Background and career
Gareth Thomas Rhys Emery (born 18 July 1980) is a British trance music producer and DJ. Best known for his first three studio albums Northern Lights, Drive and 100 Reasons to Live, he is considered as one of the most influential trance artists in the first 20 years of 21st century, and has won A State of Trance Tune of the Year award three times.
Gareth Emery was born in Southampton, England, United Kingdom His sister is the singer-songwriter Roxanne Emery. He lived in Southampton until the age of 26 before relocating to Manchester where he had a studio and ran a night club and record label, both called Garuda. He has a degree in Politics from University of Warwick and is trained in classical piano. Prior to becoming involved in electronic music he played guitar in a punk band in the mid-nineties. He now lives in Los Angeles with his wife Kat and two daughters. Emery's production style is influenced by various genres of electronic dance music.
Emery's debut vinyl release was a white label remix of The Shrink's "Nervous Breakdown" which was released in early 2002. However, the track that launched his career is generally considered to be his third release: GTR – "Mistral". It was created entirely on a computer over the course of a two-week holiday in Provence. Paul van Dyk debuted the track live on the radio during the Nature One Festival in 2002 and it subsequently received support from some of the world's leading DJs, including Tiësto, Armin van Buuren and Ferry Corsten. Emery was ranked at #34 in DJ Mag's Top 100 poll in 2006, #31 in 2007, #23 in 2008, #9 in 2009 and #7 in 2010. In 2011, Emery dropped to #13. He was ranked at #14 in 2012, and dropped further to #51 in 2013. in 2014 he dropped to #74, and in 2015 he is out of the DJ Mag Poll.
His debut artist album Northern Lights was released in 2010, and climbed to no.1 in the US iTunes dance chart. The album also contained one of his most successful tracks and his first ever vocal production "Sanctuary", which was voted the 2nd biggest track of 2010 by listeners of Armin van Buuren's A State Of Trance radio show, and then became the most played record of 2011 on US' Sirius XM Radio dance station, BPM. In 2011, a remixed edition of the album was released entitled Northern Lights Re-Lit with remixes by acts including Hardwell, Arty, Giuseppe Ottaviani, John O’Callaghan, Lange and Ashley Wallbridge. Emery released "Concrete Angel" with Christina Novelli in 2012, and was voted as "Tune of the Year" by listeners of Armin van Buuren's Radioshow A State of Trance. On 1 April 2014, Emery released his second studio album Drive, which was followed by Drive Refueled remix album a year later. The Bryan Kearney remix of the leading single "U" won the "Tune of the Year" of A State of Trance at the end of 2014. On 1 April 2016, Emery released his third studio album 100 Reasons to Live, featuring collaborations with Alex & Sierra, Janet Devlin, Lawson and Christina Novelli, the remixes of the album was titled 1000 Reasons to Live, featuring remixes of artists such as Ferry Corsten, Giuseppe Ottaviani and Ashley Wallbridge. By the end of that year, the Standerwick remix of "Reckless", a single with Wayward Daughter, was voted 2nd for the "Tune of the Year" of A State of Trance, making Emery's 4th time top-2 finish in the chart. In the album, Emery has also released a single "CVNT5" together with Ashley Wallbridge. The "CVNT5" music video is a satirical view on careers of popular electronic dance music acts. On 30 January 2017, Emery released a single titled "Saving Light" with artists Standerwick and Haliene on the Canadian label Monstercat. The song and its music video were a collaboration with the charity Ditch The Label in an effort to prevent bullying among children and young adults. The music video for Saving Light has received over 2 million views on YouTube as of December 2017. On 21 December, Armin van Buuren announced that Saving Light won the A State of Trance "Tune of the Year" for 2017. In 2019, following their various collaborations over the years, Emery released an album alongside Ashley Wallbridge called Kingdom United. On 9 July 2020, Emery released the album, The Lasers, while the first single of the album "You'll Be OK" achieved 2nd place on A State of Trance once again. In June 2022, he confirmed that the upcoming Analog would be his last artist album, which was later released on 9 December 2022. These two last albums of his contained more Synth-pop and even Britpop elements, distinguishing from the previous ones which were mostly trance/progressive house tracks. During his career, Emery has released five compilation mix CDs during his career: The Five AM Sessions (2005), The Podcast Annual (2007), The Sound Of Garuda (2009) and The Sound Of Garuda: Chapter 2 (2011) and Electric For Life in 2015. In 2006, Emery remixed "Flow" by Vinny Troia and Jaidene Veda on Curvve Recordings, which climbed to #24 on Billboard magazine's "Hot Dance Club Play" charts.
Between 2006 and 2013 Emery ranked in DJ Mag's Top 50 DJs in the world, peaking at No. 7 in 2010. However, in 2013, he publicly denounced the poll due to the huge marketing budgets involved, asking fans no longer to vote for him, and donated his marketing budget to charity instead:
So here's an alternative Top 100 message: Don't vote for me. Seriously, when you buy a ticket to see me in a club, I consider that a vote. When you blast my music in your car, or share it on Facebook, or tell your friends about it, that's a vote too. Those votes, and the amazing support you've shown over the last year, is what matters to me. This move was covered by many dance music blogs.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
