The pair spent a month getting ready for the "Classics Only" tour, which involved digging deep into its musical catalog and storage, and converting old CDs and records into newer technology-friendly formats. Each night G&D will be playing 6-7 hour sets, switching off between nostalgic classics, rare bootlegs, and newer hits. We got a chance to speak to Dave Dresden about the Bay Area music scene, finding old tracks, and his favorite comedy routine bits. Gabriel & Dresden play a 7+ hour open-to-close "Classics Only" set this Friday, July 10, at Ruby Skye.
What have you guys been up to since the last time we spoke in 2012?
When we reunited in 2011, it was at a time of great change in electronic music. At first we attempted to combine the sound of G&D with a little influence from electro house or what eventually turned into "EDM" and at first it worked because there was a lot of quality electro house releases in 2011 and a lot to play and be inspired by. But by early 2013, we weren't really liking the direction that the music was taking, so we decided to slowly take our sound underground. We made a couple of instrumental tracks like "Rise Up" and "New Ground" and we re-started our Organized Nature radio show, which aired monthly on Digitally Imported.
What inspired you to go on a "Classics Only" tour this year?
In late 2014, we started to get nostalgic for some of the older sounds we used to play, so we pulled out those tracks and recorded DJ sets and began listening to them. Going back and hearing all of this older music reminded us of the power that these records still have. Coincidentally, we had a few gigs in Colombia in December 2014 where it seemed appropriate to play more classics than usual and we had a lot of fun playing them. A few weeks later we had a show at The Guvernment (in Toronto), which would be our last appearance at the club. We decided to play a very classics-intensive set because we had so much history at the venue.
At that show we joked to each other about how we should just go out and play all the old music again as a tour. Then we laughed and said "it should be only us, all night long" — it seemed pretty funny at first, but a few days later we talked about it and thought maybe the timing was right. To test if for sure, we did our first "Classics Only" set at the Anjunabeats pool party in Miami this past March and the response was amazing.
You guys have been together since 2001. How has pulling old music for the tour been?
Frankly, it was a total blast locating all the music. To properly prepare for this tour we had to become Gabriel & Dresden historians. This involved listening to old sets, digging through old hard drives, CDs, and records in the basement, raiding storage facilities, you name it. It was a month-long process to get all the music ready to import into Ableton. We're still finding new tracks to add each weekend. There's just so much music.
Since you've been playing 6-7 hour sets on the tour, what's essential in keeping the vibe up for so many hours, besides stamina?
The whole thing about doing open-to-close sets for us is about pacing yourself. You have to know where you are in the night to determine what kind of record you're going to play.
You guys have been doing meet and greets as well. Do you find yourself meeting mostly old fans, new fans, or a healthy mix of both?
It's a whole cross section of people at the meet and greets. The most common are fans that were not old enough to go to our shows before we took a break in 2008. Now that we're back and playing all the old tracks, they want to come out and get to experience them live.
Being from the Bay Area, how have you seen the music scene change locally in the past couple of years?
The one thing we've noticed a lot in the Bay Area dance scene over the past few years is the power Burning Man has. DJs who are not that prolific production-wise are getting sizable fan bases because they rocked a great set at Burning Man or Lightning in a Bottle a few times. It's a world where you don't necessarily have to be known as a prolific producer in order to be heard. We think this is great, not every DJ is a great record producer and vice versa. It shows that the art of a DJ is not totally lost on today's clubbers.
If you could bring back one element or concept of electronic music from when you two first started making music, what would that be?
We would like to hear more diverse sounds across all electronic dance music. It feels like a lot of the music that's coming out today has to tightly stick to a genre or style in order to be recognized. It's sad because electronic music is the only music that you can literally do anything within it. You can even sample a country song and it could work.
Name a rare track or remix your fans can catch live this coming Friday at Ruby Skye.
Hmmm ... well, it's 7+ hours, they're probably going to hear pretty much everything we ever made.
Lastly, we heard you like comedy albums. What has been your favorite comedic sketch or bit this year thus far?
It's about a year old now, but Tom Segura's Completely Normal special is my favorite. You can find it on Netflix or you can buy the album on iTunes. His timing is his hook and couple that with strong material and you have yourself a winning hour of comedy.
Also, Marc Maron's Thinky Pain is worthy of note. I think his brand of self-deprecating comedy is insanely funny and I don't think he gets enough credit as a standup as he does for his WTF podcast.
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