Over the years there has been a rise of artist duos emerging from the woodwork into the dance music scene.Many of these duos have English origin and have risen to fame and ultimate success. This could not be more true for the case of GXD. GXD is a DJ/Producer duo hailing from the UK and consists of Daley Young and Matt Golledge. These two friends and all around music enthusiasts have been working closely together for a fair amount of years, forging incredible and memorable tunes in the studio. It was not long till their passion for quality dance music and its creation caught the attention of the people on AVA Recordings, one of dance music's leading music labels owned and curated by none other than fellow Englishman and artist Andy Moor and Canadian artist Somna. Their single "A Dream" alongside Elle Vee released on aforementioned label was a mere stepping stone for the amount of imminent success that followed for these two.
The duo went on to produce many hit singles such as "Voices" and "Sail" with Elle Vee, "Hell & High Water" with Sarah De Warren, "Echoes", "Evolution" and many more. Receiving a mass amount of support on "A State Of Trance" among other stations, their track "Sail" went on to receive a placement in Armin Van Buuren's very own "A State Of Trance Yearmix 2020" DJ mix compilation. Aside from producing, this uncanny duo have performed at some of the finest clubs, venues and festivals such as the prestigious "Ministry Of Sound" in London, "Legendary Festival" in Zagreb and the "Anomaly Summer Of Love Festival" in the UK among others.
It is with great pleasure that I got to conduct this exclusive interview for "MusicTalk15" with one of GXD's very own, Daley Young! Read on to discover interesting tidbits about their past, present and future plans in the scene that we all love! Many thanks Daley for your time!
Question 1:
How did you guys get
sucked into the wild and wonderful world of dance music?
Well I’ve been involved in the scene since I was 17 back in 1998
going to my first Trance event at "Slinky" in Bournemouth followed by
the first all nightery experience at the "BIC". Such a mental feeling
for the first going in to a venue in the dark and coming out in
daylight!! Tracks of the night back then were Sonique's live PA of "It
Feels So Good" and the awesome "Toca's Miracle" by Fragma. Will never forget it!!
Question 2:
Were you interested in dance music from a tender age?
Yes mate! As above
really with some earlier days being the Happy Hardcore scene walking
around with a Walkman as it was then, collecting 8 packs from Dreamscape and Helter Skelter, thinking I was MC Livelee!! Lol
Question 3:
How did you meet Matt Golledge and how did you decide to join forces in the studio and in
performance duties as well?
We actually met at
Creamfields in an EDM tent and got chatting about music, production
and DJing in clubs and connected at that stage. I helped hook Matt up
with a gig at the Ministry of Sound, we had similar tastes and then
did some B2B shows there together and then decided to start writing a
track together, which ended up being our debut ASOT Future Favorite
winner "A Dream"!! So yes it was a Dream meeting really.
Question 4:
Name some of your
early influences that can be traced back to your current music and
would you have liked to work together with any of them? Potential
collaboration or remix work even?
Early influences
for me were Tiesto, Ferry Corsten, Armin of course, Judge Jules,
Eddie Halliwell and even Dave Pearce’s dance anthems!!! Lol. They
were the soundtrack to every weekend when Trance was the main genre
of music in the UK.
Question 5:
I am sure many would
agree that your big break was when you signed your first tune to “AVA
Recordings”. How did that make you feel? It sure seems you have a
special relationship with the label and its artists. If you launched
your first artist album, would it be on “AVA”?
It was an amazing
feeling signing "A Dream" with AVA. It was such a long process for us
to reach that point so when it arrived we were blown away. We have
had great support from them ever since and became AVA A Star Artists
which was an amazing achievement that we are really proud of.
We can both recall
where we were that night when "A Dream" won the future favorite vote.
For a debut track to win that, it blew us away. Following that up
with "Voices" winning one also and since having "Voices" and "Sail" get
selected for Armin's Year Mix for 2020 are all huge things we are
really proud of.
With regards to
albums. We feel we need to keep on building the profile with regular
strong single releases for a little while longer yet, before we can
afford to hide away for the best part of a year working on an album.
But for sure we would love to do one. Maybe in a couple of years, we
shall see!!
