Martijn ten Velden is touring the US for the very first time. Though this is definitely not the first time you have heard of him. Paired with Mark Knight, the team pumped out over fifty remixes over a short 3 year period for everyone from Steve Lawler and Shapeshifters to Natasha Bedingfield. Going solo, Martijn released a hugely successful Toolroom Knight mixed compilation and continues to produce and remix extensively. Will his recent move from UK to Dubai change his sound?
DJ Ron Slomowicz: Have you been to Dubai before?
Martijn Ten Velden: Yes, I've been here loads of times. I play here
at this club called Peppermint, like twice a year. I moved here six
weeks ago.
RS: So you're no longer living in the UK, you're living in the Middle East?
Martijn Ten Velden: That's right.
RS: That seems like a really interesting move. What inspired that?
Martijn Ten Velden: It's because my girlfriend lives here already.
It's also because I lived in London for eighteen years, and I just
wanted something new and challenging, like a new, little adventure,
for the inspiration. It doesn't really matter where I live because I
travel all over the world, literally. So Dubai is the same thing.
RS: How do you think the Dubai music scene is going to affect
your musical output?
Martijn Ten Velden: Well it's not, really, because I literally travel
every week to a different country. It won't make a big difference
because I'm always on the road anyway. I've got my DJ friends on the
instant messenger, so I'm getting all the new stuff still. I actually
think that living here will increase my production output for sure,
because the apartment I have here is five times bigger than the one I
have in London, so I have loads of space. It's going to be good.
RS: And I guess there might be fewer interruptions?
Martijn Ten Velden: Yes, yes, exactly.
RS: You're coming to the US for the first time for this tour.
Martijn Ten Velden: Yes, it's long overdue, really. I get a lot of
messages on MySpace from people – when are you coming to the US? We
want to see you. And of course I had the track "I Wish You Would," out
on Robbins, last year, so there's a lot of things in the US. I joined
the Vital Talent Agency last year, formally Chaotica, and it's finally
time for the first tour. I'm really looking forward to it. It's going
to be really cool.
RS: What are you expecting?
Martijn Ten Velden: I'm expecting clubs with a really good sound and
party people. I'm expecting something really good. I'm not really
sure. I've been in Miami, but Miami's not a reflection of the US. It's
one tiny, little corner. It's a huge country, so I think it will be
different in every city. I don't know yet how it's going to be
different. I might be surprised. I might like Denver more than New
York. Who knows?
RS: Your Toolroom Knights CD last year did very well. How do you
go about putting together a compilation like that?
Martijn Ten Velden: First I make a short list of maybe thirty,
thirty-five tracks, and try to get a licensing clearance to make sure
that I can use them. Then once I've got the news back from the labels
about which tracks I can use, I start choosing which tracks are really
going to go on. I think on the tour I ended up with about fourteen
tracks, but the initial selection was about thirty. So you end up
using about fifty percent of the selected tracks. You just go over it,
like with your DJing, just try to make it an interesting mix.
RS: Do you ever make original tracks for these compilations?
Martijn Ten Velden: Actually on the tour compilation I did, the very
first track is a special, unreleased version of "I Wish You Would"
which is only on the compilation. I put new beats, I changed it all
around, so I guess that was a new track for the compilation, like a
special intro.
