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The process of interviews has become quite tired in the dance music scene. The majority of interviews come from dance music blogs, most of which do not know how to conduct a real interview; or from mainstream media, who do not know the history of the music and artist. Publications like triplej and BBC Radio1 break this mold, but they’re few and far between.


SPIN just did something pretty unique with Martin Garrix that I think definitely breaks the mold. In the simplest terms, SPIN sat down with Martin, played him some tunes, and then they talked about them. It seems overly simple, but that’s it; and with the correct structure and a knowledgeable interviewer, it’s a brilliant way to find out about a person’s interests and values.

SPIN had Martin listen to tracks from Daft Punk, Usher, Maroon 5, Fetty Wap & Clean Bandit, and more.

For Daft Punk, we learn that Garrix once had to recreate the song “Da Funk” for school, and has never seen them live but wishes to – as we all do.

For Usher, we learn that their collaboration on “Don’t Look Down” was on a leap of faith from his manager, Scooter Braun.

So then he was like, “Let’s try Usher… don’t get your hopes up, but I can always ask him.” And then three hours later, Scooter Facetimes me and he’s like, “Yo, Usher wants to do your record!” That same week we were in the studio doing the vocals for “Don’t Look Down.”

For Maroon 5, the track in question was their “Animals,” clearly trying to see what they could get out of the young Dutch superstar. He didn’t care that they shared tracks with the same name, and honestly, why would he? Completely separate genres and times of release, they’re completely separate tracks.

“It’s not confusing because they were released at different times.”

For Fetty Wap, we get the big news. Martin has had some rappers in the studio before, “just to check how it is.” But surprise, those tunes aren’t under the Martin Garrix name. As most producers who get known for a single genre end up doing, Martin has another alias for his more non-conformist productions. And we’ll get to see who it is eventually … hopefully.

You have some anonymous projects going on right? Anything that’s ever going to come to the light you think?
Definitely. But I want a lot of them to break, and then it’s like…

So you want it to get popular and then you can take credit it for it after the fact?
Yeah. That would be cool.

For Clean Bandit, we learn that Martin can play Flamenco. And as much as he would like to experiment with that on a track, we’d love to hear it even more.

 

To read the rest of the track interviews including David Guetta and The Ramones, head over to SPIN.