Thomas Gold has been plying his progressive, tech and melodic, beat driven 4-4 house at parties across the world and releasing monster tracks on the likes of Size, Phazing and Toolroom for a few years now. With recent collaborations with the likes of Dirty South and remixes for the likes of Lady Gaga and Adele, 2011 has been his biggest year yet. Dont Stay In caught up with the Munich born producer ahead of his upcoming show for Nightowl at London super club, Ministry of Sound, alongside Hardwell, Tim Mason & Jesse Voorn on the 23rd December...
It's been a busy year for you. A jam packed diary with gigs across the globe, big productions and some massive remixes. Would you say it's been your biggest yet?
Yes, definitely! This year has been the biggest and also the most exciting for me! So many great things have happened, I had the chance to play some of the biggest events like Masquerade Motel in Miami alongside SHM, Electric Daisy Carnival, Creamfields, I played with Axwell and a couple of Size Matters parties with Steve. I've also been touring the USA a lot which has been fantastic! Apart from that, I’ve done the remixes for Lady Gaga and Adele and of course the track I did together with Dirty South "Alive" which I'm really proud of. But for me one of the biggest things was to realise how many fans there are and how excited people get about my music! Can't really describe it but this is something very special and I think that was the biggest thing for me this year.
Your recent remix of Adele's 'Set fire to the rain' has had over 10 million hits on YouTube, an amazing achievement. How did that come about?
To be honest... I don't know! I guess one of the reasons is because it's Adele. Her voice is incredible, the song is incredible. Maybe because the EDM scene is so huge now worldwide. My remix is kind of a crossover between the original slow pop song and my clubby, progressive house approach when I did the remix. It seems this combination works well and people seem to love it. I can see that every time I play the track. But it's overwhelming to see how many views it gets on youtube!
It seems that a lot more house / dance producers are now working with main stream pop acts and blurring the boundaries between club and pop music. Did you see this coming?
I think it was only a question of time after some of the big DJs and producers like David Guetta "opened the doors, that when they started doing collaborations with pop/RnB artists this would become a bigger trend. Now it looks like the boundaries are actually gone and any combination of singers/DJs/producers is possible. I think it's good because now people are much more open to those kind of things instead of thinking in musical "genres". So it's more about the music itself and there are so many possibilities to do crossover tracks.
Where do you get the inspiration for your tracks from?
Literally from everywhere. It can be a vibe or mood i'm in. Can be when I am in the studio listening to some music, there are always ideas coming up. I often just play around a bit on my keyboard & Inspiration can come from a single sound I find when searchiing through my synths or it can be a riff I hear somewhere in a club. I just try to collect those ideas so I have them at hand when I need them ?
Which do you prefer, DJ'ing in a club or producing in the studio?
For me it's both! Being in the studio, making music is something I really love. I can be creative, dig into sounds and create new tracks. But I also enjoy DJing a lot - actually there is nothing better than playing to a crowd and to see how they enjoy the music. Also it's the best opportunity to see how a track I've just done in the studio works in a club. When I DJ, I'm always in touch with the people, I love to have some kind of interaction with them, I want to feel the vibe and of course I want to give them the best time they could possibly have! And during my sets I often get some nice ideas which I can work on back in the studio. So it just goes together!