GTR aka Gareth Emery, a man who has seen a surge in fame over recent months, particularly with his "Mistral" production which saw heavy support from the big jocks such as Paul van Dyk and Armin van Buuren

Gareth Emery Interview

GTR / Gareth Emery Profile

i:Vibes: Gareth Emery aka GTR, the Southampton based producer and DJ speaks to us.

It was only early in 2002 when you put together a cheeky mix of The Shrink's "Nervous Breakdown" a huge hit on the Virgin/Neo imprints, where did the choice for this track come from and how did it go from there?

Gareth: The original Nervous Breakdown is a massive personal favourite of mine – it’s just such a mental tune, not too serious, and once you’ve heard that crazy melody you’re not likely to forget it! Anyway, I’d been messing about producing records for a few years but hadn’t actually got around to putting anything out – so when I tried out a sample from Nervous Breakdown along with some hard as nails trance beats, it was ideal.

I first sent a CDR over to Guy Ornadel, who emailed me saying “it’s great, get it to me on vinyl and I’ll play it” – which was where it all started really. After that I pressed up 100 copies and gave them out to mates and DJs, a few of whom really got behind the record. One was Eddie Halliwell who gave it fantastic support - after he played it on Radio 1 as his last tune in a live mix from the Mardi Gras festival on Jules’s show the record label were on the phone the next Monday and you know the rest!

i:Vibes: Then following that, Mistral was a big hit, played by DJs like Paul van Dyk, Armin & DJ Tiesto, did you anticipate how big it would become?

Gareth: No way. I finished it and thought, ‘Yep, nice tune, nice riff, should do alright’. A day later I was sending Paul van Dyk some other records and just chucked in a CDR – it didn’t even have a name then - totally blank - no writing, no introduction!

Next thing I know, everyone was talking about this fantastic unknown tune he’d played at the Nature One festival – some people even thought it was new Paul van Dyk tune – then when I checked it out, it was Mistral! That was probably the moment where I started to think it could turn out to be pretty big – although it wasn’t until a few months later at Godskitchen when Ferry Corsten and Armin were telling me how much they loved it when I really knew just how well it had done. It’ll be a bitch to follow up though!

i:Vibes: How about going back to the roots, how did you get into the whole thing at first?

Gareth: Up until 1998 I was an indie lover – I was obviously involved in music, playing in bands and the like, but I hated dance music. Then towards the end of 1998, in my first year at Warwick University, I started going to a underground night called Quench which played trance – which was pretty rare back in those days!

I was just blown away by the music back, tunes like Dejure – Sanctuary, Storm – Storm, System F – Out Of The Blue. I couldn’t believe I’d never heard this sort of music before, and in the year or two following that, trance well and truly exploded in the UK as rising Dutch stars like Ferry Corsten, Armin, and Vincent de Moor started becoming more and more well known. The rest is history!

i:Vibes: How did the name "GTR" come about?

Gareth: It’s my first three initials: Gareth Thomas Rhys. It came about when I’d pressed up Nervous Breakdown. I was about to send out some copies and I realised I needed a name… a mate suggested ‘GTR – Nervous Breakdown 2002’ and having no better ideas, I went with it.

I’m using a few different production guise these days for example my new ‘Cupa’ tracks on Five AM – although the GTR project has been a great one I don’t want people to end up only thinking of GTR and never Gareth Emery, so as a DJ, I go under my real name.

i:Vibes: Back on the production front, your sound has significantly changed between your productions, is there any sound you are aiming to portray? Or is it more dependent on your mood?

Gareth: Completely dependent on my mood really – I’m into a wide variety of music and I’d get bored concentrating on just one style. Generally since the early days my style has got a lot trancier – for example Nervous Breakdown was played by Lisa Lashes and I couldn’t see that happening with Mistral somehow!

Whilst I definitely want to keep producing across the board, I’ll probably go under different aliases for different styles – for example, after Mistral, people expect GTR releases to be big trance records, and I imagine I’d get slated if I released a progressive or breaks record under that name!

i:Vibes: Where do you think trance is generally headed in 2003?

Gareth: It’s a positive time for trance – there’s some amazing music about, loads of great new producers and DJs are coming through the ranks, and for those people who are still into the scene, it’s really exciting.

i:Vibes: If you could select 5 records which define music for the past decade, what would you choose?

Gareth: Eek! The last decade would be just too hard – sorry! – so here are five defining trance records for me, not necessarily my best five ever, but the first five absolute classics I thought of (I’d be here all night otherwise!).

Space Manoeuvres – Stage One
Airscape – L’esperanza (Armin mix)
Chakra – Love Shines Through
Ratty – Sunrise (Here I Am)
Push – Strange World (2000 remake)

i:Vibes: In terms of your own productions, what is set to come during the next few months?

