In May, David Guetta dropped “Get Together”, a new single released in partnership with Tuborg Open. The release of the track coincided with the return of live music events around the world, soundtracking a momentous occasion for dance music and dance culture globally.
Since launch, the track has received over 15m streams, eliciting a huge response among fans eager to return to the dancefloor. We recently had the chance to speak with David about his latest release, the inspiration behind it, how he kept himself busy during lockdown and why he wanted to be a part of this year’s Tuborg Open.
You’ll know better than anyone it’s been a tough time for the music industry recently. Do you think music has an important role to play in a time like this?
"Music is a universal language. I don’t think there’s anything else, maybe apart from football, that can bring people together like music does. I think it had an important role during the pandemic which is partly why I wanted to do the United at Home series.
"Even though I couldn’t play in front of people, at least fans could go and see me perform online. People needed to be entertained and some people in the industry forgot about that and thought it wasn’t essential.
"But the reality is when people are alone and at home, they can go crazy if they don’t have entertainment. Music can cheer you up when you’re feeling down and can also bring people together which is what I’m trying to do with Tuborg Open."
Did the all the spare time you have at home impact your music and your creative process?
"Yeah, like a lot of people for a long time I couldn’t do what I love which in my case is touring, being on stage and performing. Although at the same time, I had the opportunity to be at home with my family and also concentrate on making more music.
"As I’m sure you can imagine I spent a lot of time in the studio so now there is like a traffic jam of records that I will be releasing throughout the year."
How do you approach working with different sounds, melodies, and instruments that you may not have worked with before ?
"I specialise in working with electronic sounds. I spend a lot of time with synths which is different to working with acoustic instruments. Although sometimes I do sample sounds from the orchestra if I want to use strings in a track. In the future I want to try and work with more original sounds that we don’t hear so much in dance music. There is a lot to be done in this space!
"I think there are two interesting things that haven’t been done that much in my music. The first is using specific instruments from different cultures and I’m sure the local artists in China or India will use instruments that I haven’t heard before.
I want to try and work with more original sounds that we don’t hear so much in dance music
"And secondly, some regions of the world have different scales. This is a little bit complicated to explain but let’s say that music in Europe and America is based on a certain distance between notes. But some other countries use different distances meaning where we would have 12 notes, they would have maybe 16 for example.
"I find this very interesting and I’m in the middle of studying this area of music. The Arabic, Gypsy, Japanese scales. I’m looking at all of this like "wow, this is so fascinating."
"Our ears have been programmed to certain notes but there’s so much to learn from not only culture, but also what comes from the standard of music which is different in each country."
On the topic of new music, congratulations on the release of ‘Get Together’. It seems to have gone down really well with the fans. What was the inspiration behind it?
"When I was a teenager at the end of the 80s, I was completely obsessed with funk or what they called ‘boogie’ in America. The essence of the genre was always inside me and who I am as a person.
"It’s something that is a big part of my culture but something I haven’t really explored musically. This was the inspiration behind this record. I wanted to try and combine a house music feel with that 80s funk kind of vibe.
I wanted to try and combine house music feel with that 80s funk kind of vibe
"Also, I thought it was cool making a song about getting together after all this time being separated, lonely, having to stay at home and not being able to party together. Tuborg Open is all about bringing people and cultures together which is perfect. The partnership feels very natural."
You created the song as part of the fifth instalment of Tuborg Open. Why did you collaborate with Tuborg on this project?
"My entire life I’ve been trying to bring people together. I have tried to unite people and different cultures. This is exactly what the Tuborg Open project is about. We are using music as a universal language to bring all these different artists from different parts of the world together to remix my music. I think it’s very cool."
Tell us about your upcoming projects. Do you have anything exciting planned?
"I mentioned earlier that I’ve made a lot of new music over the past year. Usually, I never have the luxury of having so much time so there are a lot of records waiting to be released. I want to focus on making more happy, feel-good type of songs."
"So far this year I’ve done a lot of work on the Future Rave project with my friend Morten but now I’m really trying to make records similar to ‘BED’ with RAYE and Joel Corry that are more in a house music lane but still epic and feel-good. People really need that at the moment!"
For more information about Tuborg Open, visit their website.
