Gareth Emery Posts on His “Obsession” and How ‘Concrete Angel’ Almost Didn’t Happen

Gareth Emery has always been a man of the people. His openness to share and brutal honesty are not only why people love his music, but respect him as a person. He has openly spoken out on his mental health, his family, and the music industry. All are somewhat taboo topics.

Today, he reached out to those needing some guidance. His first message came through Facebook. Here, Gareth speaks on being “obsessed” as the key ingredient to a perfect vocal trance track. He notes how people seem to want something to sound good right away, but aren’t willing to sacrifice what it takes to make a track “special” or “perfect.”

He apparently has a mind-blowing track in the works, which should excite any Gareth Emery fan. However the bigger message is to not settle for “good” if you want to change the game.

His second post came through on Instagram. Here, he spoke on arguably his most iconic track, ‘Concrete Angel,’ with the incomparable Christina Novelli. The post details how he tried and tried to put the music to the vocals, but couldn’t find the right fit. He labored and killed himself, only to find a dead end. As he was about to give up, he gave one more try and finally nailed it.

Concrete Angel nearly never happened and this is that story. . I heard Christina’s original vocal demo at an afterparty following Creamfields UK in 2011 and despite the fact I was proper fucked, I could tell it could be a massive vocal track. . Christina was a rock / acoustic artist at that point and knew little about dance music at that stage (hope she doesn’t mind me saying that) but her and her manager knew I was some sort of established DJ and agreed to give me a shot. . We agreed how a deal would look and I was sent the parts. Time to get to work. . Months went by. . Again and again I tried to write the music to it and just kept choking. I COULDN’T GET IT RIGHT. No matter what I did, nothing was working. . Every week, Christina’s manager would bug me for a demo, and every week I’d swerve him, and they were getting seriously pissed off at my lack of progress. . Eventually, he told me they’d had enough of waiting. They’d written this killer track, and they wanted it out there. . He told me if I couldn’t get my shit together, they were cancelling the collab, and releasing Concrete Angel as a solo acoustic song. . Sat about to board a flight, I wrote an email to him: “Sorry mate, tried everything on this and it just isn’t working. I know you’re in a rush, so reluctantly, I’m going to have to hand it back”. . My hovered over the ‘send’ button. . Then I stopped. . Something told me to have one last go. . I decided to try once more on the 2 hour flight. If I couldn’t come up with something, I’d just send the email walking away when I landed. . Somehow, on that flight it all clicked. . I suddenly had the main melody. The breakdown chords. I was literally bouncing out of my seat. All of a sudden I could see how the finished thing might look and the rest, as they say, is history. . The point is this . The biggest record of my life was within one finger-click of not happening. . Often, your biggest accomplishments will be proceeded by the biggest hurdles. . PUSH THE FUCK THROUGH THEM. . Gaz x . #garethemery #trancefamily #concreteangel #motivation

A post shared by Gareth Emery (@garethemery) on Aug 28, 2018 at 10:48am PDT

Long story short – don’t give up. Push through the crap if you want to see the fruits of you labor. Give a listen to ‘Concrete Angel’ below, and just know that it didn’t come easy or on the first try.