​ MartinGarrix Unfiltered On Childhood, Music, DJ, Arijit Singh, India & Life _ FO314 Raj Shamani

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Martin, welcome on figuring out. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Martin Garrett has redefined the sound of DM. He's not
just a DJ, He's a global phenomenon, from dominating the
charts with animals to headlining the biggest festivals on the planet.
There's a side of Martin Garrett you've never seen before.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
How did you start music?

Speaker 3 (00:15):
Chesto was the reason why I started making music. I
guarantee you Without chest they would not be Martin Garrick's.
I might not even be alive?

Speaker 1 (00:22):
How did Martin Garrix is collaborating with Jet thing.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Every single person he reads his super polite. He's one
of the nicest humble people I've ever met, ever worked with.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Is that a side of you which we don't know
about it?

Speaker 3 (00:36):
I like to collect rocks like crystals. I have a
team that's helped me with putting the collection together.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Wow, which one's the your favorite mix? Which you have done?
I think High on Life.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
I love the message of it.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Do you have like a vision board or something in
my head? Yes? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (00:50):
With everything I do, I visualize how it will work.
I remember playing in the Name of Love for the
first time and the whole crowd was just staring at me.
They're like, we're not moving, no energy, and I'm like,
oh my god, I made the worst songs and then
released it and became my biggest song.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Tell Me the Dark Side of the DJing Martin, welcome
on figuring out It's it's a pleasure I am. I'm
very inspired by what you do and equally jealous at

(01:26):
the same time, be both the same age. And it's
when I look at you, I feel like wow, like
just it is incredible. How to share it? I shared
a story. Okay, so back then when I was I
just got into college, like this is I'm talking about
I think eight ten years ago. And at that time,

(01:48):
you were supposed to do a tour in India. You
played in marluxury grounds in the town, the race course,
the race course, that's why you played. So I don't
live in I used to not live in Bombay and
I was in there there with a bunch of my friends.
They used to run a promotion company, like an event
promotion company. They used to sell tickets for concerts and

(02:10):
there was like a there was a show in Indoor
which was a bunch of local DJs. Then there was
I think Danik and there was rehab, like these are
all these people playing okay, and they used to sell tickets,
so they gave me a bunch of tickets to sell
as well. And that was my first gig where I
started making some money in college, like a side gig.

(02:31):
And when I made that money, and that money I
used to buy ticket for your show. I had the
Marlaxamy ground.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
So that's his story. So that's how I started. And
today you're here. It's it's an absolute pleasure. I could
have never imagined that I'm going to get you here.
Thank you so much for doing this, Thanks for having me.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
I remember a show so well because I was on
I did the shows with Mats Sotco, and I just
remember being like.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
Here for the first it was very.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
Overwhelming in the most beautiful way, like everybody was so welcoming,
so like my first memories from being in India was the.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Warmth and the.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
People were so generous with their with their time and
with their excitement, and it was really I I really
really enjoyed being here and I still enjoy.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Okay, tell me about your childhood a little bit. Were
you born, how was your town or a village or
the city, what was it? Told me about the people there,
Tell me what your father used to do, mother used
to do, Like I want to know everything. Amazing.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
So I grew up in Amsterphane, which is just outside
of Amsterdam, and every single memory from child is just fun.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Like it was.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
I was doing a lot of sports. I was and
still am like I was super adventurous. I wanted to
like try everything, and I'm super close with my family.
My mother worked in the hospital and she she's she's
a specialist in liver stomach and I don't know the

(04:12):
English words for it. But and my father used to
have an auctioning house specialized in coins and in stamps.
And my record label is called Stamp Records. Not many
people know because of my father acuse. Yeah, and the
logo the logo is a stamp, so it's like a

(04:33):
little shout out.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
To So that tell you. And then how did you
start because your father was running an auction house, mother
was nurse. Yeah, how did you start music?

Speaker 3 (04:47):
Then?

Speaker 1 (04:47):
Like why was this choice?

Speaker 3 (04:49):
They they they they were constantly playing music in the house.
My mother played piano and for them it was also
like they found it super important to raise us with instruments,
so they let me try all these instruments, and I
fell in love with guitar, and my sister she picked
the violin. And then yeah, just once a week, I

(05:14):
would have lessons and I would have homework. I would
learn new songs. I would write my own songs on
the guitar. To be honest, I cannot imagine growing up
without music because it's it's like therapy. And then fast forward,
I was playing songs and guitar, writing songs on the guitar.
And then I fell in love with electronic music. And

(05:36):
my friend who passed away, he installed through the Loops
on my computer at the time, and like I would
participate in a DJ competition, he became number one. I
became number two. Everything we did together and he was
better at it. His name is Daryl Darrel Gun and

(06:00):
like from from one day to another he passed away.
He was on on the Malaysia Airlines flight that got
shot out of the air. But every every single thing,
especially in the beginning, like I learned from.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
Him, like we were.

