Gareth Emery

Take Everything. The new single with Emma Hewitt. Out this Friday.

For ten years, you asked. And finally, we delivered. Yep, Emma Hewitt and I made a new record for you all and it comes out next week. I would like to ask you for a small favor - please pre-save this track to your Spotify account by following the link in the comments. Not only will this put you first in line to hear the track next week, but it’s one of the best ways you can support artists and Emma and I would be most grateful. Thank you! Gaz xx

True story... when I sit down at a piano some asshole still will occasionally say some variation of "Oh, the button pushing DJ is going to try and play a real instrument is he?" My response is usually some variation of this:

“If you love what you do, you will never work a day in your whole life.” Sorry, but that quote is absolute bullshit. Here’s the truth: If you love what you do, you’ll have to work extremely fucking hard. Harder than people who hate their jobs. Trust me, when I worked a mindless office job, my life was nice and easy. Having a job you love is not easy. You’ll sacrifice many things for your work. Friends, family, social life. But, loving your work allows you to experience the highest highs. To wake up every day feeling a sense of purpose. To know you impact other people in a positive way. And that makes all the hard work, pain, and sacrifice absolutely worthwhile.

The Laserface Dreamstate video is now live!

Feeling insanely grateful for one of my favorite shows of my entire career last Saturday. The atmosphere was just unreal - I had shivers down my spine multiple times with every time the crowd roared to another one of Nice Lasers insane laser drops. And y’know, I was pretty f*cking nervous going into this one. This was the hometown show. The one we had to get right. There was no room for error. Laserface is a big, complex beast anyway but doing it at a festival increases the amount of moving parts. There’s an awful lot that can go wrong. But sometimes, from the moment you get on stage, everything just comes together, and that was last night. It was just beautiful. For basically the whole 90 minutes I just experienced a profound sense of gratitude for the cards life has dealt me. When I dedicated the set to Sansa as I closed out with the song named after her and walked off stage, I was like: f*ck. How do we ever top this? Where to we go from here? Thank you to our incredible Laserface crew who put in an insane amount of work behind the scenes and somehow manage to raise the bar with every show, especially Anthony, Kassy and Andy. Thanks to our special guest Emma Hewitt for an incredible performance. Thanks to Dreamstate, Insomniac and Jeff Ryan for letting us take over the megastructure to do this. And most of all thanks to all of you who have supported us in this crazy dream to build the best show in dance music. Gaz xx

One more beautiful California winter sunset before Laserface SoCal.

We are making Laserface into the greatest laser show on earth. That’s our mission. Not everyone will “get” it and that’s OK. Good lasers are like a decent glass of wine. Not everyone can identify them. There are shows that just pile up a shit ton of lasers, which makes for a good photo, but has no sync to the music. That’s not us. Laserface looks decent in photos but in person, you can experience every single track having a perfectly synchronized laser show. Then there are festivals who scan the crowd with high powered lasers which would be illegal in the US or the UK. Whereas we still do crowd scanning in a safe, legal way which requires a lot more regulation including a dedicated Laser Safety Officer on every show. It’s worth it. Like I say, we’re making Laseface into the greatest laser show on earth. We aren’t there yet. But we will be. Show by show, we get a little better each time. It’s amazing to think the first show in New York was exactly one year ago. Much love to all of you who have supported us along the way. I hope you’ve seen the progress we’ve made since New York. We’re only just getting started! Gaz x.

Music videos are usually a drag. This video for U was actually a lot of fun, because Bo Bruce and I avoided most of the shoot, instead leaving these two beauties to travel all through the majestic desert for a week capturing all this amazing footage. My contribution involved showing up on the last day, pretended to record the song in a hotel room, getting drunk on some random whisky which was sponsoring the shoot, then f*cking off back to LA. (I had spent a good 18 months working on the album though, so I forgive myself). Either way it’s a gorgeous video that I can still watch and enjoy now. Like most of Drive it makes me want to get in a car and f*ck off into the desert for a bit.

Avicii's 'Without You', covered by Gareth Emery & Emma Hewitt at Laserface Las Vegas at The Pearl Theatre, Las Vegas, October 5th 2018.