Question 6:
It seems your forte
lies in the emotional tinged vocal trance tunes. Every time you
create one the world suddenly goes wild. Which has been your favorite
to work on and which still resonates deep within your psyche?
Wow thanks for the
kind words dude.
For me I think it
was "Sail". It just flowed so well in the studio, it was probably the
most fun we have had production wise. The melody rolled out and the
power and emotion we created was just perfect for us and our
style….we feel anyway lol. It also has one of my favorite
lines lyric wise with “some books should stay closed believe me!!” Genius. However, there may be one coming soon that betters even
this!!!!
Question 7:
The lockdown was
hard on all of us on a global scale with the dance music scene being
hit harder than most. Your steady DJ performances on Twitch gave hope
and endless smiles to many listeners around the world. Did you enjoy it as much as we all did?
Again mate thank you
so much. We put a lot of time in to those weekly streams. I know they
have dried up in the last 6 months due to home renovations that seem
to be going on forever, but we are nearly there and will be back with
regular shows once again after the summer holidays!!
Question 8:
When in production
mode do you two work together in the studio swapping sounds and ideas
as you go along or do each of you have a particular task to work on?
We tend to get
together in Matt's studio (no kids to interrupt us lol) and maybe kick
it off with having a melody session but this can sometimes then lead
into fully smashing out a full arrangement if it's flowing and we’re
buzzing. Sometimes we will dive in the studios alone and play around
or do video sessions, but we seem to get the best results when we are
together pushing each other. Unfortunately we haven’t been able to
get together as much as we liked this year but are rectifying that as
we speak, so next year's releases will still be bigger and better than
this year's, we hope!!
Question 9:
“Sail” for me
was a definite essential and still remains a favorite to this day. I
most certainly dub it the vocal trance tune of the year! It seems you
two and singer/songwriter “Elle Vee” have total chemistry in the
studio. How did “Sail” come to be and are there any plans for new
collaborations with her in the near future?
Unreal feedback
there mate we once again really appreciate that. It has been huge for
us. Dropping on Nifra's album and having her debut it on ASOT followed
with Armin and Ruben playing it the week after and having it drop on
Armin's Year Mix album. It has also been our fastest streamed track in
our catalogue nearing 700,000 streams as we write this which is still mind
blowing to us.
The extra icing on
the cake was ReOrder remixing it also. To have him do that was a
dream we always set out to wanting to nail when we started and
thankfully it happened and what a remix it was!
We do seemingly work
really well with Elle. Arguably our 3 biggest tracks have all been
with her and yes, don’t worry. There is one more coming this year for us, with some amazing lyrics that for us, reflects the crazy
year that was 2020! So keep your ears peeled lol.
Question 10:
What does 2021 hold
for GXD? Any special surprises that you may wish to share with us
all?
Well one was above
and I hope that you love it all the same when that time comes. We
have had our debut 138 track “Give Me Life” released with
the mighty DRYM and Linney, which was a really
exciting project to be involved with and we’re really happy with
that. Such a catchy vocal and huge power so we think you’ll be
randomly humming that one for a while yet. We have more signings on
ASOT, Coldharbour and AVA and we hope best of all, that the club
scene stays open and we can announce our biggest gig to date soon. We
shall see how that shapes up!
Question 11:
Besides your obvious
love for dance music do you have any other interests or
things you are passionate about?
Well as you know, I
am married with 2 young children so the family life keeps me busy,
alongside running a recruitment business. I am a Scuba Diving
Instructor also and did this as a job in a former life, but not much
of that has been going on lately!! We believe in “To Live is to
Travel” in this house so hopefully the holidays and adventures of
the good old days pre Covid will kick back again now and we can get
back to doing what we love again real soon!
Question 12:
Would you be
open to doing a DJ mix compilation presenting the sound of GXD in a
seamless mix? Yes of course
always! On a similar note, we hope you guys joined in alongside the rest of
the Coldharbour family for Coldharbour Day and enjoyed our exclusive GXD video
stream!!
Question 13:
Name three classics you still love and would die to remix if you were given the
chance.
"System F – Cry"
"Oceanlab –
Satellite"
"Veracocha – Carte
Blanche".