Speaker 3 (06:19):
We would do like our school parties. And then he
won the competition like we did. We were part of
this DJ competition. It was called Koonsband, and he became
number one and I became number two, and the number
one was allowed to play this festival on Alans, like this
huge festival in Atlans, and he asked me to join him.

(06:40):
So we were playing together at this festival. And anyway,
so long story short, I had this program on my
computer that allowed me to just start messing around and
put my guitar melodies in the computer. Then I produced
some trance music. I produced hard style and and yeah,

(07:01):
I was on the internet forums. I met friends that
I still am friends with now, like Julian Jordan was
on the forum. Justin Milo we were we were on
like every single show in the beginning we did together.
And he's still like he joined me the last India tour.

(07:22):
Justin Milo did did all the all the sets before
I went on stage. So it's it's all like it
all grew very or organically. And then also like I
love Chest, like I started making electron music because of him,
like and fast forward, he became my mentor.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
So it was really.

Speaker 3 (07:46):
That to me was like a pinch pinch me moment,
Like I remember him facetiming. There wasn't even FaceTime Skype okay.
He sent me a tweet on on Twitter like hey,
I love your song, Torrent. And then we released on
Musical Freedom, which was Chester's label, and I think I

(08:08):
was fifteen or sixteen, and Chest there was the reason
why I started making music. And then I remember he
sent me to tweet and I couldn't sleep. I was
just like And then we met on Skype and I
remember holding my computer and.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
I was like shaking.

Speaker 3 (08:23):
And then he was also the first people who I
sent Animals to. He was like, oh man, it's amazing,
and I played live yet I was like, yeah, please
try it. And then he like I would look up
videos from him playing Animals and also my other song Torrent,
Like I would scan entire YouTube just looking at videos

(08:44):
and just even having created something that was part of
his show was from me already, like Peak.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
Made it in life.

Speaker 3 (08:54):
Yeah, Like I was like, I was like, this is it.
It cannot get any better, Like I have my purpose
and it's it's part of the Chester show. And he
also because I was super young when when when this
all happened, I was fifteen, sixteen sixteen when I made Animals,

(09:15):
and I was still in school, and like he he
really took me under his wing, mentored me, made sure
I had the right people around me, warned me for
the wrong people, Like he even spoke with my parents
because my parents were like, oh my god, what's happening,

(09:35):
Like it's this crazy world that that that Marius like
head first diving into and really he's he wasn't still
is one of my closest friends in the music industry,
and he really, I guarantee you, without Chester, they would
not be Martin Gerricks And I might not even be

(09:59):
alive if it wasn't for his guidance and his like
just he's always looking out making sure everything.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
Why would you say so, you wouldn't be even.

Speaker 4 (10:08):
Alive work, Like it's a crazy world we're in, and.

Speaker 3 (10:13):
He really he's like he's there when it goes super well,
and he's there when when it also doesn't go well,
like he's it's like a rock Like really, really I
owe him a lot, But.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
What happened, Like how did you find you? Because it's
not easy thing for someone like Tiesta, who was he
was a number one at that time when you were playing,
and he was already the one of the biggest DJs
in the world. He was at the top of his game,
thousands of people during Ravishing fans and he would find

(10:47):
this kid who's fifteen year old and listen to his song, Like,
how did that happen? So I was there to be
thousands of people sending him songs to Yeah, so.

Speaker 3 (10:56):
The Nelons is big, but it's the same time a
very small, small country, and.

Speaker 1 (11:01):
Like there was.

Speaker 3 (11:03):
I got signed to Spinning Records at the time, and
before like two years before, I was producing songs for
other people as well. And one of the songs I
did was released on Spinning Records under a friend of
mine and it was his song, but I produced it
and then the song did super well. Some of them

(11:25):
dorn't ended up like a lot of dj started playing it. It
became this really cool club so it's called Basinga And
that's the song that got me into Spinning Records. And
then he was like, hey, I can we can we
create a follow up? I was like, I would love
to make a follow up, but can you please tell
the people at Spinning Records that that I'm part of

(11:48):
this song, you know? So he's like, yeah, of course,
and then he introduced me to the team and Spinning Records.
Then they came to my house, my parents' house, because
they didn't believe I made my music. They were they
wanted to see me go through the projects and and
then I got signed. And then Musical Freedom, which was
Chester's label, was a sub label for Spinning Records, so

(12:11):
they sent they were like they and they knew, of
course how much I love Ties, so they reached out
to him like, hey, there's this, there's this young kid.
He goes produced these two songs, and this is a
bunch of unreleased music from him, and then a chest
to end up relicing one of the songs on his label,

(12:32):
which is called Torrent. And then from there, like the
friendship started and also his guidance. And the whole reason
why I started making music was because it was fun
and joy like it was. It was, yeah, contagious energy

(12:52):
and fun.

Speaker 1 (12:54):
You're talking about joy, right, And you said animal happened
because the joint, like you was just saying fun. There
was no strategy behind making this kind of song.

