MARTYN

Underneath the sheer quality of his music and genre blurring abilities, Crack finds Martyn a man apt at tackling other topics with intelligence.

Chatting with Martyn in his studio via that amazingly modern medium of Skype initially heralded a wonderful discovery.

After commenting on his rather fetching faux leopard print jumper (we love a bit of that round here), our interview subject proceeded to pull out an MPC fully cloaked in lustrous leopard print design. “It was getting hard to identify my equipment when I was playing festivals, so on a lonely night in my hotel room I decided to do a bit of customising.”

A man of initiative, Martyn, as you’ve probably clocked, is not your orthodox electronic music mammal. Hailing from the southern Dutch town of Eindhoven, there has always been a part of him tied to the UK; having spent his formative years hosting drum and bass nights in his hometown, he would regularly visit London and Bristol. Yet he was also hearing other music, gradually taking influence from the colossal techno names passing through the cities near by.

In this most obvious sense, these early electronic staples formed the foundations for a producer who was tying together disparate scenes and genre strands long before techno, two-step, bass music and house became as magically intertwined as they have in recent times. On debut long-player Great Lengths and early productions such as the lauded Virgo, the micro genre manipulation was in full-force. Yet on his most recent album, the Brainfeeder-released Ghost People he provided a cohesive reminder of what a brilliant producer he is when focuses on one style; in this case, the tough end of house.

There are a number of guys who butcher together genres within their sets. In today’s relative ‘ave a go at that sound’ hotch-potch it’s positively encouraged. What separates Martyn’s ear from the next is his sheer ability to siphon the strands of each genre that are a) quality and b) interesting pieces of music in their own right. This was expertly deployed when he was chosen to compile the 50th Fabric Saturday night mix CD, one of their most cross-pollinated, accomplished releases to date.

Beyond that, the mantra of only dealing with those doing interesting things has been strictly adhered to on his 3024 label, releasing the likes of Redshape, Julio Bashmore, Addison Groove and John Convex among others.

Add to this a dynamic production-only live show which will manifest itself at Parklife Festival in Manchester when he headlines the Crack Magazine Thrasher stage, a live art collaboration with long-term friend and cohort Erosie and a desire to only make albums and you have the kind of artist that Crack likes: a man with little or no tolerance for mediocrity, or in other terms: a man with a truly excellent shit filter. And to top it off, he’s even found time to undertake a political science degree in this new home of Washington.

In an era when producer artist albums can go slightly under the radar we felt Ghost People was generally well received and went hand in hand with the live show really well. What’s your general feeling on it in retrospect?

I was quite happy with the result. It’s always difficult. The more work you do, the harsher critics are going to be. When you release your debut record people always think your sound is fresh and good. When it comes to releasing your second record, critics expect a little bit more. My second album is a large component of the live show as well, so almost on weekly basis I can see people responding to the music. I’m trying to think of my music in album context. I think the more albums you make, the more seriously people are going to take you.

Do you think it’s far more difficult to make an album than a series of successful singles?

My aim is to make an album, but that doesn’t mean I won’t be making remixes or separate 12 inches. I think it’s nice to be an album artist. It has a nice rhythm to it. You make it, you release it, you tour it for a while and then you start thinking about the next one. It’s much better to work that way rather than being like ‘if I don’t have a 12 inch out next month I’m not relevant.’

How did you end up studying in Washington?

My wife is American. We moved about four and a half years ago now. I used to study way, way back in Holland and always had the idea to pursue something else. I did Communication Science for a while and did a Masters in it. I always wanted to study Political Science, so now I’m in Washington I thought that was an appropriate place to start. It’s kind of cool having both sides of your brain working. Obviously if you are just involved in music, the travelling can make you a little brain dead.

Where does your love of political science come from?

I was always interested in politics as well as history. When I moved here in early 2008 it was at the same time the Obama thing kicked off. The first couple of months I lived here was in the midst of the whole election battle. I thought the way he got elected and to see democracy at work was super-inspiring. I think the European perspective of American politics is very much like ‘they are just voting for the guy’, and ‘no one knows where Europe is.’ When you move here, you realise it’s quite the opposite and everyone is very much involved in a hands-on, grass-roots way. People go door to door to try and enthuse people to vote. Coming from Holland, democracy is kind of dead. People would vote, but no one was really for anything and that meant no one was interested, especially young people. On Election Day in the States we went to vote, or my wife did, and there were 600 people in line. I was like ‘woah!’ It was like the purest form of democracy.

We thought it was revealing that Fabric picked you for their 50th Saturday night CD release as you were probably one of the most rounded artists to appear in that series. Do you think that’s why they went for you?

