Ibiza’s very own char lady DJ Paulette sits down for a nice cup of tea with a definite legend
Martijn Ten Velden is one of the select few DJs with a silent J in their name and is possibly one of the tallest DJs in the business next to Spiller, Afrojack and Groove Armada’s Andy Cato. He has a penchant for cool t-shirts and baseball caps, bow ties and jackets, can DJ any style from funk to hip hop to house and techno and more importantly for us here at DMC Towers is a producer of note with a way with a wicked groove and a phat assed beat. Welcome to DMC World and my twenty minute tea break, Martijn.
Now would you like tea or coffee? Sugar? Milk? Anything to smoke with that and are you paying or shall we go Dutch?
I’ll have a tea with one sugar and no milk please, maybe we can go outside so I can light one up? Even though I hate smoking I have always started more than I have stopped. I will get the bill of course!
We know it’s Martijn with an IJ before the N but how is it properly pronounced and does it bother you if people spell or say your name incorrectly?
I am very used to people pronouncing and spelling my name in all sorts of ways. I actually crack up when people write it wrong, I’ve been called ten Helden, van Telden, van ten Pelden, ten Pelten, ten Zelden, you name it! Maybe the best way to pronounce the “IJ’ in Martijn is like the ‘EI’ in Eiffel Tower. It’s all very complicated I know. That’s why a lot of people just call me by my initials MTV!
I pinged you recently on Faceboook and found to my embarrassment and shame that I was talking to the wrong Martijn Ten Velden. Did you know that you have a Facebook namesake?
Yes, I saw that, it’s a Bulgarian fan of mine! But his real name is something like Krasimir or Nikolay.
It’s been 25 years since you left Holland: in what way if any do you still consider yourself Dutch? You have lived in London, Brazil, Dubai and now Ibiza (have I missed anywhere out?) – which country / nation gets your second nationalilty thumbs up and why?
I will of course always remain Dutch since was born and grew up there and have kept my ‘Dutchness’ in the open minded way I communicate with people I think. I love living in Spain at the moment and still have a very strong affinity with English people since I lived in London for 18 years. Traveling the world for so many years has given me a different view on the subject of ‘countries’ though. At the end of the day, beneath our skin, culture, beliefs, preconceptions etc. we are all the same. So for me ALL good people get the thumbs up!
You started out as a hip-hop / scratch DJ and beat boxer. Can you still beat box? And which artists have you shared a stage / studio with?
Yes I can still beatbox, but I’m a bit out of practice i must say. New skool beatboxers like Tom Thum and Roxorloops blow my mind with their crazy skills. In my early days of hip hop in Holland I was the scratch DJ in a group called ‘The Mad Scientists’ and we shared the stage with artists like Stetsasonic, Kool Moe Dee, Cash Money & Marvellous and the Stereo MC’s. One of the MC’s of my group later became the singer of the Dutch band ‘Postmen’ and is still doing great now under the name Maikal X.
When, where and how did your transition from hip-hop to house music come about? Was it some sort of rave revelation or electronic epiphany? You have consequently played at all of the key London clubs at the time when London was truly buzzing. Which 3 clubs or parties were your favourites?
In the 90’s I started going to House Parties more and more simply because the vibe was better. Hip hop parties at the time started being too full of attitude and I witnessed a shooting, mob fights and stabbings, so I was put off. For me, house music and hip hop have much of the same roots in funk, disco and 80’s electro, so the transition was quite natural. House parties were all about everybody being together as one, and that’s what our whole life should be about! My favorites to play at in London were the Cross, Fabric and Ministry of Sound.
Your career in London is all about highlights – and we’re certainly not talking hairdressing here. In 2005 you blazed onto the crossover chart scene with ‘Bleep’ with another Dutch DJ, Lucien Foort, it was very much a clubbing milestone – (I put it on my Fashion TV compilation and my Mix Club, Paris compilations that year). For a self-confessed unDutch person you couldn’t get a more Dutch collaboration. How did it come about.
Me and Lucien got on like a house on fire when we first met in 2004 at a festival in Holland. We decided to get on the vibe in the studio and finished Bleeep! in two days and that was that.
It’s the 10th anniversary of ‘Bleep’ this year – are there any plans to revive it? Is that something that you are in favour or? Rewiring and reworking old tracks for new audiences?
Funny you ask that, because I was just thinking about redoing it a few weeks back since it’s almost been 10 years. So watch this space. I think when the time is right and you have a genuine idea on how to rework an old track there’s nothing wrong with it as long as it’s not contrived or just for the money as happens way too often.
Then in 2007, Splittr’s – ‘All Alone – I Don’t Feel Like Going Home’ – became another club anthem for me (enough about you let’s talk about me LOLs) and another successful collaboration for you but this time with the Stanton Warriors’ Mark Yardley. What was the story behind this collaboration and pairing?
Me and Mark had already been friend for years and always had mutual respect for each others production skills, so for years we had been talking about doing something together. I also loved to hear the Stantons in Fabrik where they would absolutely destroy the dancefloor. When I moved apartment in 2007 and ended up living a couple of hundred yards away from the Stanton Warriors studios, there was no more excuse really. We threw out the rule-book and came up with ‘All Alone’.
