If in 2010 you told Miami born Julio Mejia and Matt Toth that in a few short years they would be performing at Ultra Music festival in Miami, it’s doubtful they would have believe you.
But sure enough, the electronic duo that has since worked with industry giants like Calvin Harris, Tiesto, Diplo, and Laidback Luke, shutdown Ultra’s Worldwide stage on the last day of the festival.
Julio Mejia and Matt Toth at Ultra Worldwide.
This is the same duo that was working for Ultra in artist relations before starting a whirlwind rise to prominence in the electronic music scene. Together, the duo know as GTA, has released a number of remixes and bootlegs becoming omnipresent with their constant releases garnering attention throughout the industry. They toured with on Rihanna’s Diamond Tour and with Calvin Harris & Tiesto on their Greater Than World Tour, among others. After more remixes and bootlegs, three EPs dropped in 2015.
This ascension culminated with the release of their debut album Good Times Ahead (the acronym for the group name) which was released Oct. 2016. The album hit #1 on iTunes Best Dance Albums upon release setting the two up for an awesome 2017.
I caught up with Julio and Matt before they closed down Ultra Worldwide (with one of the best sets I’ve heard in a while which I am still listening to). Before our interview, Julio shared that their parents were actually at Ultra with them - and would be seeing them perform at the festival for the very first time.
Julio, Matt, GTA. Thank you guys for sitting down with me. Awesome to get you guys in from Vegas. Glad you guys made it. Julio was telling me that you guys were just with your parents.
Julio: Yeah.
And getting ready to show them around after you finish talking to me. So, what's that like to, as a duo meet in Miami, and them to be working Ultra in Miami to now putting down the Worldwide stage and having your parents here to share that with you.
Matt: I mean, it's pretty unreal. I mean we literally went from being in the crowd to also working it, and then we've played here twice already in the past three years. Now, we're closing out the worldwide stage. It's unreal, and it's kind of cool 'cause our parents haven't been able to come out before to watch us play. Yeah, so like this is pretty big for them and for us as they get to step into our world and see how ridiculous we are.
No pressure! So, obviously you guys just put out your debut album. What's that process been like. I know you guys have been making music for a bunch of years - six, seven years now as a group. What's it like to finally put out your first album? You’ve put out music with everybody - now you finally have your debut album out.
Julio: Yeah, you know. It was a really long process. Especially just for how we work, you know. We are kind of everywhere, musically, so for us to really work on this album we really had to sit down and just focus on one idea. We took our time with it, and it came out really awesome.
Matt: I mean it was definitely a huge learning process for us 'cause we never ... every time we make music, it would just be like just make it, okay cool this sounds great, and then let's play it or whatever. It's not like let's make an entire piece that you can sit through and listen. It's a whole different direction from what we were used to. So, it's a big learning process for us.
So, 2016 had your debut album Good Times Ahead. What will the rest of 2017 have, besides of course playing the Worldwide stage and having your parents see your set?
Matt: Yeah, so we've got a bunch of new music that we're working on. A lot of club stuff and festival kind of stuff. We have just so much music. There’s so much old music, new music, different bootlegs, we have collaborations with pretty much every person you could think of. And, we are working to get all of that stuff out like very soon. So, I'm super stoked for that.
Very cool. And you guys have toured with people like Tiesto, people like Rihanna, played on the A-Traks label, played on MixMash. Your music's been everywhere. So, with the debut album and moving forward - is there a direction or feeling you see being at the core of this year, or is it just you're still doing what GTA does, putting music together and seeing where it takes you?
Julio: I mean, yeah. We basically do what GTA does, and that's just-
Matt: Everything, yeah.
Julio: Basically we just don't think about specifically what sound we want to make, it's just whatever is appealing to us at that time.
