album in July of 2013, unbeknownst to myself. That summer was one of the biggest turning points in my headspace I’ve ever experienced, mirrored by probably one of the biggest turning points that dance music as a genre has ever seen.

And as with a lot of people last festival season, many people felt that a lot of “big room” DJs were regurgitating the same build, drop, shout, and lift off.

There were a number of songs released which defined a new era of “EDM,” dominated by an incredibly formulaic sound: giant kick drums, big snare buildups with a predictable catch-phrase at the end, leading into a “drop” with a percussive, almost metallic rave melody. Suddenly everything being played at festivals and clubs sounded exactly like this; it began to dominate the charts, and a few select songs with the right machine behind them crossed over to commercial pop radio as an almost “novelty” in the 35-song rotation.

And whether you love to admit it or not, many blogs, DJs, and fans alike have been showcasing how many DJs, such as Martin Garrix seem to be producing the same song with slight variations over and over again as this video tries to prove. But what is the music industry, but another business, right?

They became the representatives of dance music, telling the unfamiliar masses; “this is what dance music sounds like now.” Many of those songs went platinum and created even more impetus for labels and artists to maintain and nurture this formula, because at the end of the day it was making the most money.

Wolfgang goes on to explain, with anything picking up popularity, Electronic Dance Music will go through its own growing pains. There will be new genres subgenres, elite “you don’t even know bro” hipster subsubsubsubgenres. It’s the creativity and ever-evolving sound of EDM that keeps the music pouring like Niagara Falls. But it takes such artists, saviors of this music revolution to step outside of that safe zone, and really make something that is different, unique, and gives us all hope.

Instead of just paying attention to the sound that was dominating the festivals and airwaves, I saw excitement with an undercurrent of, albeit rare, crossover dance music success that was happening simultaneously. To me it meant that a lot of people still wanted dance music that you could dance to, and that was what I wanted to make again.

And he can’t be more right with the hunger for fans to hear, feel, and experience something different. Look at the success of Porter Robinson’s new album.

I think the feeling of freedom was so overwhelming and the time was just right that I kind of just said, “fuck it, I’m gonna make whatever I feel like making from now on, there’s no more walls.”

If only more artists were not afraid to do this, would the scene be different? We’ll have to wait and see. But one thing is for sure, artists that take their time and don’t get pressured by the industry to be put out new tracks every waking are the creative masters. Can these artists stop doing festivals and shows? No, of course not, and nobody wants them to. But to continuously be producing and spewing out the same thing over and over again is the reason that we see certain artists like Hardwell and W&W getting a lot of heat for their generic build, drop, shout, “put your fucking hands up” endless barrage of the same.

The amount of funk I’ve injected into my music and the way in which I inject it has cycled over the years, but it has always been there. When everything aligned, the ropes broke free and I had this musical, spiritual awakening type thing, and I knew exactly what I wanted to make. I wanted to make music people could dance to, with varying degrees of soul and funk, but done in a way it had never been done before. I wanted it to make people feel happy when they listened to it, and I wanted it to make me feel good too.

Amen. Purely, truly, amen.

The whole process has been scary, liberating, and an adventure in musical exploration. I’ve tried to figure out how to take the past and recreate it in its true form but in the context of the future… To be safe is to be like everything else out there. I’m just trying to have a good time making an album of music that will inspire and make a lot of people happy. 

And so here we are, with a preview of Wolfgang’s first release “Unholy” from his upcoming album. Soul, check. Future, check. Funk, check. I think we can continue to expect great things from Wolfgang Gartner.

Connect with Wolfgang Gartner:
https://www.facebook.com/djwolfganggartner
https://twitter.com/wolfganggartner
https://www.youtube.com/user/wolfganggartnermusic

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