This prolific producer never ceases to amaze us
Electronic music producer and DJ Wolfgang Gartner has nailed it once again – this time with his new single “Flexx”. The track marks another smash hit for this genius musician, and has been proven by zooming into the top 10 on Beatport just days after its release. This prolific producer never ceases to amaze. DMC salutes.
Wolfgang welcome back to DMCWORLD. Back with an almighty bang with your new track ‘Flexx’ on Ultra Music. You quite happily tell the world that ”I have to make something that’s never been made before; have to make the best thing that I’ve ever done in my life – otherwise it gets stagnant or worse…” – what makes ‘Flexx’ different from your past releases, talk us through the track…
“Regarding “Flexx,” I’ve always tried to incorporate disco elements into a lot of my stuff, in a way that people could still relate to within the electro house context. With ‘Flexx’ I feel like I nailed it pretty well. I used some more classic disco sounds like a Fender Rhodes piano, wrote and played some chords that I later realized were subconsciously inspired by an old Edwin Birdsong track (which Daft Punk sampled in ‘Harder Better Faster Stronger’), an old Clavichord piano which was indicative of classic disco, made some of my disco breaks like I did in ‘Menage A Trois’ – which are made originally and not sampled but made to sound like disco samples that were just ripped off a record. These things take me hours to make and they’ll usually take up about 2 seconds of the whole track. But they add so much to it they are worth spending the time on. I guess ‘Flexx’ was just me getting a bit housier, and when I’ve tried to do it in the past my fan base and the masses just weren’t ready for it, but I think this time they were.”
What are the big tunes you are spinning at the moment, last time we spoke you told me you’d have to kill me if you told me…
“Same answer. I don’t play any of the big stuff that tops the charts. None of the Beatport top 10 or anything. Everybody else is playing it, it would just be lazy and un-creative for me to play that stuff. So I dig, and find obscure music. And right now I have a ton of my own unreleased productions. So I’d say about 80% of my set right now is my own production, including unreleased stuff, and the other 20% is other peoples’ music, stuff that I’ve mashed up or bootlegged or edited. And yeah, if I told you what it was, then everybody else would start playing it and, you guessed it, I’d have to kill you.”
Your press release concerning the tune is great…”Wolfgang Gartner is becoming dance music’s one-man parallel universe, outpacing electro-house and outdoing himself. How would you describe your style right now – how has it developed, if at all, in the last 12 months…?
“The biggest change in my music in the past year is the overall diversity of it. I went from doing almost strictly electro to experimenting with bigroom progressive stuff, housey vocal stuff (the collab with Tiesto and Luciana), and still working in my old school sound as well. And I think that’s going to be how I do it for the foreseeable future. It’s a lot more fun when you don’t have to work in a box, and I find I can be a lot more prolific when I step outside of that box and delve into other styles and sounds. The challenge is to make sure that “Wolfgang” has a dominant musical presence in every piece of music I create, whether it be progressive house or whatever other sound. I have to make sure I still approach it as myself, and people can still ID the track as my track even though it’s a completely different style. That can really be a challenge.”
Your sets are quite simply unpredictable but equally amazing – the dancefloor never knows what you are going to do next. Dropping Beethoven to an almost dawn crowd is the stuff of legend. What though is the biggest musical risk behind the decks you have brought us that could have gone either way?
“I don’t like to take big risks when I’m playing in front of thousands of people. To me, that would mean playing something that might not go over well, or trying something that I might not be able to pull off, or basically doing something that could go wrong or not be received well. In my opinion there’s no place for doing that when I’m being paid to provide these people with an experience that they’ll hopefully never forget. So I take all my risks in the preparation of it. I make a ton of edits, bootlegs, try and throw in old tracks or tracks from left field that aren’t a sure shot, then I just sit on it and analyze it, and visualize it, until I’ve decided beyond a shadow of a doubt whether or not it’s going to work. And if it’s not, I won’t do it. I’ve been touring and DJ’ing long enough to know what’s going to work and know what’s not going to work. So I spend a lot of time and preparation beforehand figuring that out, rather than using people as guinea pigs. The only time I use the crowd as a guinea pig is when I play my own unreleased music. But if I’ve developed it to a point that I’m ready to put it in my set, then I know it’s going to work. It’s only a question of how well it works, how big a reaction it gets.”
What has been your biggest record of 2012?
“Well it came out on my album last October but it’s taken a while to catch on – I think “Shrunken Heads” gets the biggest reaction of anything I’ve released. Aside from that there is one other that’s unreleased right now that gets an equally big reaction, but I can’t talk about that one because it’s not out yet!”
What are your thoughts on the how America has been leading the way festival wise in 2012 – what have been your highlights to date this year, where has surprised/disappointed you?
“The biggest surprise and best experience festival wise this year was one called Sasquatch, in the middle of nowhere in Washington. I said it in interviews and on Twitter after I played it, and I’ll still say it to this day, it is the best gig I’ve ever played in my life. Just completely blew me away, most amazing crowd I’ve ever played to. It was a surprise because this festival isn’t really geared toward dance music, it’s more of a rock festival, but whoever was in the crowd that night was up for it in a way I’ve never even seen before.”
How are the plans coming along for your indoor house river?
“I’ve decided to wait and build my indoor house river in my next house, as I doubt I’ll be living in this current one for more than another year or two. I want to make sure I’m in a house that I’ll be living in for a long time so I can fully enjoy the benefits of my river for many many years.”
What producers from around the world are you giving high fives to at the moment?
“Tom Staar, Deniz Koyu, Hook N Sling, Tommy Trash, A-Divizion, Nicky Romero, The Phantom’s Revenge, Sandro Silva…”
What is coming next studio wise from you…
“I’ve finished almost my whole “album” for 2012, although it’s not being released as a standard album. It’s 10 tracks – Redline, There & Back, and Flexx have come out already. 2 more are coming out on an EP in mid July. Then in September or October i think I’ll release the remaining 5 as an extended EP or mini-album or whatever you would call it. Basically a constant flow of new music. I am also re-launching my Kindergarten label and have signed a really exciting undiscovered artist that I think is going to blow up in a massive way. I’ll probably be doing remixes for the artists I sign onto the label and maybe make an occasional solo appearance.”
You have remixed the likes of Black Eyed Peas and Timbaland. What classic song from years gone by would you really love to rework…?
“Queen – ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.”
Describe a perfect Sunday for you…
“Laying on an inflatable raft in my pool blasting my “poolside” playlist on the speakers sipping iced tea.”
Who were your early DJ heroes?
“Mark Farina, Derrick Carter, DJ Sneak, Doc Martin, DJ Dan and DJ Heather.”
When was the last time you heard a record that made you stop in your tracks because it was so good?
“I buy a lot of music. Dance music and other types of music. In the last year I have only purchased two full length albums, that were so good I had to have the whole thing. Justice – “Audio Video Disco” and Wale – “Ambition.” Those are the two.”
Wolfgang Gartner – ‘Flexx‘ (Ultra Music) is out now.
