Eve, Will.I.Am, Omarion Collaborate With DJ/Producer Wolfgang Gartner
Except for David Guetta and LMFAO – whose “Party Rock Anthem” hit Number One on the singles charts – dance music’s increasing live draw hasn’t translated into mainstream radio play. But Wolfgang Gartner, whose debut studio album, Weekend In America, came out this week, might be the next act to break through thanks to tracks he recorded with Omarion, will.i.am and Eve.
“I think the track with Eve, ‘Get Em,’ is a radio single and a club single,” Gartner (real name: Joey Youngman) tells Rolling Stone. He feels the same about the Omarion collaboration, “Still My Baby.”
For Gartner, a big hip-hop fan, the possible breakthrough success is just a by-product of working with people he admires.”I didn’t go after these artists because they were big, I went after them because they were amazing artists,” he says. “When choosing them, the thing that enters into the mind is just the vocal tone and how would it go over this beat. For one of them, Eve was the voice that we heard on it. It was just, ‘This needs to have Eve on it, so let’s find her and make this happen somehow.'”
Getting Eve was especially exciting for Gartner because she is new to the DJ world. “Aside from the music of it, I love the collaboration with her, because she hadn’t worked with any other dance artists,” he says. “She seemed really excited about the track, she likes it, and to me that’s the best one because she’s somebody that nobody else has worked with.”
Gartner is aware that to keep up with not just his growing fan base, but also the spectacles his fellow DJs are putting on for their live shows, he’s going to have to expand his own stage production – though he admits that’s not his favorite part of touring. “It was never really my prerogative to go the visual route. This is not the answer I should give, but all I care about is the music. That’s the only thing I give a shit about,” he says. “But nowadays you have to have the pretty lights to get people’s attention. So yeah, I’ll do it, but that’s the non-P.C. answer. It’s kind of messed up that it’s becoming a top priority for everybody, but that’s the way it is.”
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