Speaker 3 (13:04):
I had no idea what I was doing. I remember
I made I made the song and it got to
a point where it was it was a bit sad.

Speaker 1 (13:12):
I made animals.

Speaker 3 (13:15):
Do the after a night of partying, and right after
the song became so big, I would go to the
same restaurant, go to the same club, try to replicate
the night of that I made Animals because in my
head I was like, I was super insecure, Like in.

Speaker 4 (13:37):
My head, I could only make.

Speaker 3 (13:40):
Big songs if I if I had to exact like
lead up to and then at one point, like my
team and my my parents.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
In Chester, they were like, what are you doing. You're
overthinking too much.

Speaker 3 (13:55):
Just just have fun like and and then I did Tremor,
which which yeah, which became became really big and it
was to Moorland and then for the first time I
felt like, oh I don't I don't need animal again,

(14:16):
you know exactly, Like I feel like I evolved, I
learned from it. And if you always do the same
thing and people expect you to do, it's gonna get boring.
People are gonna get bored. They're like, okay, I saw
that coming.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
I'm much ratter.

Speaker 3 (14:27):
Have people listen and be like, oh my god, I
didn't expect this in a good way. Every single Garrick
song with lyrics, I wanted to sound good as well
on just a guitar or on the piano, like I
don't want.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
To sugarcoat it and like super stripped down.

Speaker 3 (14:46):
The essence of of of a song should be just
beautiful lyrics, beautiful chords, and it should be able to
stand by itself without all the production, without the whole.

Speaker 4 (14:57):
See two fireworks et such a like good song is
a good song.

Speaker 3 (15:01):
And I've I've learned also during COVID and and the
last the last few years especially, I've been also working
a lot with non electronic music artists, and I came
to a conclusion that you can any song you could
produce into a rock song, you could produce into an
electronic song, you could have an acoustic version of it,

(15:24):
as long as the song itself is good.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
Is that the filter that you use? Now that a
song which can be enjoyed in a room, on any instrument,
in any scenario. Yeah, is the song I want to create?
I want?

Speaker 2 (15:39):
Is that?

Speaker 1 (15:40):
Is that the filter that you use?

Speaker 3 (15:42):
I just want to I want to make timeless songs.
I want to I want to create songs that people
have memories to it.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
I want songs to.

Speaker 3 (15:49):
Take people back to like how they felt at a
certain time, and it goes their way around as well.
I remember exactly how I felt when I wrote each
individual song. I know when I was set, I made
certain songs whenever I was happy, like high on Life.
I felt high on life when we were making that song,

(16:11):
and and then we premiered High on Life for Tomorrowland
released it. It was my last song, and that night
we couldn't sleep and it was born and I and
Albin and we couldn't sleep and we had a guitar
and we start, I don't need no sleep because I'm
already dreaming. Like That's the lyric we wrote. After Tomorrowland.

(16:34):
I have goosebumbs talking about it. But that's how we
felt in that moment. There was so much like we
came off stage and like Tomorrowland, like I grew up
watching the live streams of Tomorrowland. And then they let
me close the main stage on like of the weekend,
like the law song of the festival, and that was

(16:55):
high on Life, and I just remember I was I
was in I was in my bed and I I
text the guys, I'm like, I can't sleeps so much.

Speaker 1 (17:06):
That song actually gets that energy out of you as well. Yeah,
Like as a as a listener, I feel the same thing.
And then especially with the visuals of tomorrow Land. That
was the first time when I saw the song on
YouTube with all those visuals and you feel like grooving,
You're like, wow, what's going on? I could just totally
imagine what you must have been going through.

Speaker 3 (17:27):
Yeah, but every song is like it's like a diary.
It's like a chapter of my life.

Speaker 1 (17:33):
Do you have like a vision board or something in
my head? Yes?

Speaker 3 (17:36):
Yeah, But like also, I definitely think with everything I do.
I I visualize how it will work in front of
an audience, and then it works out the same way
most of the time, not not. I wish every time
I've had moments where I played a song, I was like,
oh my god. I remember playing in the Name of

(17:56):
Love for the first time at Ultra and the whole
crowd was just staring at me. You're like, we're not moving,
no energy, and I'm like, oh my god, I made
the worst song, and then super insecure about the song, etc.
Released it and became my biggest song. So it's it's

(18:18):
very surrill.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
Yeah, And I'm a big believer of manifestation and visualization
like myself right, and I would do the same thing
every time I have to give a speech in front
of let's say ten thousand people, five thousand people, the
big crowds. Right. I would sit in my room for week,
three days, ten days. I would just visualize, Okay, you

(18:40):
know what. I'm moving this way and I see this
person doing this. I see I'm gonna drop. This is
my punchline. They're gonna move, this is gonna make them cry,
this is going to make them laugh. And I have
this image in my head. I don't even have those faces.
Those faces are blood, but I know what they're doing
and the way they're reacting. And when I go on
stage most of the time it happens the same way.

