Gareth Emery

He is a trance-genre producer and DJ. In 2011 he was voted the #13 DJ in the world by DJ Mag Poll.

Born in Southampton (18 July 1980), but now based in Manchester, England, Gareth Emery is a producer and DJ of trance music. He comes from a diverse musical background that includes classical piano training, jazz, and a little punk rock. Gareth has emerged in the last few years as one of the world's major trance DJs. Since entering the DJ Mag Top 100 poll at number #34 in 2006, he has climbed every year since being ranked #31 in the 2007 poll, #23 in the 2008 poll, and entering the top 10 in 2009 at #9. He is widely tipped to become one of the next global stars of trance music, with both Paul van Dyk and Ferry Corsten naming him as a future star in their DJ Mag Top 100 interviews in 2006/2007. In 2010 Gareth was named as #7 DJ in the world by DJ Mag.

Emery first came to the attention of the electronic music community early in 2002 when his debut vinyl release, a white label remix of The Shrink's classic 'Nervous Breakdown', was broadcast live on BBC Radio 1 from the Mardi Gras festival on Judge Jules' show. After being championed by a host of DJs, including Eddie Halliwell, Pete Tong, Guy Ornadel, Scot Project and Dave Pearce, 'Nervous Breakdown' was picked up by Nutrition for an official release and later featured on a number of compilations including the Godskitchen Direct mix album.

Following the hard tech-trance flavour of 'Nervous Breakdown', Gareth turned his attention back to his traditional style of trance with his next release, a double A-side comprising the tracks 'Psiclone' and 'Flood Control' on his own label Influential. The release picked up considerable support from all the major trance spinners including Armin van Buuren and Ferry Corsten.

However, the track that truly put Emery on the production map was GTR – 'Mistral', which was the fourth track he had produced. It was created entirely on a laptop computer over the course of a two week holiday in Provence. Nevertheless, the CDR that Gareth sent to Paul van Dyk caused a storm when van Dyk debuted it live on the radio during the Nature One Festival. 'Mistral' received huge support from some of the world's leading DJs, including Tiësto, Paul van Dyk,Dj EGG, Armin van Buuren and Ferry Corsten, and received highly positive reviews in Mixmag, Muzik, and DJ.

Emery has a distinctive and unique production style that can perhaps best be described as a fusion of trance and progressive, with psy, tribal and techno flavours. His productions have been described as intelligent, driving, melodic and progressive. His dub mixes are often done in his signature "stuttering vocal" style, which he pioneered on his early hit 'Bouncebackability' (co-produced with Jon O'Bir). He is well known for playing a diverse showcase of music both in his DJ sets and his podcast, and has often dismissed his categorization as a 'trance' DJ simply stating that he plays good records regardless of genre.