5 years later after world touring, family life, professional and personal upheaval and life in general, you decide to rip it up and start again. On your Twitter stream you recently posted a picture which says…
“Everyone needs a little Ibiza in their life”
You clearly love travel, steeping yourself in different cultures, languages and you are very much a happy hot weather head. Of all the places in the world that you could have lived in, why did you choose to live in Ibiza and how long have you been living here now?
I lived in Barcelona before I came to Ibiza, and it was the obvious choice really. I’ve been here for 3 years now and feel so inspired to create music again! It’s the vibe, the energy, the nature, the weather, the amazing collection of eccentric artistics that all live here, the tolerance, all the great DJs that play here who tend to play more from the heart than usual, and the millions of eager party-goers that visit here every year. Can’t get much better really!
In three short years you have become a very active member of the Seamless Recordings family along with Graham Sahara, Lorcan Kelly and Nelson M Roberts. Had you met the marvelous Graham Sahara and the Seamless Recordings family before you moved to Ibiza or is this a relationship that has built since you arrived here.
I met Graham shortly after I moved here and we have become good friends, so have our kids, so we hang out a lot. We decided last year to start the “MAKE IT’ parties, with a different theme every time, and it’s been great so far. You played a great set at our party last December too! We are now planning to do several Make It parties in Ibiza over the summer.
You have seamlessly become one of the much respected winter residents for the ‘Make It’ party at Ibiza Rocks at Pikes Hotel. I was there at the last Seamless Recordings ‘Make It’ winter party at Pikes on Friday night where in my not so humble opinion, you absolutely aced it. So tell me, (did I?) and does it put you under pressure when people (fellow DJs especially) are staring at you over the console / DJ booth with both thumbs aloft, grinning like a loon?
Haha not at all, I love it. It’s all about the vibe.
Where else have you played on the island this winter and what you are your upcoming dates on the island for the summer? What studio productions are you about to unleash on the world?
This winter I played in Pacha, Pikes and Veto (formerly Grial) and you will find me in plenty more places on the Island this summer, it’s still too early to give dates…I have 3 new remixes ready to go, they will all be out at the beginning of the summer: DASCO Ft Crystal Monee – Strike Me Down / James Trystan – Falling Free and an epic deep remix of the classic Banda Sonora – Guitarra G. As a special 100th Release on Phonetic Recordings I have just reworked my 2006 track ‘I Wish U Would’ with a deeper twist and that’s coming out real soon too. I also have several other new productions that I am just now sending out to record labels.. So lots to come.
When I showed you my Star Chart Iphone app, you were mindblown and said if you had it you would use it every day. This leads me to ask, just how big a geek are you? Do you remember your records by artist / remix / title / year / catalogue number or just by the pretty cover? And can you remember what the three bass heavy records that I lost my stack to were at Pikes last Friday?
I admit I can be pretty geeky at times, mostly when it comes to mixing down my records. I think I remember tracks most by title and then by artist but when I used to play vinyl only it was always by cover. Those 3 tracks in a row you loved were (with thanks to rekordbox):
1. DMorse – Music in my Head (Joeski’s Dub)
2. Ellroy – Repeal
3. waFF – Fat Gash
Your sets are always box fresh but you’re not just about putting new records in your set. You have a deep musical history and also like to keep the house / tech house classics in there too. Can you tell me which 3 classic house tunes are still on heavy rotation in your set? And which 3 disco / funk or hip hop tunes are the most played on your Itunes?
I still love dropping: Peace Division – What is this Sound / Shlomi Aber – Freakside / Sect – Thieve Scrilla. The 3 most played original funk tracks at home must be: Zapp and Roger – More Bounce to the Ounce / Kool and the Gang – Open Sesame / Bob James – Nautilus
Whenever we meet, we get locked into either a music, production or an equipment discussion and we can both have a fine and passionate rant. So … If you were on Mastermind what would your specialist rant subject be? Which issue really grinds your gears? (career, personal, Ibiza – can be anything).
It would have to be on the Worldwide political and spiritual Deception that’s going on all around us. It does my head in! Or if that’s too deep and troubling and we want to keep it light, I would do ‘Spot the Sample’.
When you’re not DJing, you say that cooking is a good way to relax. I have had the great pleasure of watching you work in the kitchen and in the clubs at close hand and (aside from the perma cigarette) found that your skills and technique were exemplary in both. What in your opinion makes your recipe for Thai Chicken Curry so damned delicious? (and yes I confess I was a full plate second helping, food coma, greedy guts so it IS that good)
I’m happy you liked it (phew! I passed the test) I marinade the chicken for about two hours in curry paste, garlic, ginger, lemon/lime juice, fish sauce and salt. Then I fry the chicken separately from the rest of the vegetable curry sauce (as short as possible) before I mix it in at the very end so the chicken is still nice and juicy. Big difference!
Thank you Martijn Ten Velden for taking this twenty minute tea break with me and for thoroughly spicing up the pages of DMC World Magazine. We wish you an amazing summer and every success with your upcoming productions. When you have your next dinner party please remember to set two places for me in order to save on ‘second helping’ time for me.
Thank you very much! I enjoyed answering your questions Even forgot to drink my tea! And next time I think it’s Risotto on the menu so get ready!