Matt: Yeah. So, a lot of what happens is we always make all different kinds of music. We even work with some punk rock people and stuff like that, making rock music, just everything. And so we'll be up at the library and then kind of deciding what we want to do next. 'Cause it's really hard for us to try to concentrate on like one full thing, which is why the album was such a good experience, you know. So, it's like getting all this stuff together, and like this is a cohesive piece of work. 'Cause we're always just all over the place. In between making that whole album, we made so much club and festival music in addition. So, I mean we were just constantly working on some many different ideas that we just kind of build up a little library and see what we have. Take a step back, see what we have, and then: okay let's try to plan this out.
Is there anybody that you haven't worked with yet, but your dream collaboration you haven't been able to accomplish yet, or a DJ that you haven't been able to work on their label yet? What hasn't been attainable yet?
Matt: I think we always say Pharrell.
Julio: Pharrell, definitely yeah.
Matt: That would be just a dream.
Julio: Yeah, you know. Anybody who's just open minded about music like we are. Any genre, we're just into cool music.
Matt: Yeah. That's why it's so cool working with people like Vince Staples, who are just so open minded and trying to do different stuff. Hopefully, we’ll be working with him more. And, then just more people who want to work and make cool stuff, awesome music.
What about on the tour and festival side? Is there a festival that you want to play that you're looking forward to playing, besides Ultra? You Miami boys, Ultra's like king for your. Besides that. Are there festivals out there that you think of doing maybe things that fit what you guys do? Are there tours you want to do, are there stages, or venues that you heard of? Are there sort of like mythical beasts for you?
Matt: Yeah, I mean we're playing Paradiso this year, which is at The Gorge out in Washington. And, that's just gorgeous. And, that crowd's always fun to play. We haven't played Red Rock yet. I heard the acoustics in there are amazing, too. An old friend of mine grew up in Colorado. I mean we just got back in like December, we did like a Asia run and they're crazy over there in the Philippines and around.
What has that reception been like? Do you notice any difference between reception in Miami over other towns, cities, countries?
Matt: Yeah, well. In Asia, specifically now I feel like they're just kinda opening up to the music a lot. You know, like especially our kind of music more like ghetto and different trap and other kinds of sounds. And people are going nuts. I mean we played at Jakarta Warehouse Project and it was nuts. And people keep coming up saying, "Man, we never heard stuff like this out here." So, they were just so excited for all this different music. The energy is like, that feeling you had the first couple years that you heard dance music.
It's fresh and new now for them - just starting to come out. Gotcha. What else should fans that like your music but don't know much about you know?
Matt: Well, we're two cool guys. We're friends.
How did you guys meet?
Julio: We met through Facebook.
Matt: Yeah and Jdate.com. No, we're we Facebook. We just had a mutual friend, you know out here in Miami. We had a local DJ who was like, "Oh, hey. This guy's making music." And kinda vice versa. We just hit each other up and started hanging out. And, it's kinda been like that ever since.
Julio Mejia and Matt Toth.
How has this sort of ... I know you guys both make music, and produce individually as well. How has that sort of dynamic either helped or challenged for GTA?
Julio: I mean it helps 'cause we both think very differently when it comes to music, so it's always good to get somebody's fresh perspective on the ideas. So, creatively it's really awesome just 'cause we always give each other positive constructive feedback.
Matt: Yeah. And that's also how a lot of our music comes together. One of us will maybe on an airplane start an idea, and then show it to the other guy. And, we just kind of take it in another direction. And like kinda change the whole sound or the tempo. And that's kinda how GTA music gets made for the most part.
You get something, and it gets worked, worked, worked until it's both yours.
Matt: Yeah, other than that, I mean we're playing Electric Forest, super stoked for that. We actually might be camping out for the whole weekend and hanging out in the crowd and stuff, so maybe we'll see some people out there. EDC Vegas is always fun. And, we have started playing a bunch of our own shows, so it's a good time to catch us around a lot of cities.
When's that starting?
Matt: It's not 100% anything yet, so I don't want to like say anything. But, yeah it's definitely coming up, you know, for the rest of the year. Other than that music's definitely coming soon. A lot of different shit and a lot of different awesome everything.
Thanks guys, have an incredible time, best of luck!