Just a few months ago,  Chris Schambacher was obliterating the Beatport Charts, with 5 separate EP’s from Chris clocking in on the Top 10. All of his instrumental club records have hit the Beatport Top 100 and Top Release Charts, and he currently has the Number 1 Most Downloaded Record on Traxsource Electro House Charts.

Besides his record accolades, he is an active internationally touring DJ who packs emotional dynamite when performing live. Chris Schambacher has held residencies at 2 of the Top USA ranked nightclubs, and shared the stage with the world’s leading electronic artists and acts, such as Dada Life, Ansel Elgort, Boombox Cartel, Will Sparks, Dyro, The AnjunaBeats Tour, BT, Don Diablo, and Benny Benassi.

His latest single For Your Love landed on Anjunabeats, a label Chris has long admired. We caught up with Chris for a chat about the past, present and furture of his career.

Welcome to MI4L Chris… how has the year been for you? Getting back into the swing of things?

Hi Guys, thanks for having me! It’s been an incredible year so far as things are getting back to normal following the pandemic. I was fortunate to be a part of the First Festival back this year for Disco Donnie Presents Ubbi Dubbi Festival in my hometown of Dallas, TX. I was honored to be a mainstage artist this year and to be apart of the first major push for Festivals to resume in the US. I love Touring and being able to share my music with people all over the world. From playing at the First Festival back to supporting Tiesto on his Back to Business Tour in Fort Worth, to joining Diplo for a show and playing at the legendary It’ll Do Club, it’s been an incredible year so far getting back into the swing of things.

You’ve shared the stage and studio with a ton of amazing artists in your career… is there anyone that’s particularly stood out in terms of the way they approach their craft?

In the Studio it’s hands down my manager Glenn Morrison. I first met Glenn over email as a fan of his record “Contact” and his signature progressive house sound. We exchanged emails around 2014 and I told him I was playing my first show in Toronto, and he invited to meet at his studio. Shortly after we started working together with him as my manager in 2015. Being in the Studio with Glenn has taught me so much from production tips, learning about modular synths and most of all with him being a Wizard with Mix & Mastering. Being from Dallas and a Cowboys Fan, I commonly refer to Glenn as the “Troy Aikman” of Dance Music Production haha.

As for sharing the Stage without a doubt it would be Tiesto. I had the pleasure of supporting him this Summer at his Fort Worth, TX stop of his “Back to Business” Tour. You can see the passion he has for not only the music in his sets but the show he gives his Fans while he’s playing. He’s a legend for sure and an artist I look up to career wise.

Music is an incredible way of conveying emotion – does a lot of emotion go into the record making process for you? Or are you quite clinical in the studio? 

Emotion is a huge piece of each of my records. I’ve never believed in putting out a soulless record for just the sake of a release. Whether it’s a dark progressive vibe, high energy festival style record or even one of my more commercial vocal records, it’s important to me that the listeners or the crowd has a sense of feeling and emotion when they hear one of my records. Those memories and feelings people experience when they listen to their favorite artist that they connect with, I think is truly special. I’ve been lucky enough to meet some incredible fans while touring that have told me how one of my records touched them, from battling a serious illness, to finding out they are having a child, to falling in love. Hearing those stories as an artist from the emotion people experienced listening to something you created is truly special.

Tell us about your latest single For Your Love… how did you hook up with Anjunbeats for the release?

Before I began a career in music I always looked up to Above & Beyond even back in High School, so the sounds of Anjunabeats was always something I really connected with. From my early productions I knew that Anjunabeats was a long term goal of where I wanted to be as an Artist, Label wise. I started sending them music early on in 2014 and 2015 they supported one of my first big records “Endeavor” on their ABGT Radio Show “Group Therapy Episode 160” which was one of the major milestones early on in my career. Being on ABGT helped me gain support from other major artists, chart successes and my first real major push for bigger streaming numbers. Over the next few years, I had the pleasure of sharing the stage with some of their artists, getting to know more of the Anjuna Staff and continued sending them music over the next few years. The A&R staff at Anjunabeats has always been incredible checking out my new music, and often adding critiques and insight for what didn’t fit label, which as an artist is so important to continuing to develop your sound and catalog of records.