(19:01):
Amazing you're talking about in the name of love, right, Rexa,
you d by, how did that happen?

Speaker 3 (19:10):
I did the demo, and the demo was originally sang
by a girl called Ilse and she's incredible. Her voice
is and we did a lot of work afterwards. We
wrote Ocean together and she's just a huge shout out
to il c you where she's she's incredible. And then

(19:33):
I met baby Rexa uh plater the song. I was
super nervous, and then she recorded it sounded amazing and
I just remember playing it at ult Run and I
didn't want to release it.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
I was like, but what gave you the confidence to
release it? Even after it tanked in Ultra.

Speaker 3 (19:51):
My my team just being like, Marity, you're an idiot.

Speaker 1 (19:56):
It will work.

Speaker 3 (19:59):
Not everything has to immediately work on the dance floor.
Some songs people have to like listen to it a
few times, get it and get yeah. But for me,
I was like I was measuring, like if something was
successful by the crowd response, you know, And now that's
something I put left because people also listening, you can

(20:21):
have a moment to take in analysam Aldis.

Speaker 1 (20:25):
It's an incredible song. Incredible and then you did Scared
to Be Lonely? We do we do A? Yeah, how
did that happen? What's that story? That song?

Speaker 3 (20:35):
I sent them to the label and they were like, Oh,
there's this this girl up and coming, which is crazy
because now she's one of the biggest stars in the world.
But we had a meeting with the with the label
and I played them the song and they were like, oh,
this could work for this this girl called DOA and
then listen to her songs and we're like, oh, that

(20:58):
could be a good match and then is that Yeah,
the song low, but it's I'm really, really really proud
of the song and it still works every show I can,
I can put the filter on the whole crouches Nice.

Speaker 1 (21:17):
Nice. My favorite Martin Gareck song is gold Sky Oh amazing.
Like it's such an underrated song. I feel like people
don't even know about it much, at least in my circle,
and like, you guys are missing out.

Speaker 3 (21:28):
You guys are missing out with your guys from Dubson
Sanders And for me, it's that music and at least
the worst where the lyrics part come in.

Speaker 1 (21:39):
For me, that's therapy. It sounds so good, amazing. Okay,
talking about all of that, how do you manage your
relationships because you're always on tour, You're always like working
different countries, different places. How do you do you have
time for personal relationships?

Speaker 3 (21:57):
For yeah, family friend, I don't with any relationship from
from a partner or to my parents. I try to
separate that from from Mordin Gerriks like, because everything I
do is super public, but it's nice to have some
things private. That because because the moment, I could never

(22:19):
have a public relationship because I would just be everybody
is going to have an opinion. Everybody's going to get involved, true,
and every relationship is not always sunshine, like you go
through phases, you know, And I feel like the more
people are involved, the more people have an opinion, the more.
For me, I much rather just have people know Morning Gerriks,

(22:41):
the music and the shows. And then my private life
is like private.

Speaker 1 (22:45):
How do you manage to give them time? How do
you manage your life? Oh island in some sort trial
and error. There's years where I was like, Okay, I
did too many shows. There's years where I was like, oh,
wish I did more shows, have too much energy? But no,
I I I was with my parents last week. I'm

(23:08):
seeing them in Tokyo, so sometimes they joined me to
the shows. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (23:12):
We just balanced, like like I make sure I have
enough time for my family, for my friends, for my sister,
enough time to be in the studio to be creative,
enough time to be traveling doing shows, and it's it's all.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
It's all in balance with each other. Is that a
side of you which we don't know about because of
the public image? One hundred percent? What's that say?

Speaker 3 (23:35):
I like to collect rocks, rocks like crystals, Okay, and
why is that.

Speaker 4 (23:43):
I just think it's it's so cool. Like any painting.

Speaker 3 (23:47):
People can repaint, you won't see the difference between the
original and the copy. You know, like rocks is made
by nature. It's it's it took millions of years to form,
Like there's crazy shapes, and like for me, it's it's
the purest.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
Form of art.

Speaker 3 (24:03):
It's like a it's like a sunset, like a cloud formation,
like you only cann't see it once, you know, in
the exact same way. It's impossible to replicate.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
So yeah, you buy them, you buy from different exhibitions.

Speaker 3 (24:21):
Yeah, I have I have a team. I take it
very serious. I have a team that's helped me with
putting a collection together.

Speaker 1 (24:28):
Wow, have a full team to actually put like d
rared rocks for you in the way.

Speaker 3 (24:34):
Yeah, so they know whenever like certain rocks go on
sale or whenever a museum on seven other rocks. So
there's it's a crazy it's a crazy, crazy industry.

Speaker 1 (24:47):
How did Martin Garicks, the number one DJ in the world,
is collaborating with the number one thing in India or
Jeet Thing.

Speaker 3 (24:55):
I just think, like, first of all, besides being in
credibly genius and talented. He's one of the nicest humble
people I've ever met, ever worked with.

