A shared passion for music brought Gabriel & Dresden together after a chance meeting on a Miami rooftop during the Winter Music Conference in 2001. The guys quickly rose to the top of the electronic music genre, as they have garnered a huge success with their music. Even though the guys decided to take quite a long hiatus a few years ago, they reunited in 2011 and ever since have wowed fans with their productions.
Recently, Gabriel & Dresden dropped a brand new album, called “The Only Road”, which was their first in 11 years. Due to this, we’ve had the opportunity to chat with them a bit, so make sure to check out our exclusive interview below!
- Hi, guys! How have you been lately?
This year has been insane. From doing the Kickstarter to writing and producing the songs, to getting signed with Anjunabeats it’s been such a wild ride. When we first came up with the idea to go the crowdfunding route to make a new album, we didn’t really know if we were making the biggest mistake of our careers or if it was going to turn out the way that it did. Thankfully through the process we found out that we still had a base of folks who wanted to hear new music from us and would help us achieve this goal. We feel very grateful for all that has gone on.
2) So, let’s begin. You’ve just released a brand new album „The Only Road”, which is your first in 11 years. What should your fans expect from this new production?
The album is classic G&D. Songs with melody, emotion and story telling. We essentially wanted to make an album that felt like it picked up where we left off with our last album. We somewhat lost our way with the breakup and the re-union and all the touring we did and really wanted to get back to the essence of who we are as producers and songwriters.
3) How did you guys come up with the title for your new album?
There’s a song on the album called Only Road, so that pointed us in the direction of the title but then once we thought about what “The Only Road” meant to us it made even more sense. We only know one road to making music and that is what we’ve always done. We are not the type of artists who can co-opt the current production techniques to make our music. Also The Only Road is what leads you home, which is the running theme of the album — finding your home. We also wanted to celebrate the incredible journey that we’ve taken to get here.
4) Also, in your opinion, what has been the hardest part about putting together your new LP?
The deadline we gave ourselves to making it. With the Kickstarter, we had told our backers that we were going to deliver them the album no later than the end of June 2017. We spent many long days and nights in the studio making sure that we met that deadline and for the most part, we were ready to go with delivering the music on time. But then Anjunabeats came calling and took an interest and that pushed the timing of the album out, but we never knew that was coming. They contacted us just after we were done producing it.
5) Seeing as 2017 is soon going to end, can you guys tell us what has been your most memorable moment of the year?
There have been so many highlights to this year, both personally and professionally. But probably the most fun and rewarding was the “Album Launch Party” we did on May 18th 2017 in San Francisco at The Public Works. The sense of accomplishment we felt to getting the songs to a place where we could play them all in a set was so intense and it was only after that event that Anjunabeats stepped in and took the ball from us.
6) Also, what is an important life lesson you’ve learned over the past 12 months?
That’s a hard one really because there were so many lessons we learned this year. Perhaps the most important one is to trust the journey. So much time is spent worrying about what’s going to happen in the future but really all we have is right now. In the the end, everything worked out like it was supposed to.
7) New Year’s Eve is fast approaching. What do you have planned for the night?
This year we’re performing in St Louis at a club called Ryse with a four hour set.
8) Besides your new album, what else do you have in store for your fans in the upcoming months?
We’re going to do a bit of touring to support the album but then we are going to quickly go back in the studio and finish the songs that didn’t make the cut for The Only Road. The remaining songs we have from The Only Road sessions are enough to fill an EP and we’re really excited to get them done because they’re really good.
9) Thank you for your time and good luck with your future projects!
Thank you! And also thanks for helping us to tell our story.
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