The last time we saw Gabriel & Dresden was at Djakarta Warehouse Project 2015, where Josh Gabriel and Dave Dresden dropped a long list of classic tracks and remixes.
The night stayed with us for years.
On February 2, 2018, the duo finally returned to Jakarta for The Only Road Tour at X2 Club.
Before their set, we had a short conversation about the making of their album The Only Road.
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New Album from Gabriel & Dresden In The Making
During Amsterdam Dance Event in 2016, Josh was in Amsterdam while Dave was in Austin, Texas.
Josh recalled, “We knew we need to do something, but we don’t know yet.”
He said he called Dave after visiting someone and listening to a lot of music.
“It reminded me of why people like our music,” Josh explained.
That moment, combined with ADE’s energy, pushed Josh to suggest launching a Kickstarter campaign.
The duo had considered several options, but eventually committed to crowdfunding.
Dave joked, “Well, he (Josh) made the decision that we’re gonna do it.”
Josh said they always saw their studio sessions as experiments.
They realized they had enough material and wanted to shape it into an album.
However, Josh noted a challenge in today’s industry: “The problem is these days record companies don’t give people enough money, so they can take 4 months off and not work.”
Kickstarter solved that problem by giving them dedicated time to create without touring.
They launched the campaign on November 21, 2016 and reached their goal in less than four days.
More than 700 backers supported the project.
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Decision to Release with Anjunabeats
Josh said they had no idea that one of the supporters worked as an A&R staff member at Anjunabeats.
“After we finished the album, they (Anjunabeats) asked the album to be sent,” he said.
Kickstarter offered various reward tiers.
One included access to the Advisory Board, where backers could listen to song previews and leave comments.
Dave explained, “We posted musical samples of the songs and you can comment on that. I think that person chose that.”
They also created a private Instagram account to share daily snippets.
Dave added, “From Instagram and Advisory Board, he already got a good idea on the project.”
At first, they planned to release the album independently and share it with all the Kickstarter backers.
But one factor convinced them to sign with Anjunabeats.
Josh said, “We didn’t have enough time to mix it properly to our liking and one of the thing they said was they will help us find somebody to mix it.”
The duo appreciated the label’s support throughout the process. “It’s a great process!” Josh said.
Among all the tracks on the album, “Waiting For Winter” proved to be the most challenging.
Dave said, “It’s also the most popular song.”
They created 50 versions before landing on the final one.
Dave added, “That was the first song we work on. It’s slowly took shape in course of months.”
Josh explained the difficulty came from balancing two contrasting styles: the lush opening and the techno-inspired ending.
“Getting those two things to feel like they work, that was the hardest part,” he said.
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Memories of Jakarta
The duo has visited Jakarta several times and always feels at home.
Dave shared, “Everybody is nice and the food is amazing.”
For their X2 performance, they planned to read the room.
Dave said, “If the crowd came to see Gabriel & Dresden, we will play more the album tracks. We will also play the classics, new stuffs, and bootlegs.”
He added that they had finished a new bootleg at the hotel and would debut it at X2 that night.
When the show began, Gabriel & Dresden gave everything they had.
They played both new releases and beloved classics.
The crowd cheered, sang along, and lifted the energy higher with every track.
That enthusiasm inspired the duo to extend their set by a full hour.
It was a night worth remembering.
Huge thanks to X2 Club Jakarta for bringing Gabriel & Dresden and to the duo for delivering such an unforgettable experience.
