GTA (DJs)
Good Times Ahead are an electronic music duo from Miami consisting of house, electro house, trap and hip hop producers Julio Mejia and Matt Toth. 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. 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. Matt's solo work as Van Toth includes remixes for Gina Turner.
In August 2019, they officially changed their group name from the previous GTA acroymn to its full length, Good Times Ahead.
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. Deciding on their stage name, Julio and Matt considered Grand Theft Audio and decided on its abbreviation, GTA.The duo later gave new meaning to the acronym, defining GTA as Good Times Ahead.
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 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.GTA has played major music festivals such as Lollapalooza, Ultra Music Festival, Coachella, Made In America, Electric Daisy Carnival, and Tomorrowland. In 2013, the duo toured with Rihanna as an opening act of her Diamonds World Tour, 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.
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. GTA's headlining tours have included 2014's Death to Genres Tour, and 2015's Goons Take America Tour.
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.
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, followed by a remix edition known as Vol. 1.5 in August, and the sequel DTG Vol. 2 in November.
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."
In 2016, GTA released a full-length album titled "Good Times Ahead".
Discography
Studio albums
- Good Times Ahead
Extended plays
- DTG, Vol. 1
- DTG, Vol. 1.5
- DTG, Vol. 2
- DTG, Vol. 3
- La Nueva Clásica - EP
Singles
- U & I
- Next To Us
- Move Around
- People Boots
- Devoid
- Shake Dem
- Booty Bounce
- Ai Novinha
- Alerta
- Hit It
- Landline
- Landline 2.0
- Turn It Up
- The Crowd
- Boy Oh Boy
- Bola
- Hard House
- Intoxicated
- Mic Check
- Prison Riot
- The Chase
- Red Lips
- Saria's Turn Up
- Goons
- Hell Of A Night
- LCA
- Help Me!
- Get It All
- Feel It
- Hold On To Me
- Fiya Blaza
- Buyaka
- Talkin Bout
- Something Like
- Buscando
- "Work It Out"
- "Fk It"
- "Bmb"
- "Quando Toca Essa"
- "Let Go"
Remixes
- CZR, Paul Anthony and Zxx - Understand
- Famous Figures vs Suspect - Got To Dance
- Laidback Luke vs Example - Natural Disaster
- Blink, Gianni Marino and Metsi - Bahasa
- Lana Del Rey - Video Games
- Laidback Luke, Arno Cost and Norman Doray - Trilogy
- Breakdown - F_ckin’ Lose It
- Silver Medallion - Stay Young
- Clockwork - BBBS
- Michael Woods - Last Day On Earth
- Congorock and Stereo Massive - Bless Di Nation
- deadmau5 and Wolfgang Gartner - Channel 42
- Bajofondo - Pide Piso
- The Bloody Beetroots - Spank
- Kaskade and Deadmau5 - Move for Me
- JWLS - Bashin’
- Kylie Minogue - Skirt
- Kaskade - Atmosphere
- Calvin Harris - Thinking About You
• Iggy Azalea feat Charli XCX - Fancy
2015
- Diplo and Alvaro - 6th Gear
- Kill the Noise - Saturn
- Rick Ross - Movin’ Bass
- Crookers - I Just Can't
- Galantis - Peanut Butter Jelly
- Rihanna - Bitch Better Have My Money
- Giraffage - Tell Me
- Craze - Bow Down
- Yellow Claw and DJ Mustard - In My Room
- Virtual Self - "Ghost Voices"
- GTA and Valentino Khan - "Break Your Neck"
- Major Lazer, J Balvin and El Alfa - "Que Calor"
JWLS
- Let's Swag
- Bashin’
- Lagrimas
- Simo T & Paris FZ - Dancing Alone
- Tommie Sunshine - Tonight's The Night
- Codes - Ready Aim Fire
- Buraka Som Sistema - Tira o pe
- From the Back
- Lady Chann - Darkness
- 2 Edit - Datsun Tropicalia
- Craze - Selekta
- A-Trak and DJ Zink - Like The Dancefloor
Van Toth
- Don't Stop
- Grimecoat!
- Banana
- Fang Shui
- How You Feelin’
- Influences
- Dub Kay - Let It Go
- DJ DLG - Visions of Love
- Gina Turner - Giovanna