Interview by Dan Prince
Gareth a huge welcome back to DMCWORLD…where on planet earth are you today?
Sitting outside in Miami feeling a little hungover. But I’m also on the 35th floor looking out over the ocean so it’s not a bad life.
The best piece of music you have heard today?
None so far but I heard some great tracks at Seth Troxler’s show last night.
Well you have hit the ground running in 2016 with the announcement of your third studio album ‘100 Reasons To Live’…which we shall come to in a moment. But over at DMCWORLD we loved your very heartfelt post you put up on Facebook on New Years Day when you took us all back to 2006 when you were broke, living on the minimum wage, had no girlfriend, still living with your parents and your DJ career was not looking good. How did you turn things round, what advice can you offer to the thousands of Gareth Emery wannabes reading this…
I know most people would prefer to hear about one thing that fixed it all but the hard truth was there was no one thing. From there to now was basically ten years of extremely hard work. So that’s really my advice to people. Don’t expect it to be easy, because it isn’t fucking easy. There will be many days when you feel you’re not getting anywhere but you have to push on regardless. There will be many sacrifices; at first the nights out you’ll have to say no to because you need to be in the studio the next morning, then down the line if you start touring, all the family and friends stuff you miss. But if you plan out what you want to do, work your bollocks off every single day, look at yourself honestly often to make sure it’s all going to plan, and STICK TO THE PLAN over a period of years IT WILL WORK OUT and it will be massively worth it.
For arguments sake, if you had given up the music dream, what do you think you would have ended up doing?
I don’t know really. But not a regular job. I’ve always been on the entrepreneurial side. I’d started three companies before I went into music – the first two, combined, made one sale of £10, so it’s fair to say I wasn’t immediately good at it, but the second one, a mobile phone ringtones company (this was back in the late 90s when this shit was a major novelty) made me a lot of money and paid my way through college. So I’ve always had an aptitude for business I guess, and if I wasn’t in the music business, it would be another one.
Looking back at ‘Drive’ and ‘Northern Lights’, what are the biggest changes in the production style to ‘100 Reasons To Live’…
I don’t think the production style has changed that much but it’s all about the songs on this new album. We worked really hard to write the best songs we’ve ever written and I think this shows.
Tell us about Dreamstate in January…
What an amazing show. It was such a blast. I need to do another one at some point.
What are some of the big dates in your DJ diary you cannot wait for this year?
A lot of festivals. Last year, due to becoming a dad for the first time, I didn’t travel a lot. Just stayed home, did my Vegas residency, and avoided travel. Whereas this year I’d back on the road, so I’m back doing a lot of my favourite big festivals around the world – and those are the ones I’ve most excited about as I missed them a bit last year. Plus of course any Electric For Life parties we do always get me excited.
Which famous person would you most like to see play you in a film?
Ryan Reynolds? People sometimes say we look alike, which is a lot minded to me than him.
What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
I guess back when I was climbing the ladder, I recall spending £1500 a month on PR and promotion when I was barely making that. So Kat and I were living month-to-month on credit cards and I was ploughing all my cash back into promoting myself. This was pre-social media and you had to spend a bit of money to get in the magazines etc (these days you can do a hell of a lot more for free). Friends told me “What the fuck are you doing? You’re finally making some money DJing and you’re wasting it all on promotion when you should be saving for a house deposit”. But with hindsight, I wasn’t ready for the reward phase yet. I wanted to hit the next income level before I started actually spending money. And it worked out well.
But the biggest risk is probably the next one. I’m a risk taker by nature – and most of the achievements I’ve nailed come down to taking a risks. If it feels right, I’ll probably do it. The best thing you can do is minimize the potential downside.
What accomplishment in your life are you most proud of?
The three albums I’ve written.
An up and coming producer to watch out for this year?
Lanos or Luke Bond.
And finally…what is the next project that’s gonna get you in the studio?
A few remixes that I need to finish – the current one is for Project 46 and I really like it.
*****
‘100 Reasons To Live’ Tracklist:
01. The Story So Far
02. Cloudline (feat. Joseph)
03. Far From Home (feat. Gavrielle)
04. Reckless (feat. Wayward Daughter)
05. We Were Young (feat. Alex & Sierra)
06. CVNT5 (feat. Ashley Wallbridge)
07. Make It Happen (feat. Lawson)
08. Hands (feat. Alastor & London Thor)
09. Lost (feat. Janet Devlin)
10. Save Me (feat. Christina Novelli)
11. Until We Meet Again (Ben Gold)
12. I Could Be Stronger ([But Only For You])
13. Sansa
14. Cruiser (feat. Alex Sonata) (Bonus Track)
http://www.garethemery.com/
