Wolfgang Gartner Uses Miami Music Week As His Lab

MIAMI — MTV News was invited by our colleagues at Pacha NY to take in Wolfgang Gartner and some of his most talented artist friends Saturday at the National Hotel for one of the premiere parties on South Beach, where he was determined to give the crowd his full arsenal of new music — and take in their reaction.

An all-star cast of DJs — including Bart B More, Kill the Noise, Felix Cartel, Porter Robinson and Hardwell — worked the crowd for Gartner, who seemed elated the second he hit the stage. His set let everyone know he was fired up.

Gartner was genuinely excited to tell MTV News he has more than a half-dozen songs ready for release, but he's not planning to unveil most of those anytime soon. He said he loves playing his creations while they're still unrecognizable, so he can gauge the crowd's reaction. That invisible interaction with the crowd energizes him, he told us, and Miami Music Week and parties like the one he threw at the National give him the perfect lab to test his creations.

"When people respond to it when they don't know it, that's when you know it's good," Gartner explained. "But if you get that same response when nobody's ever heard it before, that's when you know it's real. You've got something."

During his set at the National, Gartner played one song he won't be able to keep in the bin much longer: "We Own the Night," his collaboration with Tiësto featuring the subtle enchantment of Luciana on the vocal, contradicting the edginess and power of the track. The song's a big one — with no better evidence than the frenzy that ensued around the National pool party once the crowd felt the bass drop and the beat kick in full torque.

"The Tiësto collaboration is definitely the one that I'm most excited about," Gartner said. "We've both been playing it out, and judging by the response, we both — I'm going to try and sound humble — but we both think this going to be one of the biggest tracks of the year."

Tiësto played it to nearly 50,000 on Friday at Ultra Music Festival, where somewhere in the middle of it all, MTV News can testify to the joy of the crowd. Gartner also played it to a huge crowd the night before at Ultra's Korea World Stage, and told us the reaction was undeniable. But, more importantly, playing new music is what drives him to make your next Wolfgang Gartner experience — like the one that erupted at the National pool — that much better.

"That's the main thing that I want to hit on: Expose people to new music, and give people a little taste of what's coming up," he shared. "People all over the world, all over the country, I want people to know that they're getting something that's to come."

Did you attend Miami Music Week 2012? Share your highlights in the comments below!