It was funny because I was booked for Fabric on Fridays as well as Saturdays. Fridays were always strictly D’n’B, breaks and dubstep and Saturdays were strictly four-to-the-floor. If you look at the line- ups now it’s very mixed. Fabric 50 was one of the first releases where this blend started to happen. I took all the tunes I really loved, but also I wanted to show there is no division between breaks-orientated music and house or techno. It all works together if you blend it well. Now it’s commonplace to do that and no one is surprised if you mix house and techno.

We just want to talk about your visual art project with you long-term friend Erosie. What is the working relationship between you both?

We used the throw drum and bass nights in Eindhoven and he used to do flyers and decorations for them. Once I started my label he just jumped in. He would be the person who took care of all the graphical work for them. Last year after the Ghost People album, we started working more closely and figured out a way to perform live.

We saw a video online for your Ghost People album launch party where Erosie painted the entire venue.

Yeah, that was in London. He did it before I started playing. It was amazing. Our recent project was called Collider where Erosie worked with two other guys on 3D projection mapping. He would literally draw while I was playing. Every time we do something like this together we try and take a little step more. The way he draws is very intuitive, I guess. When he paints and draws he always listens to music, so when I do a live performance he is listening to my music and responding to it.

We read an interesting interview with yourself and Erosie talking about people losing the intimate connection with music due to technology, for example people on their phones at gigs. Is this immersive style of performance an attempt to get people back experiencing the music fully.

The whole idea behind clubbing has disappeared a bit. Long before there were cell phones or super-clubs, everything was spontaneous. It’s all planned now, it’s on the flyer, you know exactly what you’re going to get. I play Panorama Bar quite a lot and it really helps that people aren’t allowed to take pictures, because you have a more intimate vibe. It helps that you know people can’t be photographing or videoing you. I’m not that nostalgic thinking we could go back to Paradise Garage or anything, but I think people could be a bit more involved.

With that in mind, where do you like playing the most?

It’s usually more intimate clubs, but I think Panorama Bar is my favourite place to play. In England you have great places like Sub- Club in Glasgow and Mint Club in Leeds. It’s cool because people are close and you have direct contact with them. If you have a few hours for a DJ set and people are close you have an energy exchange. Live sets are completely different. For live performance it’s much more about bringing my music across. At Parklife where you guys are hosting a stage I was meant to DJ, but I decided to play live. It’s good at a festival where there may be loads of people who don’t know my stuff ,so it’s good to expose them to it.

How was Eindhoven as a place to grow up? What were your early experiences of music?

The first time I went to Bristol, in 1996, it actually reminded me a lot of Eindhoven. The vibe is quite similar. In the UK you have London as the centre and the place. People think the world ends at the border of London, and you have the same thing in Holland with Amsterdam and Rotterdam in the west of the country. Eindhoven is in the south and a bit removed, so we are always a bit against what is happening in the west. Being detached and independent from everything helps the scene develop. We like to tell people we are from Holland, ‘but we are from Eindhoven!’ Between Amsterdam, Brussels and Antwerp there were big techno scenes in the 90s and we were in the middle. We had some great after-hours clubs so people we could come and play those. We had quite a lush selection of good DJs and that’s where I first listened Detroit techno and Chicago house. I think Carl Craig actually lived in Eindhoven for a brief moment.

Were you influenced much by UK bass music?

The first Photek album and Metalheadz records were influences. We used to take weekends off and go to London and buy records. Bristol was always on the map for us too. We knew Colin who used to run Knowledge Magazine (a popular drum and bass-focused publication). He would come to our nights and we would come to Bristol and visit them. Even people like Technical Itch and MC Jakes and the older bass music generation in Bristol were friends.

Lastly, we have to ask about the Julio Bashmore track Grand National, put out on 3024 as the B-side to Batty Knee Dance. That track has Crack’s very own Mystic Greg doing horse noises at the start of the track. We loved the fact you put it out!

I think what makes 3024 good is everyone is allowed the freedom to do what they like. From an A&R perspective we only allow people onto the label we think are interesting. We invited Matt (Bashmore) because we love his music and he has a special take on house music and stays away from that UK bass thing and avoids the clichés associated with it. He submitted Batty Knee Dance and Ribble To Amazon first and then submitted Grand National and said, ‘I think this should be the third track.’ When I listened to it I thought it was funny and I thought ‘you know what, if Matt wants it on there, no other label is going to say yes to this, so I should.’ Most people would have said ‘what the fuck!’ It was a good way to show the complete freedom of the label. It’s not a track I listen to a lot, but it does fit the package.

We’re big fans of it!

The Grand National was a few weeks ago and people were talking about it again. This track is going to be a classic every year now!

We’ll catch you on the Crack stage at Parklife!

See you there. Can’t wait!

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http://www.residentadvisor.net/dj/martyn

Words: Thomas Frost