This past Friday night, Wolfgang Gartner decided to black out his social media profiles with the words “I'm Out.” Many people were quick to speculate that Wolfgang was retiring from the industry, but we had a feeling it was a marketing tactic used to stir up interest for a new release.
Today Wolfgang Gartner removed the dark silhouette profile picture and updated his Facebook status by stating that he is indeed making a new album. “Most of the time you don't know you're writing an album until you're already a few songs into it, at least that's how it seems to work for me,” said Wolfgang. “I started working on this album in July of 2013, unbeknownst to myself.”
Wolfgang then continued on in his update to talk about the current state of EDM:
“There were a number of songs released which defined a new era of “EDM,” dominated by an incredibly formulaic sound: giant kick drums, big snare buildups with a predictable catch-phrase at the end, leading into a “drop” with a percussive, almost metallic rave melody. Suddenly everything being played at festivals and clubs sounded exactly like this; it began to dominate the charts, and a few select songs with the right machine behind them crossed over to commercial pop radio as an almost “novelty” in the 35-song rotation. They became the representatives of dance music, telling the unfamiliar masses; “this is what dance music sounds like now.”
Wolfgang then continued on to talk about the future of EDM by stating “Instead of just paying attention to the sound that was dominating the festivals and airwaves, I saw excitement with an undercurrent of, albeit rare, crossover dance music success that was happening simultaneously. This came during the height of the climate-change in the industry and my personal aversion to the direction in which dance music as a whole was going. I think the feeling of freedom was so overwhelming and the time was just right that I kind of just said, “fuck it, I'm gonna make whatever I feel like making from now on, there's no more walls.”
As Wolfgang continues to make music that will live in the future and not the now, Wolfgang said that he will make music that will be something people can dance to with a “varying degrees of soul and funk, but done in a way it had never been done before.”
“I'm just trying to have a good time making an album of music that will inspire and make a lot of people happy.”
Listen a preview of Wolfgang Gartner's new sound featuring Bobby Saint below called “Unholy.”
