GTA (DJs)

GTA (acronym of Good Times Ahead) are an electronic music duo from Miami consisting of house, electro house, trap and hip hop producers Julio Mejia (born December 8, 1990) and Matt Toth (born August 22, 1990).^[1] After releasing music with the support of Laidback Luke in 2011, the duo caught the attention of Diplo, who featured them on his 2012 "Express Yourself" which was written by their cousin Joel Santillan. GTA has released music on labels such as Warner Bros., A-Trak's Fool's Gold, Laidback Luke's MixMash, Steve Angello's SIZE, Diplo's Mad Decent and more.^[2] They've toured the globe with Rihanna on her 2013 Diamonds World Tour, with Calvin Harris and Tiësto on their Greater Than World Tour, and have headlined their own Death To Genres Tour and Goons Take America Tours.

Beyond their partnership as GTA, Julio and Matt have each produced music individually. Under solo aliases known as JWLS and Van Toth, respectively, both have released original productions and remixes. Julio's individual work as JWLS, includes remixes for A-Trak, Danny Brown and others.^[3] Matt's solo work as Van Toth includes remixes for Gina Turner.^[4]

Early life

Julio Mejia and Matt Toth were born and raised in Miami, Florida They met through social networking in 2010, when a mutual friend introduced them on Facebook. Together the duo began their careers DJing in local bars, college parties and hookah lounges in Scranton. They began producing electronic music from a converted dorm room in an office in Scranton.^[5] Deciding on their stage name, Julio and Matt considered Grand Theft Audio and decided on its abbreviation, GTA.^[6]

The duo later gave new meaning to the acronym, defining GTA as Good Times Ahead.^[7]

Career

Between late 2011 and early 2012, GTA released numerous remixes and productions on Laidback Luke's MixMash Records. They were featured on Diplo's "Express Yourself" EP^[8] and released their own debut EP, People Boots, on Chris Lake's Rising Music. In 2013, GTA provided remixes for deadmau5, Kaskade and others, while featuring collaborations such as "Boy Oh Boy" with Diplo and "Hit It" with Henrix and Digital Lab.^[2]

GTA has played major music festivals such as Lollapalooza,^[9] Ultra Music Festival,^[10] Coachella,^[11] Made In America,^[12] Electric Daisy Carnival,^[13] and Tomorrowland.^[14] In 2013, the duo toured with Rihanna as an opening act of her Diamonds World Tour,^[15] which became the sixth highest grossing worldwide tour of 2013 with a gross of $141.9 million from the shows played from January 1 to December 31, 2013.^[16]

The duo toured the globe with Tiesto and Calvin Harris on their Greater Than World Tour, which sold out Glasgow's The SSE Hydro arena three minutes after going on sale.^[17] GTA's headlining tours have included 2014's Death to Genres Tour,^[18] and 2015's Goons Take America Tour.^[19]

In 2015, GTA released "Intoxicated" with Martin Solveig, a remix for Rick Ross and Jay Z's "Movin Bass," and more. "Intoxicated" with Martin Solveig peaked at number 5 on the UK Singles Chart, and also charted in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland and Switzerland. It became Beatport’s top selling house track of the year.^[20]

GTA released three EPs by the name of Death to Genres in 2015. Volume 1 was released in March with featured artists Paul Wall, TJR and more,^[21] followed by a remix edition known as Vol. 1.5 in August, and the sequel DTG Vol. 2 in November.^[22]

On November 27, 2015, GTA released Skrillex's remix of their original record "Red Lips." The music video was made in collaboration with Apple Music and was directed by Grant Singer. It took six months to make, according to Skrillex, who told Pitchfork "We treated it like it was just an art piece that we took our time doing, and it really felt right on the treatment."^[23]

In 2016, GTA released a full-length album titled "Good Times Ahead".^[24]

Discography

References

External links

• Official website