Gareth: Firstly, the ‘GTR dub’ of CERN’s ‘Baileys’ is imminent on Five AM, and following that, my own tracks Cupa – ‘Blaze’ / ‘Foundation’ will also be on Five AM. I’ve also done a remix for Multiply Records of a lovely vocal track called Nova – ‘All This Love’ which should be coming out in April. In addition to that I’m currently working on the follow up to Mistral – pretty busy!

i:Vibes: The biggest tracks in your box right now?

Gareth: Here’s a recent top ten:

1) Solid Globe – North Pole [Fundamental]
2) CERN - Baileys (GTR dub) [Five AM]
3) Hydra - Affinity (Backbeat mix) [Discover]
4) POS - Remember (Summer Sun) [Anjunabeats]
5) Aly & Fila - Eye of Horus (Ronski Speed mix) [Euphonic]
6) Three Drives on a Vinyl - Greece 2003 (Plastic Angel mix) [Hooj]
7) Jan Johnson - Calling Your Name (Neo & Farina mix) [Platipus]
8) AR52 - Hibernation [J00F]
9) Chakra - Doors (Space Brothers Dub) [Lost Language]
10) Echoplex - Ghost in the Machine [Five AM]

i:Vibes: Software or Hardware?

Gareth: Both! Software’s great, I mean you can create a pretty professional sound with Reason 2 and a half decent sequencer if you know what you’re doing – GTR has been a 95% software outfit so far apart from a few pads here and there and people tell me they love the sound.

On the other hand, there are times when you listen to the sort of sounds you can get something like the Access Virus 3 synth to throw out with hardly any effort, and they do sound that little bit lusher than you can produce on your PC.

My ideal setup which I’m currently putting together is a combination of both – using a computer for sequencing (I don’t really have any need for a massive mixing desk) but with a few synths for when I need those lovely sounds that hardware does that bit better.

i:Vibes: What advice can you give to up and coming producers out there?

Gareth: Well, firstly – be incredibly critical of your own work. I find a good way of judging is to think “if I heard this in a shop, would I buy it?”, and if the answer isn’t a resounding “YES”, then it’s just not good enough yet. Spend however long you need to get your stuff up to scratch and don’t think just having the right programme is enough – a wicked author might write a bestseller using Microsoft Word, but does that mean you’ll be able to do the same if you get Microsoft Word? Nope – and the same applies to Propellerheads Reason: however powerful the software, you still need the creative influence.

On a more positive note, you should believe you can do it – at the moment the old guard of dance music is falling and loads of exciting new producers are coming through: just to name a few examples people like Neo & Farina, Robert Nickson, Greg Murray and CERN are all causing a lot of excitement, and if you’re good enough, there’s never been a better time to break into production.

I’m always up for listening to up and coming producers work and giving constructive advice – after all I was there myself only a year ago – so to anyone up and coming guys out there who reckon they have produced some good tunes, drop me an email and send me a CD!

i:Vibes: A question we ask to all we interview is what their opinions on digital media (e.g. mp3s, etc) is?

Gareth: Wicked. Although a lot of the music industry hate mp3s, I think they’re great. For example, I’ve finished tracks off on a Friday afternoon, sent an mp3 across to my friend and Godskitchen resident Jon O’Bir, and he’s burnt them to CD and played them at CODE that very night! How could you have done that a few years ago?

I also don’t have any real issues with people swapping tracks, it’s a great of evaluating tunes before buying them and fantastic for new producers who want to get exposure.

Of course, there are some people who take the piss – and by this I mean people who don’t buy ANY albums because they download them or, or DJs who download tracks and play them out rather than buying them. This does takes the piss in my option – and although I don’t agree with the way the music industry points the finger solely at mp3s for falling sales – the people who take a lot out and don’t put anything back in are undoubtedly doing some damage, and spoiling it for the majority of people who use mp3s sensibly.

However, in any case, mp3s aren’t going to go away – the cat is well and truly out of the bag and will never be going back in, so the industry needs to stop moaning and work within the new environment. Simply telling people not to download music is madness – as if anyone listens? Also trying to create new formats that can’t be played on computers is only likely to piss people off even more. Sasha has the right idea – making every part of every track on Airdrawndagger available to download was a brave move, but one that shows he appreciates that mp3s are here to stay so we need to work with them, not against them.

i:Vibes: Any final wise words?

Gareth: Well done to anyone who’s managed to get to the end, and I’ll hopefully see you out and about in the coming year.

Thanks Gaz.

GTR Website

5 AM Records

Thanks to Neil @ DJConnections as well.