I frequently get asked if I produce my own music. This is a way more complex topic than people generally realize but here’s the lowdown. Firstly, I don’t have anything against using engineers to polish up a track (even though I rarely do it myself). I mean, if an artist has written the melodies, the song, it’s no big deal having someone else work on the production. Did The Beatles produce their own music? Of course not. Now that’s very different to artists who can’t play a single note of music and simply buy ready-made tracks off the shelf.... which is basically taking someone else’s art and passing it off as your own. Me? On most of my good tracks I did *all* the production. Not because I’m against getting help, but because nobody else could do it how I wanted. I did all of: Concrete Angel. Sanctuary. Reckless. Mistral. Sansa. U. Tokyo. Long Way Home. Exposure. Metropolis. 
But I’ve done some tracks, mostly remixes, where I was running out of time and someone else to do the heavy lifting to finish my demos. Alex Sonata worked on my remix of Lost Frequencies. Craig Connelly on my remix of Ferry Corsten. In those cases I wrote the music. They’re still Emery tracks. They’re just tracks I wouldn’t have got finished otherwise. On the flip side, there are about 10 tracks in the Armada / Garuda catalog that I ghost produced for others back in the day. In all honesty I’d fucking love to find a permanent engineer to finish up my tracks. It would allow me to focus entirely on writing music and songs, rather than spending 4 hours tuning a hi-hat that nobody notices anyway, and I’d likely release more music as a result. But nobody else really nails it so for now, it’s me. Side-note: my fav person to collab with is Ashley Wallbridge . We think about music in absolutely the same way, and can both do every bit of the process. On balance, he’s the better engineer, and I’m probably a bit better at melodies, but together we’re a lethal fucking team. Except to see a shit load more records from us soon! Gaz x.

OpenXClose. New Year’s Eve. The Brooklyn Hangar. Tickets are on sale now! https://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/1778492

Still one of the most beautiful vocals I’ve ever been fortunate enough to work with... played the original in my sets for a straight two years but this acoustic version we did in London is a bit lesser known. The riff was heavily inspired by Avicii’s music but made to work in more of a trance setting. Sad thing is I probably wouldn’t have said that when he was alive because it would have felt ass-kissing / looking for attention, but I’m sure you can hear the influence in there.

This New Year’s Eve I’ll be in New York City to launch a brand-new concept - OpenXClose. Laserface has been an incredible journey, and one that we’ll be continuing. But one question we were often asked was this: what about the long sets? The journeys? The ones where I play for 6-7 hours, starting with an empty room and ambient music, taking it right through to the curfew? Those epic sets were you hear every Gareth Emery track you ever wanted. Where I’m my own opener, headliner, and closer. And where you end up Shazaming half the set because I’ve dug deep, done my homework, and brought out every gem I remember after 15 years of doing this. Now, Laserface doesn’t work for long sets. With every song requiring lasers, lights and visuals being individually programmed, even two hours is a stretch. Plus, frankly, it would be a bit much to deal with that level of mayhem all night. But I missed the long sets. My 2015 tour where I did 15 all night sets was one of my favorite tours ever. So, they’re coming back. Meet OpenXClose. It’s a series of night which starts in 2019, where I’ll be playing some of my favorite cities in the world for the longest possible time. From the moment doors open to the moment the security haul me off stage. They won’t be glossy. And they won’t be for the ‘gram. These will be gritty, Warehouse raves and proper clubs, where it’s all about the music. And where better to start than New York City, on New Year’s F*cking Eve? Grimy Warehouse? Check ✅ Seven hour set? Check ✅ Some amazing artists joining me during the night? Check ✅ This is OpenXClose and we start in New York this New Year’s Eve. Tickets go on sale Tuesday 11/6 12pm EST, but make sure to sign up now: http://tiny.cc/GarethNYE Gaz x

Big announcement coming tomorrow!

NEW ALBUM IS FINISHED

Stay focused on the future but don’t forget the past. So grateful to have Lasreface to bring back tracks that changed life back in the day. ‘Carte Blanche’ is simply one of the greatest trance records of all time.... made nearly 20 years ago by Ferry Corsten and the sadly retired Vincent de Moor, and still has more beauty than almost anything released today. Not all of these older records work in clubs, but at Laserface we can give them the production they truly deserve!

Harry Potter World. I love my life.

A few friends said I’d get murdered for playing this. Didn’t happen. But maybe it will now I’ve posted it haha

Back when my parents still hoped I would work for a leading Investment Bank. Shortly after this photo was taken I was introduced to epic trance, v necks, leather jackets and nothing has been the same since. tbt. 2002

F***k 138. Here’s some 170 for you. The Darren Styles remix of ‘Lights and Thunder’ has been one of the biggest tracks on this Laserface tour. When I first heard it, I thought it was amazing but probably too hard for me to actually play....... bravo to crowds all over the world for opening their minds to the faster styles.

Been such a joy being on tour with Emma Hewitt again, not just an incredible performer but a genuinely lovely person off stage too!

This is my favorite piano piece of all time, ‘I Giorni’ by Einaudi. On Saturday, I was fortunate enough to perform it at a wedding of two good friends. I was a little rusty but just about managed it I think. Playing the piano in front of a crowd is a very different experience to playing on my own at home but one gig at a time, I’m getting there, and who knows, maybe one day it can be something more than a one-off thing.

When your non raver friend comes to Laserface hahahah (wait for it)

It’s a beautiful thing to get your work game strong, then share it with those you love the most. Buuuut as much as Sansa enjoyed this experience, she already knows what a treat it is, and not something to be taken for granted. The moment her and her sister are old enough, it’s back of the bus Southwest for them. Because learning that you have to work for cool things and not just get them handed to you on a plate is a damn important life lesson.