Speaker 1 (25:07):
Like I was.

Speaker 3 (25:09):
I met him in Amsterdam and I was really I
remember I spoke to my parents after it and I
was like, I met this guy.

Speaker 1 (25:17):
And it's really.

Speaker 3 (25:20):
Every single person he greets. He's super polite, like he said,
like it's small things, like he greets the drivers. He's like,
he's just super appreciative for every single person who he meets,
you know, And I.

Speaker 1 (25:40):
Really, really.

Speaker 3 (25:44):
It makes me happy to see someone like r Git
have the success that he has and still being so simple,
like he has his values on point, like his manners.
It's really And then we started working and it's some of.

Speaker 1 (26:03):
The melodies we have.

Speaker 3 (26:04):
It's it's one of my favorite melodies, my favorite songs
I've ever been part of. And also I've never ever
released a song that is not English, so for me.

Speaker 1 (26:14):
It's it's a big step.

Speaker 3 (26:16):
Yeah, And it's cool because getting like Morning Gerrixs is
also chord progression and melodies and now like it's it's
my melodies and his melodies, but he does the lyrics
and I I wish I could write the lyrics and
and I could give it some direction and I told

(26:36):
him like how how the songs made me feel and
what I visualized rip, But he he ran with it
and and and did the lyrics and so we met
in Amsterdam. Amazing energy. We just did gem sessions. We
were we we talked every day NonStop, like voice notes, singing,

(26:56):
brainstorming ideas for music video, new idea first, like we're
now focusing on finishing these four songs and in the meantime,
we're already thinking like the yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:07):
But but.

Speaker 3 (27:10):
There's so much joy and excitement in in in the
studio and creating these songs.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
So you and cold Play, you haven't made a song
together yet. Uh.

Speaker 3 (27:22):
They play one of my songs in their show, but
I'd love to work with them on like on the
original song I Love I Love cold Play in the
band when I was eight. We're already playing clocks by
Coldplay and and and and their shows just talk about joy.
Like their shows, it's beautiful, it's it's for for everyone,

(27:44):
the young, old, doesn't matter where you're from. Everybody there
is at home, you know, and and it's super inclusive show.
It's it's it's beautiful and the band is amazing. Chris
is incredible, but also the the.

Speaker 1 (28:01):
Rest of the band. It's just it's it's it's inspiring.
Which is your favorite Coldplay song? Scientists? No Way? Yeah,
no way, I love that one. I love I love
the Scientist too. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (28:15):
I was gonna play, but it's not.

Speaker 1 (28:17):
It's funny because I heard the Scientists not from Coldplay
and not their original version. First, the first time I
fell in love with the song was there was a
version which some other artists plays in Suits. Do you
know the series? Yeah, so in Suits that's an episode.
In the end of the episode they play Scientists, and

(28:38):
I heard there for the first time. Amazing, and I
fell in love with the song. I love that song.

Speaker 3 (28:42):
The writing on its beautiful, them the melodieson, it's just
it's it's timeless.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
Yeah. And then you you've met, like collaborated with a
bunch of people right at Scherin. How did that happen?
He's again another music prodigy in the world.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
Yeah, we did a song. We actually never released it.
It's called Rewind Repeat It. This is like two and fifteen,
I think twenty sixteen, long time ago already, but we
still we're still in touch. Even Actually, I don't want
to give people false hope. But we spoke about revisiting
the song.

Speaker 1 (29:19):
But why didn't do to Lisa?

Speaker 3 (29:21):
Long story short label issues. But I'm fully independent now,
which is the best feeling. I have my own record label,
Stamped Records, and then her song. I can decide if
I want to do a true Stamped or like it
to a bigger label.

Speaker 1 (29:37):
All right, tell me, let's talk about India a little bit. Okay,
as you keep coming here, you've said that you love
playing here. It's one of the best countries to play in. Right,
Why what's that in India which you absolutely love.

Speaker 4 (29:57):
It's just people are so passionate, like they they.

Speaker 3 (30:02):
Love music, and they love celebrations and like also Holy,
I got to experience Holy Festival, and it's just there's
so much joy. There's so much it's really it's beautiful,
and everybody is so just excited, proud of their like

(30:22):
it's it's it's amazing. I feel very at home away
from home.

Speaker 1 (30:27):
And you met you went, yeah, how did that happen?
What was that feeling?

Speaker 4 (30:32):
He's such a nice guy, he's a sweetheart.

Speaker 3 (30:35):
He told me he loves so Far Away and he
plays it before he goes to the games and he
gave me a shirt. It was was super super sweet,
Like we we met very briefly, but it was a
beautiful interaction. And anyway, we're stay. We were staying at
the same hotel. Okay, it was they were there for

(30:55):
a game and I was there for a show and.

Speaker 1 (30:58):
Up at your show.

Speaker 4 (30:59):
Yeah, he came to the show.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
He surprised the crowd there.

