Joey Youngman, a.k.a. Wolfgang Gartner, is hardly a newcomer to the EDM scene which has rained it's praise on him for several years with eight #1 positions on Beatport's Top 10 Chart, several nominations and countless tours. Responsible for hits like "Wolfgang's 5th Symphony," "Illmerica," "Devil's Den," and "Animal Rights," his name is inarguably ubiquitous, but now he's taking a step back from the noise to reposition, reinvent and reemerge. Headlining a 10/5 show at Brooklyn venue Output, Wolfgang Gartner answered some questions, dropping the bomb on his plans for dramatic musical departures, reviving 90s UK garage with his new single "Dubplate 99" and unfiltered thoughts on social media. Check out the new single and interview below:

Good to have you back in New York!!!

It’s always good to be back. It’s my second time this year — I was just here for Marquee.

How do you feel about playing Output?

I’ve never played it before and I’m stoked to be in Brooklyn because I’m always in Manhattan whenever I play. It sounds like more of the type of club I used to play back then that I’m craving to play again so hopefully it ends up being like that.

Any thoughts you’d like to say about the beloved Webster Hall closing?

Yeah….I don’t know why it’s closing, but it’s the end of an era for me especially because that was my first big New York show. Even when I opened for somebody else, it was still a massive show and they still had me back at least once a year for 7 years so that was a whole era of my career.

You have 2 more shows immediately after this one in Chicago and LA. You’ve really cut down on the number of shows that you’re planning on doing. Now that you can pick and choose where you play, what kind of venues have you been leaning towards? Do you want to play big festivals still?

Honestly I am really enjoying playing strictly club shows. I played a festival a couple months ago, but I’m enjoying the club shows better. It’s a different vibe. It’s your set and you don’t have to worry about what other people are playing, about playing the same song as other people or about the crowd going to another stage during your set. People are coming to see you and you know that.

So..."Dubplate 99". You called it your favorite song that you produced this year. When and how did you draw the inspiration for the production and idea for this track?

I made it right before it came out — 6 weeks before it released. The inspiration came all from the late 90s speed garage and UK garage, straight down to the reggae breakdown. That was something people did in the 90s and double timed back into the whole baseline thing. I was literally just copying verbatim from records that I had in the 1998, but changing all the bass stuff. Nobody has ever heard it before. I was 16 and a DJ and was playing all these records, but none of these people know it. I’m reviving something I grew up on and it’s so easy to do by taking this element, this one and making it my own.

The amount of diversity that came out of “10 Ways to Steal Home Plate” was on another level and even between the 4 singles you put out this year, all such different sounds. In music and EDM especially, artists get criticized if people feel like their new music is too big of a departure from “themselves”. Have you seen any backlash from you exploring other styles of music?

Very minimal and that’s honestly because I’m still doing 128 bpm sub-genres of house music, so it’s not really that big of a departure. You get a few haters on twitter, but not really. Some of the stuff that I’m gonna come out with in the near future is gonna be a way bigger departure from some of this stuff and then I’m going to get a lot of hate for it.

A lot of hate?

Oh, I’m positive. But that’s my sign that I’m doing it right. I hope that I get mad hate for it because that means people are paying attention. The stuff I’m been doing this year has been well received, but it’s about to get really different.

So you’ve been pretty vocal about your feelings for social media and its affect on people. You’re not that active on social media as well and I respect that you stick to your word. How do you decide when you want to use social media?

I shouldn’t say this, but tonight I have no filter. There is never a time where I want to hop back on social media. The only time I do is when I force myself because management is in my ear like, “dude you’re invisible and you’re falling off the map, social media is the main thing that matters these days…” I’m not willing to play that game; I don’t care and that’s not who I am. I’m a musician, a composer and a DJ. It’s just fucking ridiculous.

Which 3 artists should we keep our eye out for in the coming months?

I really like Tchami and Mercer when they mix stuff as well as when Tchami and Malaa do. 4B, Gregor Sulto, Jimmy Edgar.