As a team, Gabriel and Dresden have worked together for seven years producing, remixing, and DJing. Their list of accomplishments is quite impressive - producing the international club smash Motorcycle "As the Rush Comes," remixing the works of Paul Oakenfold, Way Out West, Depeche Mode, Madonna, and Tiesto, achieving #20 on the DJ Magazine list, and winning the International Dance Music Awards for Best DJ two years in a row. After WMC this year, the two have decided to take a break and work on solo projects. I caught up with Josh and Dave during Winter Music Conference to talk about their work together and their future plans apart.
DJ Ron Slomowicz: I've heard through the grapevine that there's going to be
some changes in your professional life; would you care to elaborate?
Josh Gabriel: Yes, I can actually. As of March 30th, Dave and I are
going to be taking a break and we're going to be doing some solo
stuff. I'm going to be working on my artist album from which I've
already released the first single "Summit." The next single will be
"Crosstalk" and I'll just continue releasing music and then DJing to
support the release of the artist album which will be sometime
hopefully in 2008.
RS: What is the impetus for the break?
Josh Gabriel: It's something personal something between Dave and I
and we just felt like right now is the right time to do this.
RS: Do you think you've accomplished everything that you
wanted to do as a duo?
Josh Gabriel: I think we accomplished a lot. I mean you could always
accomplish more, but I think that I feel very positive about what
we've accomplished. I need to be doing some solo stuff and so for me
this is going to come at a good time. Dave is working with other
people and doing some collaborations. You need some spice in life
every once in a while.
RS: When you started working with Dave did you have any idea that
this relationship would last so long and it would be so fruitful?
Josh Gabriel: Absolutely not, no. From the beginning, it was
something we tried and it just worked and we continued.
RS: How did you two meet up?
Josh Gabriel: Winter Music Conference in 2001.
RS: Wasn't there a Pete Tong relationship there?
Josh Gabriel: Dave was getting music for Pete Tong and I was passing
out a white label of mine called Wave 3. Dave saw me hand it to
somebody and he asked for it and I gave him a copy and he said Pete
would like it. A couple of weeks later Pete played it on the radio
and he ended up putting it on his Twisted Beats compilation.
RS: When the two of you collaborate in the studio together, what
role do the two of you play? Or is there a defined role?
Josh Gabriel: Well I'm the one that's on the computer dealing with
the more technical and musical stuff and Dave comes more from the DJ
perspective. In our history, what really is happening is we're talking
about things and technical ideas merge with DJing ideas merge with all
sorts of things. It's the two of us just talking about what we want
to do and the computer's just a way to accomplish that goal.
RS: What are you most proud of during this time period or what
achievement are you most proud of?
Josh Gabriel: Having an artist album, for anyone that's done it knows
how hard it is to not put anything out for a year and to just dedicate
as much time to an album. So I'd say that is probably the biggest
achievement.