DMCWORLD grab a world exclusive with the Norweigan producer on fire right now as he releases his brand new single ‘Young Summer’ through Spinnin’ Records…
Martin a huge welcome to DMCWORLD! Where on this lunatic planet are you today?
Thank you very much DMCWORLD. Right now I am in my hometown Aalesund, Norway.
What is the best piece of new music you have heard recently?
Martin Garrix – Pressure, it was something fresh and unique from what’s been coming latest. First I was like “what is this”, but after listening the whole I press replay immediately.
Really exciting times for you at the moment thanks to your new single ‘Young Summer’. What were the driving forces behind the release?
The new single ‘Young Summer’ is a track I have been working on for more than 1.5 years It has been done over 30 different “drops” and productions. It was Tommy LaVerdi who sent it to me. He did the topline together with Jesper Borgen and Iselin Solheim (from Alan Walker – Faded) and I fell in love with it. Jesper Borgen also helped me with guitars and instruments in the track.
Please talk us through the sound and inspiration of the track…
The topline has always been very “summer” for me and I wanted to make that into the instrumental as well. I found it hard to figure out exactly how the drop should be, as we tried over 30 different, I felt this was the best to suite this track. The sound itself consist of ukulele, guitars, pianos, trumpets and couple other horns layered together. There is actually a lot of instruments in the track and it’s so easy to just add more and more stuff. Even I always say to myself: less is more, even I just needed to keep all this instruments for this track.
You’ve been on a release roll recently; can you tell us a bit about your latest collaboration for ‘Famous’?
Famous is a collaboration between me, Jonth, Vlade Kay and the singer/writers Skinny Days. Future bounce is not a genre I have been doing much, so it was inspiring working with Jonth here which is very talented within producing all kind of EDM, a lot of creds to him for the instrumental here. Funny enough, also this track we had more than 15 toplines as option before we in the end landed on this. Vocals are by Vlade Kay and Halvor Folstad.
So gotta touch on the subject that has dominated the world; how has the past year been for you, how have you been spending your time and what have you learnt about yourself and the world we live in?
I became a father last year, so it couldn’t be better timing for me to spend more time home. However, I am ready to go on tour again now as I have been doing much music and preparations. I have also done two cool live sets and planning a third and hopefully last live stream before doing a real live show again.
3 big tunes in your box this weekend…
Here are three new ones I’m into…
- Retrovision – Whatever you want. (so simple, but AWESOME)
- Afrojack & David Guetta – Hero. (feels nostalgic and new at the same time).
- Blasterjaxx – Make It Out Alive. (I miss festivals)
Okay let’s get personal for a moment…
Favourite film of all time?
Bad trip.
Childhood celebrity crush?
Olsen Twins.
Your most cherished album?
Mine when I release it!
The last time you cried?
2020.
A tune you wish you’d have made?
Afrojack & Martin Garrix – Turn Up The Speakers.
Your earliest memory of music as a child?
When my mom listened to Black Eyes Peace on CD in the car when I was maybe 9-10 years old.
Was music the only career choice for you or was there another life path you could have taken?
I only had music as a hobby from 2008-2014. I was on my way to be a captain for ships. I finished the first years at maritime school and got the “certificate in sailor” and was about to start on the three last years on the nautical high school. This was in 2014 and during that summer, one of the ‘cheesy party student tracks’ I did, together with Henning Olerud (Wicked Wonderland) went viral in Germany, Switzerland and #1 in Austria. We got booked to a lot of shows the whole fall and later it spread to Sweden, Finland, France, Italy, and a lot of other countries in Europe.
1 year later, in 2015 I was supposed to start on the nautical school again, but after I released “Samsara”, together with Raaban, as the following up track for “Wicked Wonderland”, “Samsara” got popular too and we became a duo and had the roles as: he was taking care of the main productions as he was really into the details and super quick to produce. While I was head of live/DJ, A&R, came with ideas and took care of our business (kind of our own manager). We filled out each other perfectly and had a good run for over 4 years.
Since end of 2019 I have been doing solo projects and collaborations with different artists and DJs like Alan Walker, Rich The Kid, Jay Hardway, Sick Individuals and many more projects lined up.
What was your first break into the music industry?
When I was 15 years old in school. It was very popular to take other tracks and make them sound “chipmunk” (basically just pitched up so it’s a quicker BPM and formant). I wanted to make these chipmunk versions too, and I downloaded a music program that could pitch tracks to make this effect.
I got addicted and started to make small goals such as “I want to make my own track one day”, “I want people to find my music on YouTube”, “I want to be a DJ at a school party”, “I want to have a track with 10.000 streams”, “I want one of my tracks go Gold status awarded in Norway” and so on… I think it’s important to make goals but have step-by-step goals and work hard to achieve them.
Who were the guys you were looking up to in the early days?
I think that is a common answer for most of us producers around 2010-2012: Avicii, Swedish House Mafia, Tiesto. I remember I was remaking “Tim Berg – Bromance” hundreds of times just to study and learn how Avicii did it.
3 things you are looking forward to in 2021…
Have a more normal world, meet people and play shows.
