The Young Bloods
By Dan Prince
The temperature is nudging a hundred as a group of excited clubbers fall out of an Ibiza ticket shop clutching their entry into tonight’s Circoloco adventure. A blacked out SUV cruises to a halt down the street and three passengers jump out disappearing through the doors of a disused bowling alley for today’s IUMAG’s photo shoot. Back outside the DC10 devotees continue their journey oblivious to the fact they have just come within inches of techno royalty. The boys are back in town.
So how did this beautiful musical brotherhood begin…?
Seth : I’d seen the guys around a bit, met them briefly in Berlin and thought to myself afterwards, ‘these guys seem pretty damned cool!’.
MB : We hooked up in Ibiza a little later and hit Space and Amnesia, had a fucking blast and it’s been all love between us since then. It’s weird man, we realized really quickly how much of the same person we actually are…brothas from another mother hahaha!
Guys, your house music loving dad actually brought you to Ibiza for the first time in 2007?
MB : Yes he did, we were under age so we needed a legal guardian to bring us to our first gig which was Erick Morillo and Subliminal, what a crazy way to be baptized in Ibiza. He’s bringing our mom this month, she’s never been to Ibiza and is dying to see DC10 and check out what her little boys have been up to!
What does your dad think of the music you play now, a little different from what he educated you on…
MB : We were brought up listening to a traditional house music soundtrack, very soulful with lots of disco stabs. But as time evolved we started to get into techno and…
Seth : …then you met ME and everything changed!!
MB: Oh yes it did! Going to Berlin though definitely saw us expand our sound. Dad was a little iffy at first, but now he actually prefers listening to our grooves.
Seth, you quit your only ‘real’ job at a sports arena when they told you to cut your hair. Smoking a joint and hanging out seemed more appealing, who in your family do you get this vibe from?
Seth : My step dad is a radio DJ so the house was always full of music and cool people. I remember going to this rave whilst I was a fresher at high school and I was like, ‘hey I know this music, this is the shit my parents listen to!’ I just threw myself into it and started partying every weekend. Even back then I knew where I was going in life. One of the most important things I believe in – and I know these guys agree, is the power of faith and human potential.
MB : Yes sir.
Seth : My grandfather and uncle were both preachers and taught me to have belief in yourself, never have any second guessing in what your mission is and what you are driving towards. And that’s what has got Seth Troxler and The Martinez Brothers to where they are today.
Do you think that growing up in the music industry helped shaped yourselves as human beings?
Seth : Great question. I think one of the reasons we have clicked so much is that we all grew up with this obsession with music from our high school days and there has never been anything else.
MB: Absolutely. Whilst all the other dudes at school where into basketball, baseball and shit, we were talking music 24/7…
Seth : There are certain things we missed out on for sure, things people take for granted…
MB : Like being at home for Thanksgiving haha! It’s crazy looking back. We were two teenagers spending hours in airports waiting for long distance flights, checking into dope hotels and spinning in amazing clubs whilst back in the normal world…
What are you talking about? The traveling is the main thing you DJs always moan about!
MB : Haha. Okay well maybe we weren’t too happy leaving school on a Friday and going straight to the airport, but we knew it was all about sacrifice even then. We used to check out our friends doing their stuff and we were like ‘nah, let’s go work on some music. We did go to their parties from time to time to check what the vibe was, but we weren’t missing. We were having way more fun.
Why do you love being part of the crazy Circoloco gang?
MB : It’s home dude, it’s like playing in a bad ass living room with all your friends around you. It’s unique.
Seth : More importantly, Circoloco is the platform that has propelled us as artists to the place where we are now. It gave us a blank canvas to paint on and show the world different sides of ourselves. It allowed us to be free.
You are all headlining the Closing Party of Ushuaia. Seth, this is your debut!
Seth : Isn’t that the craziest thing? I played the original Ushuaia on the beach loads of times but this is my first time in the big arena.
MB : We played the Opening Party last year which was just off the scale. Such a vibe and there were so many beautiful girls which is so important. Girls just bring the good times!
Seth : A lot of amazing artists like Andrea Oliva, Joris Voorn and Nic Fanciulli are all residents there and they tell us so much about it. So it’s going to be great to become part of the game! We are going to blow up the spot man!
Seth major high fives for conquering Kilimanjaro and helping raise $1.3m with the Cure Brain Cancer Foundation! How was it man?
