[divider]DJ Mag Top 100[/divider]
A few years ago, Gareth was approached by a marketing agency to boost his position in the DJ Mag Top 100. Instead of paying that marketing agency, Gareth decided that a charity voted for by his fans deserved that money more. This brought a lot of skepticism into the yearly poll and has really damaged the view of the top 100 being an accurate litmus for gauging DJ and Producers talent in the community.
I don’t really think there needs to be a yearly talent poll. I think it does a massive disservice to the people who make this music. I don’t see the need to rank ourselves in order to validate what we do. You don’t see the Kings of Leon on their Twitter going “ya vote for us in the Rock Music Top 100 Poll,” because they don’t give a fuck. They make the music they make and the only validation they need is the success of their music and the people coming to see them at shows.
In an industry with a mainstream that’s slowly beginning to commercialize, Gareth shows us an artist less worried about the prestige and money, and more concerned about simply making good music.
https://soundcloud.com/garethemery/the-gareth-emery-podcast-episode-308
[divider]The Video Seen Around The World[/divider]
Awhile back, a little video circulated of a girl named Keelin signing the lyrics to Gareth’s U to her deaf friend Monica at the TomorrowWorld festival in Georgia. Shortly after Gareth posted the video, it had garnered millions of hits and was run by major news stations along with blogs like the Huffington Post. Gareth had actually met the girls prior to that at a show in San Diego.
After the show my wife said, ‘you got to come and meet these two girls. They’re fucking incredible.’ So she brought me down to the moat and I got to meet both of them. Keelin told me a bit about how the process works, so I was quite fascinated. I wanted to know if there was established sign language for everything in a song. She said, ‘not really, sometimes I have to ad lib’ and she gave me some examples.
Then Gareth saw the video from TomorrowWorld and saw that this was what dance music is all about. It was a great example of how our community brings everyone together, and how beautiful it can be. After posting the video himself when he was in London for his sister’s birthday, Gareth thought nothing of it. Soon though, everything changed. “I woke up the next morning and it had something like 100,000 likes and some million views. My initial reaction was like ‘Fuck! I hope these guys are okay with this,’ because a lot of people wouldn’t like being a part of a viral video.” Luckily, Keelin and Monica saw it as more than simply a viral video; it was a chance to create an equal opportunity environment for the hearing impaired within dance music.
“People that are already into dance music, they don’t need to be told how much love and incredible friendship and camaraderie there is in the scene, because we already know. However, for people outside the scene, (they) do not. I think it sends an incredible message because when people hear about dance music the music is usually negative. With something like that, what an incredible example to show the rest of the world of how exceptionally caring and essentially good the dance music scene is.”
Gareth even suggested the possibility of Keelin signing for whole crowds along to his music, as a way of showing the deaf community that they’re accepted and cared for too. With his sights set on making this happen for the closing show of his tour in Los Angeles, we may be in for an historic performance.
[divider]The Future[/divider]
With his last album taking four years to complete, Gareth is determined to not have his fans wait that long again. He’s even vowed to withdraw from social media along with the day-to-day aspects of the scene to focus on getting more music out. We’ll of course get some singles along the way, and you can bet he’s excited to share them with the rest of the world.
Let us know what you thought of Gareth’s interview with Dance Music Northwest below! What do you think about harm reduction at massives?
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