Dave Dresden is a dance music junkie. For the last 15 years he has committed himself 100% to music. His career spans every corner of the industry working as a DJ, journalist, A&R, radio music director, and remixer. He was a part of the famous duo Gabriel & Dresden, which brought great tunes to the trance scene. He has recently teamed up with Mikael Johnston, who he formed the Dresden & Johnston with.
Sameer and Jacquelina caught up with Dave to find out more about his career, and to ask him about his current project.
Who opened your ears to the world of electronic dance music?
When I was a teenager in high school, I didn't like to do the same things all the other kids did. I found my home at 2 local clubs in the area where I grew up. One was a club called "The Cafe" - it was a juice bar in a church in greenwich, ct where moby was the resident DJ. This was before he made records. He was an incredible DJ and the variety of music he spun was absolutely unparallelled by any other DJ. Each week he would play post punk and new wave, as well as the latest hip hop and house music. At the time, house was only something that the kids in the city were hip to, and moby not only played it, but he made it work. It was quite an incredible club and I feel very lucky that I got to experience this.
What was the first EDM show you went to?
I went to see the Chemical Brothers and Underworld quite a bit in the 90's - I really loved the albums they made and also the chems were just so incredible to see live. I have seen them on many occasions since and they never disappoint.
How did you meet Armin van Buuren and Markus Schulz?
I've known Markus from around the biz for many years. I knew him when he lived in Arizona and played a club called "The Works" and had a radio show called "The Edge Factor" and made records with a dude named C.L. McSpadden. We re-connected after he played in London for a DJ named Graham Gold who was very in the know about up and coming artists and he had tipped Gabriel & Dresden to Markus. He called me up and we immediately became fast friends. I played him "As The Rush Comes" before anyone else had heard it and that's why he was on the remix package. Armin and I connected not soon after that and I gave him one of the first promo CD's of "As The Rush Comes" and the rest, they say, is history...
Where was your last show?
Last weekend in Santa Monica, CA. It was a fantastic show at a asain fusion restaurant called "Wokcano", where they have been doing Sunday parties for the past few weeks. It was a very informal setting and there were quite a few die hards in the crowd. I ended up playing a 4 hour set. This weekend is Cro-bar in Chicago, where I always have a good time. Something about Chicago and DJ'ing always jives well. Probably something to do with the history of house music and its roots in that city...
If you had to perhaps describe your signature sound in just but one sentence it would be?
Emotional, progressive dance music.
Looking ahead, leaving our little boring default questions aside :p, what could the loyal fans expect from you this year?
This year is going to be very exciting for my fans because I am working on an album project as we speak. I am doing the entire record with Mikael Johnston and David Penner (Andain guitarist) as well as various vocalists. Johnston and I recently formed a partnership because I really enjoyed our intial chemistry in the studio and we have grown to become very good friends as well as having an excellent chemistry in the studio. We have spent the past 6 months doing a load of remixes for Lily Allen, Nadia Ali, Crystal Method and B.T. amongst others but we are about to stop that for the time being while we focus on the album. There will be several singles released before the album drops and we are also going to start a label to release both our own works and those from other artists out there whom we respect. We have not come up with the name for the label yet.
Leading from the above, is there perhaps a vocalist you have real strong inclination to, that perhaps we could see some musical birrliance with in the times ahead?
Yes. Jes brieden. I made my biggest hit with her and I never stopped loving her voice. Things got a little tricky with Motorcycle and the label we were signed to, but I have always had a vision to make much more music with her. I think we are going to in the near furture
A question told to us by a plethora of fans to ask, what would your personal favourite "own production" be?
They are all my children but I think "Dangerous Power", because it's a song about something very personal to me, and that song being out there in the world ended up making a difference for the person it was written about.
Source :
Trance Podium - Dave Dresden interview
