Hi Matt, hi Marcus, thanks for doing an interview with us, Pure Trance. How are you guys doing, and where can we find you today?
Marcus: “I’m in Sweden and Matt is in New Jersey, it’s where we live… we have a distance relationshop sort to say haha!”
Matt: “I am in NJ where I live & work. It is true we do have a long distance relationship, but make it work!”
We don’t often see you guys perform together, so perhaps a little introduction and background story would be nice. Who is gardenstate, and how did you end up working together?
Marcus: “Matt comes from New Jersey, USA and I come from a town called Helsingborg in southern Sweden. Initially, Matt is a promoter and brought me over the Atlantic Ocean to perform for the first time in New York, back in 2008. Already before we met, we had a vibe over the chat so I decided to stay over his house for a week when I came and from there on we’ve been friends for over a decade. The name gardenstate comes from the name of the New Jersey state, the whole vibe has both had massive impacts on our lives. Matt grew up there and me coming there changed my life, so it was a natural choice. But it also has a double meaning, both me and matt are passionate about nature and we hope our music can reflect some of its beauty. Since we live in different continents we only do selected shows together, for us that’s a blessing, it helps with the mental challenges on the tours and we don’t get tired of each other. The balance is the key!”
Marcus, you’re definitely no stranger to the trance or progressive scene. What’s been going on in your career in the past few years and how did you make the decision to go for gardenstate and choose to focus on a collaborative project rather than continue the solo path?
Marcus: “I didn’t enjoy what I did so I basically pressed ctrl+alt+delete on my old life and changed to the way I want it. The decision to team up with Matt for garden state was easy. We have an amazing driving chemistry and we balance out our strengths and weaknesses. I’d say I’m the more introvert silent guy til I get to know you, while Matt is a full on loud American with an amazing soul. I’m so grateful that we do this together, so far its been an amazing journey!”
Matt, you’re one of the minds behind New York’s event organisation Esscala, is that how you ended up in the productive and DJ side of music as well? Or have you always been a producer/DJ?
Matt: “I’ve been doing it on and off at friends houses, whomever had a setup, or messing around at soundcheck before one of our events. I felt that Marcus & I being friends for so long & our musical tastes always being aligned with also given our backgrounds of him coming from a Scandinavian background and I from a middle eastern background could give a little bit of a flare to the type of music we want to create and put out.”
What makes the two of you work together so well? And how does that work out with living on two different continents?
Marcus: “Trust. We have complete trust with each other and we balance out our talents. We don’t think the distance is an obstacle, more like an advantage. gardenstate is running 24/7, we get things done a lot faster and whenever we wake up there is something new in the horizon!”
Matt: “I agree with Marcus in trust but I also do believe it’s whom you surround & associate yourself with in getting the creative juices flowing whether it be from managers, agents, down to your friends & most importantly your family, without it nothing moves forward.”
We’ve had ‘Blur’, ‘Indigo’ and now welcome ‘Bloom’, which was also featured on the Pure Trance Volume 8 compilation and received a Solarstone Retouch. We figure you’re the type of guys that have a story behind each track. What are you trying to tell us with ‘Bloom’?
“Bloom is about those fragile moments in nature where it all peaks and shows its beauty. The song has the same kind of fragile moments where the beauty opens up.”
What more can we expect to hear from gardenstate in the future? What’s the mission for 2020?
“The next single for us will be on release deep in mid-feb, its called ‘Polyform’ and been smashing the floors since we made it, so were really excited about that one! The rest we can’t reveal yet, but there is a lot more coming on some fantastic labels 🙂 But in all honesty, all we want is to spread what we think is great music and good vibes! We let the music speak for itself and we hope whomever likes it takes that with them in their hearts wherever they are.”
Discover gardenstate’s track ‘Bloom’ out on Pure Progressive here.