Speaker 3 (31:03):
The crowd was, I remember they were. They were very surprised.

Speaker 4 (31:10):
It was.

Speaker 1 (31:10):
It was fun and.

Speaker 3 (31:12):
It was also very unexpected for the crowd to see
him him show up there.

Speaker 1 (31:16):
Which one is your favorite mix? Which you have done?

Speaker 3 (31:20):
My favorite song of mine? Yeah, I think High on Life,
Like it's because of the goose booms you've got.

Speaker 1 (31:28):
In the end.

Speaker 3 (31:29):
Yeah, And and like the song is it's, It's, It's.
I love the message of it. It's like, let's make
the most out of it. Let's let's let's make sure
we we we actually live.

Speaker 1 (31:42):
You know, do you ever get annoyed by music because
you're like full time, I'm playing for hours and such
loud crowd and then I'm at home, I have to
listen to the music again, recreated and it does it
ever get to a point where you're like, no more
music for days? No, I love I love music twenty

(32:03):
four seven. You can keep listening to the music.

Speaker 3 (32:06):
And also I have ten tis, so it's like everybody
should wear ear plugs. You don't want to have this.
So I love having like music in the background, like
so there's there's not NonStop.

Speaker 1 (32:20):
Like a beep or you have it.

Speaker 3 (32:23):
Yeah, it's like ten mosquitos, like full time, full time.

Speaker 1 (32:30):
So common do happen with DJs? Like is that is
that thing?

Speaker 3 (32:35):
Yeah, a lot of colleagues have it as well, But
it's just it's it's it's straight up from just being stupid.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
Why what stupid do you do? No airplus.

Speaker 3 (32:46):
In the beginning, and also like I make very long
days in the studio, which is also like not not
great for the year. But now I have like I
have a sign in my studio, the B meter, and
if I go a bit too loud, it's like shing
red lights, so I turn it back down. But anyway,
I love music in the background.

Speaker 1 (33:06):
Tell me the dark side of the DJing, And the
dark side is like what does it take? Mentally? Does
it tell you? Because you're always there's no you're in
different time zones, there's no work life balance, there is
no sleeping schedule. Yeah, you're flying from one continent into
another to another, different food, different like it. It takes

(33:27):
a lot on your physical health as well.

Speaker 3 (33:29):
Yes, so I do once a year. I did it
two weeks ago. I do like seven days water fast
and then I do all these medical checkups from like heard,
liver archeries, everything. The one thing that I have a
bit of a hard time with, which I'm better at

(33:51):
now is just the contrast because you're on stage and
there's like fifty thousand people in front of you, and
then sometimes like ten minutes later, I mean my hotel
by myself just staring at the ceiling like and and
sometimes there's so much adrenaline from the shows that I'm shaking.

Speaker 1 (34:09):
How does your tech rider looks like today? Because now
you must be knowing you whatever you must be using
or actually putting out as a list would be truly
world class. What is that? What's a Martin Gadex tech rider?

Speaker 3 (34:23):
It's a lot of actually, say a big part of
it is safety, certain barriers, certain exits, certain but then
tech wise, I just a pioneer. I dig on pioneers,
and then in my studio. I brought the gear here
from Amsterdam, but I have a tube tech compressor, Sony Mike,

(34:49):
and then I love a Prism Lira sound.

Speaker 1 (34:52):
Cards, so it's it's not it.

Speaker 3 (34:55):
Yeah, that's it for vocals, okay, and then and then
for shows it's so you list, but most of it
is just certain type of lights, certain type of lasers,
like we always get we if people book the Garrick show,
like there's a whole team that does all the advancing,
make sure that we know exactly what kind of lights

(35:16):
are where and that we can know exactly what Rick
is going to be there so we can do the show.
And it's much more than just CITYJS and speakers, like
there's the tech writers. It's certain light desks, lasers, type
of fireworks, if we can do crowd scanning or not,

(35:38):
like if there's an airport nearby, so then certain laser
looks we cannot. There's so many things that are are
being handled in advanced and people only see me on stage,
but that's actually the easiest part the whole lead lead
up bringing up the show. I'd like to have like
a a dressing room for me and then addressing room

(36:02):
for family and friends. So I'll be hosting, I'll be like,
and then I can isolate and just be in the
zone and focus.

Speaker 1 (36:14):
Interesting. Okay, tell me how how did you learn to
enter this? Anyone who's listening to you right now and
wants to become a DJ and wants to getting started
right first, did actually start with the name? Why did
you crazy name? You just kept your original name.

Speaker 3 (36:33):
My first name was DJ Marty and my slogan was
DJ Marty Let's go Party. There's videos and phocus on
on on YouTube from from that time. But no, my
biggest advice is just be a sponge like learn like.
I learned so much from just analyzing and and and

(36:57):
and looking at videos, and there's so many tutorials out there.
I also learned a lot from collaborating with others. I
was on this internet forum for producers where we shared
a lot of plugins. And this was fifteen years ago.
Now there's way more availability, way more accessible video tutorials,

(37:21):
sound banks packs like if you want to know how
a certain sounds create, you can literally YouTube how to
make leads and Waiting for Love, for example.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
It's there.

