Renowned Trance Tastemaker Gareth Emery Releases ‘House In The Streetlight Under LSR/CITY, His Techno And Immersive Laser Show Moniker
It is much more than music. It is much more than just a live performance. It's an experience.
This is LSR/VILLE.
The project is the techno moniker of respected trance producer Gareth Emery. LSR/CITY combines melodic and emotional techno sounds to create a musical landscape that is sure to get you on the dance floor. The songs are accompanied by unforgettable, highly emotional and innovative laser images. Indeed, creating a concert hall could make Emery the new king of lasers.
Emery's first album under the name LSR/CITY is "Like A Prayer" with 21-year-old London singer Annabelle. The song became a huge success, with 20 million streams and one million shares on social networks. This experimental project is another impressive achievement in Emery's distinguished career, as it showcases his versatile musical abilities and his experience in creating an unforgettable live show that took a year to plan.
Today, November 17th, the taster shows off his production skills once again with the release of Huis in die Straatlig.
The song takes music lovers on a journey that begins with playful beats and soothing vocals, followed by subtle basslines and angelic landscapes. Then, a fast bass takes center stage, leading to an explosion of hazy synths and powerful bass lines, designed to rock the dance floor. The song returns to its heavenly beginning and heavenly peaks before the return of autumn. Of course, the song has a breathtaking sound and is expertly produced.
According to Emery, he was so focused on creating a multi-sensory laser production for six months that he didn't have much time to write music. Then, he says, one evening while watching television he had the idea of a song that would convey "the vibrations I look for in music": happiness, sadness and a sense of belonging. Then he entered the studio and wrote "House by Lantern Light" in one night. He adds that the singer Annabelle is the main singer of LSR/CITY because they have been creating songs together for four years.
The sound engineer created the track five days before the Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) in Las Vegas, where he performed it on the Kinetic Field main stage during a set by Gareth Emery, his trance music project.
"When I played Street Lamp House, the fans were trying to figure out what it was called," says Emery. "There are already videos on YouTube with hundreds of thousands of views trying to figure out what the song is called. It created an organic response from our audience.
Note that playing at Kinetic Field presents an interesting dichotomy, as there is high pressure musically and low pressure from a production perspective. He explains that it was the first time since 2014 that he had performed on the main stage of the famous festival, which can accommodate 70 thousand people. Attracting large numbers of people creates a "tough atmosphere". In contrast, the visual design is minimal on stage because the setting is so artistic. Insomniac, the company behind EDC Las Vegas, is responsible for producing Kinetic Field, which reduces demand for artists. The lack of visual effects would have hindered the LSR/CITY show.
Emery says he's always loved lasers and big crowds at his melodic techno concerts. "LSR/STAD started by seeing how far we could go," he says. “The lasers are the only thing we're really excited about. »
The track selector says his focus during the jam was to learn the video design software Premier and Final Cut. This allows him to participate in the production of LSR/CITY. He and his team selected the highest profile shows based on their production value and realized they could exceed the visual output of those sets.
"[We] looked at these amazing lasers at the show and said, 'Wow, this is crap. We can do better,'" says Emery. "A lot of the response was, 'Let's make this what this show is about.' saw late last year, people fell in love with the show. Then it's, 'Yeah, lasers are our passion.' "If I had to go there for one reason, it would be the lasers."
"If you can provide that experience, a lot of people will want to go to concerts, but the gap between artists who can provide that experience and those who can't is getting much wider," he adds. .
Emery says he entered the world of melodic techno because "I'm always trying to find something new, something that excites me." Although the producer says he loves trance music and has been involved in the sport for 20 years, he wants to diversify his sound options "to make life more interesting".
"I've never wanted to play the same style of music my whole life," he says. “When you're known for a certain style, a certain way, it's good because people know exactly what to expect. And it's kind of bad, because if you do something that deviates a little bit from that, the audience might think, "Oh, that's not why we're listening to you." We expected you to do what you always [produced]. , an outlet for the crazy experimentation I love so much. I like."
Of course, Emery wants to continue to develop music and reinvent himself as an artist. He says he finds inspiration "in being in tune with younger artists" who make music differently than before.
“I try to watch these shows to see what we can learn from them,” explains the producer. "It's easy to feel threatened when someone comes along and does something completely different. It's usually better to ask, 'Why are they successful?'" What do they do that we miss?
He cites TikTok as an example. He says many artists with big careers like him were reluctant to create video content because they were used to Instagram and its horizontal video format. This desire to not conform also influenced Emery, but he later realized that he needed to learn how to create vertical videos to share his music in order to increase engagement. The genre-defying producer believes the industry discovers something new every three years, pointing to changes in the past such as the shift from vinyl to CD, the shift from MP3 downloads to streaming, the shift from magazines to social media and the evolution of Facebook to Facebook. . Instagram. “You have to be open to this ever-changing landscape,” he says, “and be willing to adapt, because if you don't, you're going to disappear very quickly. »
Emery states that the aforementioned changes in music consumption are the most significant changes he has seen in the industry during his career. He argues that the music scene was the first to be destroyed by the Internet, particularly through programs like Napster and file-sharing services. He says the industry wasn't ready for it and that in the early 2000s most music executives thought the Internet would disappear and be banned.
"I think the fact that music has reached this point and is still recovering from this period is a good warning for other industries," says Emery. "Television was a much better fit for the Internet than music."
He says the changes brought about by the Internet "took two decades to emerge" and points out that while artists used to make money selling their music, very few now make money from streaming music. He adds that the tournament has become more critical, but "I don't think we yet know exactly how it's going to turn out."
As for the club scene, the LSR/CITY creator says it was "an incredible time" when dance music first came to the US and "being there on that wave was just incredible." He says entering the industry during this golden age meant many artists were "in the right place at the right time", as the clubs were full three nights a week. However, the lockdown crippled the sector, but it has since recovered to the point where things are "healthy" again and "the situation in the world is pretty good". Although the industry is getting back to normal, he says public expectations have changed since then, as people now want more than just music.
“I think the biggest change that's happened, and it's definitely inspired by LSR/CITY, is that I don't think people want to go out and hear a DJ like they did 10 years ago when dance music first started in [North America] it didn't show up,” says Emery. “I think if you have experience and that experience can take many forms, people want the experience and not just the music. I think artists will have to adapt and figure out how to put on a visual show as well as a musical show because I think that's where things are going in terms of what the audience wants. »
Discover LSR/CITY and their otherworldly laser production on a 13-city 16-show tour.
02/24/10: Vancouver – PNE Coliseum
02/15/24: San José - Community Center
02/16/24: San José - Community Center
17.02.24: Los Angeles – Palladio
18.02.24: Los Angeles – Palladio
02/22/24: Phoenix – Van Buren
02/24/23: Denver – Ballroom Mission
01/03/24: Minneapolis - Armory
02/03/24: Chicago – Radius
08/03/24: Montreal – New Gaz de Ville
03/09/24: Toronto – Rebel
03/10/24: Toronto – Rebel
15.03.24: New York – Kings Theatre
03/16/24: Washington, DC - Ecostage
03/29/24: Austin – Contest Project
03/30/24: Dallas – South Side Ballroom