I finished up “For Your Love” just a few days before my show this past June with Tiesto and knew that would be the perfect testing ground to play it live for the first time. That night just a few songs from the end of my set, I played it and the crowd reaction from the more than 15K people there that night was truly incredible. That next morning, I sent it off to Gareth and Adrian at Anjunabeats and was told they liked it and would be added to their A&R meeting with Above & Beyond. A week later I got the email that they wanted to sign it as part of their “Anjunabeats Rising” series showcasing new Artists joining the Anjuna Family. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the incredible feeling on release day when I saw “For Your Love” officially out on the Anjunabeats Label and reaching a goal I had as an artist for many years. Working with the Anjuna team on the release of “For Your Love” has been amazing, from the support of the A&R staff of Gareth & Adrian to Marketing with Nick to the Involved Publishing Team the whole staff really stands behind and supports their Artists.

For us it sits somewhere between progressive house and melodic techno – does that sound about right? And is that the kind of sound we can expect from you in the future? 

I think that’s pretty accurate for the sound of “For Your Love”. Ultimately, I feel the sounds of progressive house, tech and melodic techno have always been where my sound is and what I really love creating and playing live in my sets. You never know what the future holds, but it’s safe to say that I think that sound will always have a heavy influence in my records. For me I just want to continue to create records that share different pieces of who I am and what I feel with listeners all over the world.

It looks like it’s already your biggest selling track on Beatport – that must feel pretty good?

It feels amazing to have my record “For Your Love” as my biggest selling record on Beatport. I can’t thank everyone enough for all the support I received on this record, it really means a lot.

Is chart success something you value? 

Chart success really helps on a broader scale of getting your records heard live from other artists and of course it’s a wonderful feeling to see your records hitting chart successes. I think as an Artist Today it really takes a combination of success in the charts, streaming numbers, playlist support and support from other artists to really see a huge level of achievement for a record across a broader scale. Ultimately, I just want to create records I love, that people love and when I see some successes on the way whether it’s in Charts, Streaming or support I will always celebrate those Win’s as well. The shelf live of records these days come and go so quick, so I think as an artist you have to celebrate those successes

People can be fairly skeptical about labels, especially as the barriers to self-releasing are so low. For you, what difference can a really good label make to a release? And how can you tell if your record is going to be given the attention it deserves?  

As a label owner myself of Last Arrival Records and having released on incredible labels such as Anjunabeats, Big Beat, Virgin Records, WyldCard, Juicy Records to name a few I think there are a variety of factors that go into having a successful release. For me one of the most important foundations as an artist I’ve set is to align myself with people and labels that are as driven for success as I am. I think for any release to be given the attention it deserves you must have the right efforts for what it takes getting it out and heard, streaming support, social media attention, support from press, support from other DJ’s and sometimes just some general luck. My own label Last Arrival Records which I initially created as a means to self-release has had some incredible attention on releases such as numerous number 1 Beatport Releases, Radio Support, and millions of streams and major playlisting such as having my latest Pop Record “Gravity” with Karl Wolf & Glenn Morrison being featured on Spotify’s Top Pop Songs of 2020 Canada and being featured on Spotify’s “Pop Favorites” playlist. As I mentioned before it takes aligning yourself with like minded people who share that same passion and drive for success. My Label Last Arrival Records is lucky to have a great team behind it with Glenn Morrison helping with Label Management, Label-Worx as our Distributor and having the PR Support from Greg at Additive PR.

Releasing on a good label can make all the difference for the success of a record. I’ve been lucky to work with some incredible labels and their teams to help get my records some major attention. Recently working with the Anjunabeats has been such an enjoyable process, from initial A&R to release planning, to publishing and radio support on ABGT with Above & Beyond, the whole team at Anjuna has been so helpful getting “For Your Love” out and heard as well as opening a new door to connect me with new fans of the Anjuna Family.

Working with other great labels this year such as Vanilla Ace and his team at WyldCard Records has also been a huge push for helping some of my more Tech driven records hit success on Beatport Charts this past year as well as getting my music out on promo to other well-known DJ’s that have supported my records in 2021. I’ve been extremely lucky to have great experiences and teams behind my records on the label’s I’ve released on throughout my career so far.

What do you have upcoming in 2022 that we should be looking out for? 

It’s felt so good getting back to things in 2021 and I can’t wait to share with everyone all that my team and I have planned for 2022. Expect tons of new music, the release of my first full length artist album and lots of shows. I’m excited to add some new cities and countries to my Tour Schedule for 2022 that I’ve never played before as well!

Finally as we’re approaching that time of year, can you tell us about the greatest NYE party you ever went to? 

New Year’s Eve can bring some very memorable parties as an Artist, some that can be told and some that may be better remaining untold haha. I think for me, the most memorable NYE Party was playing with Benny Benassi and being on stage with him for the count down of the ball dropping. What an epic memory counting down to bring in the New Year with a massive crowd and having the Cryo and Confetti Cannons going off as we celebrated the New Year.