Gareth Emery

Gareth Emery (born 18 July 1980 in Southampton, England) is an English Electronic dance music producer and DJ. Since 2009, he has been the highest-ranked British DJ in DJ Magazine's annual Top 100 poll, peaking at #7 in 2010. Gareth Emery was born in Southampton, England although he also has Welsh heritage. He lived in Southampton until the age of 26 before relocating to Manchester, England where he has a studio and runs a night club and record label, both called Garuda. He has a degree in Politics from University of Warwick, supports Southampton Football Club, and is trained in classical piano. Prior to becoming involved in electronic music he played guitar in a punk band in the mid-nineties. Emery has a distinctive production style that has been described as a fusion of trance, house and progressive, and is described by Emery himself as 'simple but effective'. Although usually categorised as a trance DJ, he has often dismissed this label simply stating that he plays good records regardless of genre. Emery’s debut vinyl release was a white label remix of The Shrink's classic "Nervous Breakdown" which was released in early 2002. In February 2002 Judge Jules broadcast the track live on BBC Radio 1 from the Mardi Gras festival, which brought Emery to the attention of the electronic music community. However, the track that launched his career is generally considered to be his third release: GTR - "Mistral". It was created entirely on a laptop computer over the course of a two week holiday in Provence. Paul van Dyk debuted the track live on the radio during the Nature One Festival in 2002 and it subsequently received support from some of the world's leading DJs, including Tiësto, Armin van Buuren and Ferry Corsten, and received highly positive reviews in Mixmag, Muzik, and DJ Magazine. Emery was ranked at #34 in DJ Mag's Top 100 poll in 2006, #31 in in 2007, #23 in 2008, #9 in 2009 and #7 in 2010.