Most people know Gareth Emery or his moniker GTR as the producing talent behind the anthem “Mistral”, but little do they know that this super-club track was never intended to reach the heights of trance fame it did - let alone the fact it was almost entirely produced on a laptop while Gareth was holidaying in France.
We saw Gareth secure his position within the credited production assemblage coming out of the UK in 2003, under the names GTR, Cupa and Gareth Emery, as well as collaborations with such artists as Harry Diamond, Jon O’Bir, and CERN. The latter proven to be a winner with the co-writing of their late 2003 anthem “The Message”.
When asked what he thinks of working with other rising production intellect Jon O’Bir, Gaz is more than excited to mention that their track “Escapade” has been getting great coverage and props from the world’s No. 1 DJ Tiesto, as well as Armin van Buuren. His latest release “Reason to Believe” out on the Five AM label, has been described by Mixmag (May 2004 Issue) as a track that ‘fans of the harassing riffs and Van Dykish principles in ‘Mistral’ will not be disappointed with’, with airplay on more UK & European stations that you can poke a stick at!
But lets take a step back for a minute so that you can see the full GTR picture…
...His first floor filler “Mistral” of early 2002 was snapped up by Five AM Records after van Dyk debuted it live on Radio from the Nature One Festival. However, the beginning of 2003 saw the Five AM Records sister company Bonzai fall into financial difficulty, meaning that inevitably the smaller offshoot Five AM was sure to shut up shop. Rather than watching his ‘Spiritual home’ die, Gareth spent the past 18months negotiating the balance of the Five AM Records division. Now Gaz wears another one of many “hats” in his dance music career – co-owning and jointly performing the A&R role with Alexis Hooper, one of the remaining Five AM visionaries.
The artists that the Five AM Record label now encompass include diverse acts such as Binary Finary, CERN (Cheap Emotional Response Network) and Echoplex; as well as releases since 1999 involving Joker Jam, Plastic Boy, Steve Gibbs, Sunscreem vs Push plus remixes by Lange, Kid Vicious, Paul van Dyk, and many more.
As a DJ, Gareth has always remained true to his unique way of tweaking a crowd by relying on those ‘not so well known’ tracks – seeing the best I guess in samples and sounds that other DJ’s have chosen, and working them in, in a way that only he can to destroy a dance floor.
Working as A&R of Five AM Records may be a bonus as far as having the first pick of the crop when it comes to new chart toppers to be played at clubs around the world, but Gaz finds that it is those rarities that come thru the offices of Five AM that are more likely to hang around in his record box than the big room choones you may expect. Gareth reaching 132nd best DJ in the world in the prestigious DJ Mag Top 100 Poll of 2003, proving that his rapid rise to the industry’s surface was backed by a great succession of reputable DJ sets that weren’t going un-noticed!
Now settled into his new Southampton Studio, Gaz has more than enough on his plate between production, collaboration, co-ownership of Five AM records and co-chairing of the A&R role within the company to keep him going well into the next wave of forward thinking trance.
You can Catch GTR (aka Gareth Emery) playing in Melbourne on Friday July 9th at 5AM @ Room, and in Sydney on Saturday July 10th at Progress @ Gas. For more details on his label Five AM Records, check out the website HERE.
