Gareth Emery

Gareth Emery has been one of trance music’s most consistent names for over two decades, and he got there through a genuinely unusual path. Born in Southampton, England, Emery studied Politics at the University of Warwick, trained classically on piano, and played guitar in a punk band as a teenager before electronic music took over. He now lives in Los Angeles with his wife Kat and their two daughters.

His breakthrough came early. In 2002, while on a two-week holiday in Provence, Emery wrote “Mistral” under the alias GTR. Paul van Dyk debuted it live on the radio at the Nature One Festival that same year, and support from titans like Tiësto and Armin van Buuren followed shortly after — a launch most producers only dream of. Emery co-owned the label Five AM from 2003 to 2008 before founding Garuda in 2008, which became his primary home through 2020 and operated under the Armada Music umbrella from 2014 to 2019. He also released the single “Saving Light” through Monstercat in 2017.

Album-wise, Emery has been prolific: Northern Lights in 2010, Drive in 2014, 100 Reasons to Live in 2016, The Lasers in 2020, and Analog in 2022, which he’s described as his final full artist album. Along the way he’s teamed up with Ashley Wallbridge on the Kingdom United album and the satirical CVNT5 project, plus regular collaborators Christina Novelli, Standerwick, Haliene, and Armin van Buuren. He won A State of Trance’s “Tune of the Year” award multiple times, and after landing at #7 on DJ Mag’s Top 100 in 2010, he publicly denounced the poll in 2013 and redirected his marketing budget to charity instead — a move that said a lot about where his priorities sit.

These days, Emery’s energy goes into LSR/CITY, an immersive concert experience blending synchronized lasers, 3D visuals, and live performance that launched in 2021. The show has grown fast: a 13-city V3 tour in 2024 earned raves as his best production yet, and the LSR/CITY: CYBERPUNK tour expanded to 17 North American cities in 2025 with a European debut at London’s O2 Academy Brixton. Two decades in, Gareth Emery is still finding new ways to push trance forward — now with more lasers than ever.