Gareth Emery

Most DJ/producers don't crack into the DJMag Top 100 before the age of 30. Most of them don't shun major label attention. Most of them don't have them don't have the balls to call out the scene that they belong to when it's failing to deliver the goods. And some don't even produce 'their' own tracks. Gareth Emery, with his potent blend of trance, house, electro and techno, however, is not your average major league artist.
He was a prodigious talent in his childhood, teaching himself to play the piano from the age of 4, and continuing his invaluable classical education until he began playing guitar in an indie band at 15. Neither of these were false starts for his eventual electronic conversion; instead, both paths giving him essential experience and understanding of music and songwriting and how to convey emotion through his sounds. His baptism of fire came on a chance trance trip to Ibiza in 1998, which was followed by three years of learning the machinations of electronic music making. At the age of 22, he created a track on a laptop while on holiday in France. That track was the instant classic Mistral; a stunning debut which soon had unsuspecting pundits and clubbers alike eating out of his hands. From here onwards his career ascent was impressively - and deservedly – rapid.