Seth : To be able to climb the highest peak in Africa for such a worthy cause taught me a lot about myself. It showed me that anybody can do anything with the correct mind power. I was out of shape and fat, I could have died up there. Even the times when everything in my soul was screaming SETH TURN THE FUCK AROUND. But like everything else I have achieved in my life, I just got on with it and pushed to the top.
A lot of DJ friends all put their hands in their pockets for you…
Seth : It was so cool to see these guys, Richie, Luciano, Dice, Marco and everyone getting involved. We raised a lot of money and we are already planning the next one. Hey, if this loser can do this shit, if this lazy guy can make a difference, you can.
MB : Just believe in yourself y’all. Go and climb your own personal mountain like our boy Seth just did…
I was looking at the history of Tuskegee, the place you named your label after. It had the first university for people of colour to go to get an education…
Seth : Like most things we do, there are reference points that maybe on the top layer don’t seem so deep, but once you delve in and check, you’ll see there’s a lot of depth to what we do.
MB : A lot of people say ‘oh these guys are so funny with their joking around the whole time’, but once they’ve done a little research they see what we’re trying to do. A lot of what we do is coming from a place of reflection.
With the exception of maybe Circoloco, elrow, Cox, Guetta and a couple of others, most clubs are down on numbers this summer in Ibiza. Have we got anything to worry about?
Seth : I think over saturation in the same type of music has definitely led to a decrease in numbers. I know this sounds a bit cocky, but there are only a certain amount of people who are in this talent show. There are a lot of up and coming DJs around, but there are only a few BIG guys. And when you look at kids here on holiday who are gonna spend two hundred euros going out, they are going to want to see the best, especially the ones they can’t see at home. And that’s why it’s hard for the new nights to take on the established ones.
MB : When it was Carl Cox, Circoloco and Cocoon, all the big DJs played there and they were all packed as it was a limited choice. But now you have nine or ten nights doing their thing playing the same genre of music. There is no way everything is going to succeed. It’s the law of supply and demand!
What has happened to the days of Ibiza producing a track of the summer?
MB : Long gone man.
Seth : Everything now is bullshit tech house. How can you have the track of the summer? Nothing sticks in people’s mind any more. It used to be track of Ibiza or track of the conference. That shit is over.
MB : That’s why vocals are so important. We did this mix of ‘Play To Win’ by Heaven 17, it’s been destroying the dancefloor, that’s coming soon. As is our collaboration with Mathew Jonson and Jerome Sydenham dropping later in the year and a King Britt collab we did earlier in the summer. We’re also hooking up with Louie Vega in the studio here which will be interesting to say the least – and we’re working on a MF Doom mix tape too. We’ve also been cultivating our Cuttin’ Headz label too, we got a whole load of stuff coming out including new material from Luke Solomon, Matrixxman, The Butcha, Andrea Oliva, Steve Rachmad, Brett Johnson and a remix package of our Miss Kittin ‘Stuff In The Trunk’ track.”
And Seth? I know you’ve been busy locked away…
Seth : “I just had my Tiga ‘Always’ remix out with Phil Moffa and our ‘I Feel So Free’ on Warp. Watch out too for our Luciano ‘The Great Amael’ mix coming soon. I’m also working on a new music project but that’s on the low right now and I’m really happy with a new remix I’ve done for Cassius featuring Pharrell.
This issue of IUMAG is a Future of Ibiza Special – what are some of the island problems you would like addressed to preserve this unique little white island?
Seth : One thing which I really hope Ibiza – and London for that matter does, is follow Amsterdam and install a nightlife mayor. Someone who works with officials, helps dictate policy and discusses how to cultivate culture as well as tourism. Maybe then we can create an island for the future and better for all parties concerned. Oh and another thing…
MB : …woah Seth is on his soap box!
Seth : Another thing is the whole clubs and pricing problem. Old problem, still going on. It is excluding a lot of people, Ibiza used to be affordable but now it has become a place for the rich.
MB : It has taken the impetus and drive out of the club scene for sure. Our vibe is that we are for all kinds of people, that’s what Ibiza was all about. People who at home would feel like freaks of nature would come here and feel completely at home! And that’s something you cannot take away from this island because that’s what it was built on.
Seth Troxler and The Martinez Brothers headline the Closing Party of Ushuaia on October 1st alongside Black Coffee, Andrea Oliva, Damian Lazarus, Lauren Lane and Francisco Allendes…
Dan Prince is the Music Editor at Ushuaïa’s IUMAG, Ibiza’s No. 1 music and lifestyle magazine where this interview first appeared in the September 2016 Issue
www.theushuaiamagazine.com