Speaker 3 (37:34):
So I think the most important thing.

Speaker 1 (37:38):
Is, just.

Speaker 3 (37:40):
Like with anything, just go for it like fully commit,
like don't, oh, let me try this out.

Speaker 4 (37:48):
Like, if you go for it.

Speaker 3 (37:50):
One hundred percent, go for it, And it doesn't matter
if it's music, if it's art, if it's anything, if
it's sports. I feel like once you don't one hundred
percent commit, why even better.

Speaker 1 (38:03):
But a lot of people who commit, they become DJs
and then they start playing at the club and they're
really passionate about it, but they're always just at the club.
They're not able to level up. They're not able to
go to maybe a city level or a state level
or a country level. At that glib level, how what
should they do music? Their music production?

Speaker 3 (38:26):
People don't go to a show to see me DJ
because of the transition. Do they go to a show
to hear the music that I produce? They go to
a show to hear high on Life, et cetera. So
my biggest advice is lock yourself up in the studio,
try to find your own sound, make your own edits,
mesh ups, try to find your own twist. And because
there's so many DJs out there, you have to find

(38:48):
your own sound. You have to find something that makes
you stand out. Could be melodies, could be anything. I
learned a lot from copying. If I love this, I
love theve punk songs, I was gonna try and recreate
to the finest detail the dove punk songs. Same thing

(39:10):
for Cesto, like I used to recreate the exact songs
just to learn, like, okay, what what how? How are
these layers build up? How is the low end in
the kick drum?

Speaker 1 (39:24):
Like my?

Speaker 3 (39:28):
My, literally, my biggest advice is because of course DJing
is fun, night life blah blah. Friends can come, but
the actual hours is in the studio. It's like it's creation,
like like just finding your own sound, finding your own
twist and and have people go to come see DJ

(39:50):
because of the songs.

Speaker 1 (39:52):
But there are so many DJs, so many music producers
producing the sound. How do you stand out? How do
you find your own unique sound? It's so difficult. I
don't know what's unique anymore because you can get literally
anything and everything on the internet and one of so
many people for everything, and still there is somebody who
breaks out of this and then you feel like, wow,

(40:13):
this was unique. But until you hear that, you can't
actually make out what's unique and what's not. So how
can somebody find their own unique sound and it's tire.

Speaker 3 (40:21):
I think it was experimenting my first songs. I was
literally copying Cesto and I was making heart style and
then I slowed down the heartstyle stuff, and then I
had more aggressive kick drums, and like every it's like
a journey. Everybody evolves and.

Speaker 1 (40:36):
You've collaborated with a bunch of people. How important networking
is in your fire? Super important?

Speaker 3 (40:44):
Like I was making songs for this friend of mine
and then he introduced me to spin In Like, so
of course network is important.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
I remember running around at MS dance event.

Speaker 2 (40:59):
And I was.

Speaker 3 (41:02):
Thirteen and I had all my songs on the USB
and I would like, I would run up to David
Ghetta when.

Speaker 1 (41:07):
He got out of his car, was like, please listen
to my songs.

Speaker 3 (41:11):
Or I would go to a festival, would sneak in
and I'll just play it from my phone too, Like
I was probably a bit annoying, But no, I think
networking is super important and with anything.

Speaker 1 (41:27):
Okay, I have this one last question which takes me
to which takes me back to your childhood. About Dryl.
Tell me more about him. So Darryl, he he's just
he was, Yeah, everything he did.

Speaker 3 (41:44):
He was good at you and he had the hunger
like we were talking about, like everything he did, he
wanted to know exactly how it worked. Like he had
a camera, he took amazing photos from the parties. He
would dj, he would like produce music. He installed the
software on my computer that I still use to this day.

Speaker 1 (42:04):
I bought it. Now I don't have the illegal version anymore.

Speaker 3 (42:07):
But like.

Speaker 4 (42:11):
Everything he did was.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
Was.

Speaker 3 (42:16):
I looked up to him a lot, like it was
like my example, like like and he was super skilled
as a DJ, like crazy transitions. And we were part
of this talent competition. He became number one, I became
number two. And the big price was that he could
DJ at this festival. And he asked me to join

(42:36):
him to play the festival together.

Speaker 1 (42:40):
And you played together. Yeah, well you're not jealous? No,
oh you know what he caught them when I didn't
get it.

Speaker 3 (42:48):
No, it was it was the least was anything but jealousy.
It was this joy, this this We had a group
of friends with best friend at that time.

Speaker 1 (43:03):
Was he like really close friend of yours.

