RS: Looking at your current work, what are you working on right
now in the studio, remix-wise or production-wise?
Martijn Ten Velden: I just finished a remix a couple of weeks that is
doing really well on Beatport. It's the new Shapeshifters "Chime."
That's number two on the Beatport house chart now. I just finished
that a month ago, actually. I'm working on two new productions.
They're both almost finished. One is an instrumental track called
"Together,"and I'm doing the final mix down next week. And then
there's another track, which is a full vocal with a girl singer called
Kelly. She did most of the vocals on the last Roni Size, so she's a
drum and bass vocalist. It's a really nice mix – very techy, electro-y
backing track. She's got these really cool drum and bass urban vocals
over the top. That's a really interesting little project as well. That
one I just recorded last week. I still have to put the whole thing
together. So, there are two tracks in the pipeline. The first one, the
instrumental, should come out real soon – I think we're going to
release it digitally, maybe in about a month. The other one is planned
for October, maybe November. Then there are a couple of remixes in the
pipeline as well. I didn't remix for quite a while because I've been
so busy DJing and traveling, but I'm back in the studio now. I've got
a new computer, so I'm doing another remix for Defected. And I might
be remixing Delirium, "Silence."
RS: That's a running joke with me and my friends – "Oh look, it's
July, it's more mixes of Silence," because they seem to come every
three months.
Martijn Ten Velden: I know, they keep coming. I might do it. I'm not
sure, because it's such a known song. I do love it even though it's
kind of cheesy. There's something about it. But I'm not sure yet how
I'm going to go about it. I want to really change it and make
something new out of it.
RS: I heard a rumor that you did some production with Roger
Sanchez. Whatever came of that stuff?
Martijn Ten Velden: It's true. We never finished it.
RS: Will it ever see the light of day or it just …?
Martijn Ten Velden: I think it will eventually. It's one of those
things, because we both have such busy schedules. We started it two
years ago, in the summer, in Roger's villa in Ibiza, and we spent the
day there. Then we both went our separate ways. Nine months later he
was in London for one day, and came to my studio to work on it. We
didn't have months and months of time, because we were both in
different cities and it kind of fizzled out, and we never got around
to finishing it. But it's actually a cool idea; it's a very nice
groove. We're still friends, so who knows, one day we might finish it.
I think we will.
RS: When you DJ out, are you on CD or laptop or vinyl?
Martijn Ten Velden: I'm on CDs now. I used to be vinyl, but it's too
heavy when you travel. I like CDs because you still have to mix, and I
love the thrill of mixing, keeping it all in time and looping. You
have to be on your toes. For me, mixing on Abelton is hard, it's not
as much fun. I use Ableton for my radio mixes because it's easier to
program your mix, to shorten songs. On radio mixes, everything has to
happen much quicker, and you can edit the songs down in Ableton. But I
don't use it live.
RS: When you're mixing music on the computer, are you using Logic
or ProTools?
Martijn Ten Velden: I use Logic. Sometimes in the beginning for my
beats, I work with it on Ableton as well, but then I transfer it to
Logic.
RS: Do you carry your laptop on the road with you? Do you work on
music when you're touring?
Martijn Ten Velden: Always, yes. I love – after a really good
session, and it's been a really good club night – I love to come back
to the hotel and make beats. So I need my laptop there, and my Logic
key. Sometimes when I go on a long tour, like a three-week tour, I
take my little mini keyboard with me as well, so I can play the keys
and write stuff. So yes, I take it with me all the time.
RS: We met at Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) a few years ago. What
does ADE do for you?
Martijn Ten Velden: Well, ADE is a very big conference, but
everything is near to each other, so it's very easy. I think ADE is
very good to get business on. For all the conferences at the moment,
for house music, it's just a very good get-together and it's very easy
to meet people. At ADE, a lot more deals get done these days than in
Miami.
RS: I always ask the Dutch DJs this – why do you think Amsterdam
produces so many great international DJs and producers?
Martijn Ten Velden: We have a very long culture of dance music, for
sure. We were there in the 80s, when it first exploded. It was already
big here, when it first started at the end of the 80s. So it's been in
our blood for the last twenty years at least. There's a long history
of music lovers. Why they are so popular – I think there are a lot of
quite commercial DJs from Holland. They've got very good management,
who really know how to do business. I'm not sure if it's real quality,
but I do know there are a lot of commercial DJs from Holland, which is
why they're big. I'm not sure if I like them all. I'm being
diplomatic.
RS: I respect you for that. What would you like to say to all
your fans out there?
Martijn Ten Velden: Oh, please come to the shows so we can get it on
all night. I'm so looking forward to playing in the US. I've played
all over the world, done tours everywhere, but the US is the only
place I haven't. It's such a big, important territory and there's so
much music coming from the US, it's got so much history. So I'm really
trilled to see what it's all about.
Posted August 10, 2008