Speaker 4 (43:05):
We were really close, not not best best friend, but
he was part of the group where we were like
making music. We were like DJing, we're experimenting. We would
we would be like playing the local bar. We would
organize our own parties. We would sell tickets like he
did the photos from the parties we organized. But yes,
every every memory I have from the beginning is with

(43:26):
Daryl and with Justin Milow. I'm still super close with all.

Speaker 3 (43:32):
We cared about just having fun making music, trying learning
new things. Like I would make a song and then
I would play it at the school party, or Darrell
would make a song, I would play it somewhere like
with feedback each other. We'd learn each other new tricks.
We were on this internet forum where we were learning

(43:52):
new things, sharing production tricks. Avici was on the forum,
laid back Luke was on the forum. It was really
like it was just fun, like it was.

Speaker 1 (44:05):
Christ Yeah.

Speaker 3 (44:08):
But then he was on the Malaysia Airlines flight that
got shot out of the air.

Speaker 1 (44:14):
Do you think if he was there, if he was
still here, he would have been number one on.

Speaker 3 (44:22):
No, I've been number two. He had the hunger like
that we were talking about earlier. Like everything he did,
maybe maybe he wired my brain as well in a
way where you just want to everything you do I
want to do it good, you know, to an obsessive

(44:45):
level of making sure everything is is good.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
Interesting? And why did you leave DJ Marty? Why did you?

Speaker 3 (44:57):
I thought Martin Erics was a bit of a cooler
name than DJ Marty.

Speaker 1 (45:03):
What it is?

Speaker 3 (45:05):
No, and my name, like, my real name is Martine Hoddson,
and but people have people have a hard time saying that, actually.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
Hodson. I was like, oh, I can do, let's close.

Speaker 3 (45:21):
I was like, Garrick's easier, And a lot of people
confuse the I J with chin, so they'd say Mark chink.

Speaker 4 (45:28):
But it's more than Martyn Martine Hodson.

Speaker 3 (45:32):
And then my father's name is Hero. It's my second name.
Mart I was like, I'll just do Martin. Garrick's is
a lot easier.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
Okay, because a lot of people have LIKEDS two armament
and like ABC, everybody has their own name. In fact,
I was a DJ for forty five days.

Speaker 5 (45:48):
Amazing, It's tell me that was a kid that I
made it X Ray oh DJ x Ray Yeah, like
a x R A Y.

Speaker 1 (46:01):
So my name is Raj and Raj became Ray because
it was a character which used to come in them
in a series which I used to watch and because
I was really loved acts, well, I'm like, I'm gonna
steal like acts from him, and.

Speaker 4 (46:13):
I was like, I love that.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
But I did DJ for like forty five days, and
then I realized that I'm horrible. I probably liked just
the when you're a kid, right, you just like the
You like this guy at the at the boot and
you feel like, oh, that's the status that you want.
He controls the party, he's the coolest guy in the club.

(46:37):
So you just want to become that. Probably that's why
I wanted to become that. Once I started learning, all like, fuck,
this is insane. I don't want to do this.

Speaker 4 (46:43):
I generally think DJing is not rocket science.

Speaker 1 (46:48):
Studio work is where like magic happened.

Speaker 3 (46:52):
Yeah, and of course on stage because people can resonate
with the songs, et cetera.

Speaker 1 (46:58):
But do you think you would have come number one
if you were want somewhere else? Yes? I think so.

Speaker 3 (47:06):
Of course I was lucky with with with the Netherlands
and Alan said huge exactly, a huge culture in electronic music,
like a lot of Dutch DJs. But I definitely know well,
it's it's hard to say, but I definitely know how
much hunger and how much how much of my time

(47:29):
like I put into learning and growing and how much
it excites me. Maybe it took me, it would have
taken me longer, but it would have definitely not not
slowed me down.

Speaker 1 (47:43):
Well fact, that's that's that answers all my questions, and
that's it. I think it's a great note to end
on that you put me in any country anywhere, I
would still shine like a star. That's a good way
to end. Thank you so much for spending so much time.
Thank you so much, so much for coming straight from
the airport, taking a shower in the studio, just being

(48:06):
your your incredibly humble. I'm so glad that I did it.
Thank you. Life for me has come to full circle.
So it's it's really no, no, thanks so much. Thanks
for having me. Thank you. I got them nothing yeah

(48:28):
yeah loaded loaded, yuy? What's up? Once again, thanks for
having me.

Speaker 5 (48:36):
I'm very excited to have you.

Speaker 1 (48:39):
You know what. No, similarly, then you never get this right?

Speaker 5 (48:50):
I okay, I guess.

Speaker 1 (49:01):
Oh ma, thank you so much for watching this podcast
till the end. Please let us know in the comments
what all did we do right so that we can
improve and keep doing that better and what all did
we do wrong so that we never repeat it? And
at the same time, please give us suggestions of who's
the next guest that you want to see on the podcast,

(49:22):
And don't forget to share this episode with at least
one person who will get some insights, because one conversation
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I'll see you next time. Until then, keep figuring out
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