L4LM: Hey, what’s up, nice to meet you!
MartyParty: What’s up man? MartyParty here in Colorado.
Let’s get down to it… So, you have a very distinct style of music – you mix elements of dubstep, hip-hop, and electro. How would you describe your music if you had to?
MartyParty: Club hip-hop man, hip-hop for the club, you know what I mean? The club experience. Not before the party, THE PARTY.
I’ve heard your music being described as a “purple opera” or “purple music”, can you explain that?
MartyParty: Yeah I mean, since I started writing music I’ve been smoking weed, I’ve been smoking weed my whole life and so it’s a big inspiration to me. I have my favorites, and my favorite high, and my favorite songs I write is when I’m smoking the purple. And it’s just always been like that. So that’s how it started, and the music just happened to be hitting at the right time, and it’s just always been purple to me.
That’s amazing, so what are your influences?
MartyParty: My biggest influence would probably have been the bands of the 80′s and 90′s and the club scene of the 90′s and 2000′s. You know, that’s my life. I went from rock and roll, pop music, Michael Jackson, through to fucking Tiesto and Paul van Dyke. I’ve been through that experience. And I kind of love hip-hop, I’m from South Africa, I have a lot of that energy in me, and I’m just crossing that over with the club music. It’s progressive hip hop or a cross between hip hop and dubstep.
So who are some of your favorite Hip Hop artists?
MartyParty: Hip Hop wise, I’d say my biggest influences are the producers of hip-hop. Dr. Dre, you know, these kind of guys. The people that make the music behind the rapping. I love rapping and I have my favorites and I play a lot of acapellas in my show that are my favorites. And you’ll see there won’t be some people, and they’ll be a lot of others. I like Gucci [Mayne], I’m a big fan of the south, I love the southern vibe, so I’m a big southern hip hop fan, and now ASAP Rocky I’m enjoying. East coast is coming back, you know, the West coast, I lived there a long time, was a Tupac fan forever, I’m a Lil’ Wayne fan, inspired by all those guys. But their music, the people behind the music, I always hear the music, I’m a musician.
So you’re more into the beats?
MartyParty: Well I don’t even like the word beats. Beats destroyed music because now it just became beats. They got so big, now there’s no music left, people just want to hear beats. That happened with house steady beat music, you know? It’s just about the beats, you can put any shit on top of it. I like music where you don’t need a beat. Its got a story its music. It’s a composition, with an introduction, a body, and a closure. That’s what I like, that’s what I write.
Well, you’re known for breaking genres. Do you think DJ’s or producers that try to stick to a certain genre of electronic music are limiting themselves?
MartyParty: Yeah, well, we were just talking about it with my tour manager Sam, how we’re inspired by Diplo, and how we respect Diplo so much. You say why, but it’s because he’s dabbled in everything. You know, he’s crossed genres his whole career. He’s continued to put out hits in every genre. Like, I think as a musician, if you really are a music producer, and a musician, you naturally want to explore. It’s all about new bass sounds, new sounds, new drum patterns, exploration, and experimentation. If you’re not experimenting, you’re not an artist. If you stick with one thing and go with it, you’re maybe a DJ, maybe it’s the show you’re interested, or you’re a business person, trying to make some money, I don’t know. You’re not an artist. Artists are pushing the envelop with every song, in every way and that’s just what I’ve always wanted to do like, the purple genre captures that as well. The people that are doing it, there’s a lot of them now, popping all over the west coast, Chris Brown, Sugar Pull, all these guys, MiMoSa, fucking you name it, Sam, I mean, on the east coast now it’s coming up. People are making purple music, they’re making music again, it’s about the composition.
Wow, that was deep! So when were you introduced to dubstep?
MartyParty: The first dubstep song I ever heard was Rufage by Loefah and I was like what the hell, this is the coolest song i’ve ever heard and my ears just started working – like how did they make this, what is the pattern, and when I finally worked out the wobble, and the triplets, and figuring out what exactly he was doing, I knew it was going to be huge. And eventually I became a huge fan of the drop.
When did you start incorporating it into your music?
MartyParty: I’ve always liked bass lines. I mean my first music I’ve ever made had the richest bass lines actually. So when I heard dubstep I knew I wanted to make the bass line a lead, that’s all it is, lead bass, and so now i’m addicted to it. It’s my voice, you know, I can’t sing for shit, I’m a Jew! And my voice just sucks, so bass is my voice.
So what kind of influence have video games had on your music?
MartyParty: Video games had a huge influence on my life, and so anything that influences my life, influences my music. Basketball, videogames, food, love, places, traveling, people, that’s where it comes from.
Well you have one song that heavily samples the noises from Pacman.
MartyParty: Here we go, Pacman, I love Pacman, and I always loved that tune, it’s stuck in my head, so I made just made a remix of it dubstep style, like the whole story of the little Pacman getting chased, hitting the button and then chasing after the dudes. I just made a story of his like little trip, you know? That little jingle is so powerful, and so I did that one and that just kills it. Everyone gets that one.
What’s your creative process for creating a song from scratch?
MartyParty: I’m pretty much addicted to making music. I can’t go a long time without making music. When I start making music it usually comes from a sound, I just make a sound. I synthesize everything, a lot of people don’t know that, but I make EVERY sound from scratch. I sample only drum hits, then I put them together, just the hits, a lot of people don’t know that part of purple is that it’s synthesized. It’s not just sample packs and sounds that have been used before, it’s about starting and making sounds that NO ONE has ever heard from scratch, for everything. So it starts with a sound, and when I get a sound that no one’s ever heard before and find a melody that works with it, that little melody will drive everything, then you get a kick drum using the same scale, you pick a scale, find some chords, start making a beat, once you get a beat going and the melody and the chords, you can work on a bass line. Once you get the bass line right you can see if it sounds good with just the drums, if its not add some percussion, add something else, but it starts with just a little sound. One sound becomes a song. Then you got to name it, and thats weird. My names are weird.
How do you come up with a name for a song?
MartyParty: I usually name it from what I hear it saying in the bass line. Like “Just Because of You”, that song, that’s what I hear. People are always like “It’s so deep”, no, it’s just what I hear.
How do you know what songs you want to remix?
MartyParty: I get introduced to a lot of songs through other people because I spend so much time in the studio, like my tour manager Sam, and my wife Mary. They show me the good songs and it doesn’t take long before I fall in love with one, and then I remix it. And lately, its been good, like Die Antwoord’s new album I think is amazing so I had to do one of his songs. The new M.I.A. is so sick and I thought it could’ve been better, so I made it better. I left it as it is but I made it a little much bigger. And the Gucci I’m playing on my set is another traphouse. When I see something I like, I know I have to remix it. And the opposite is true, there are some songs that I just won’t touch.
So you have two side projects…
MartyParty: Actually I have many side projects, the main side project is PantyRaid with Josh, from the Glitch Mob. We just made 14 incredible sketches for that in the studio, and we’re going to be putting out that album, and its really going to be hot. That’ll be the next PantyRaid album. And I have this other side project with this other guy named Willy Wompa, Mike from the east coast, he’s an incredible human being. He’s a genius at sound design, the guy is a God.. of music. And I started working with him under the name M^2 now, we’re gonna find another name for it. I have another side project called Deathstar, with Minnesota, and we released an EP that just killed it. Me and Sam are going to do something as well. But I’m always looking for rappers, I want to do the next hip hop, Lil’ Wayne, Lil’ Jon, these people better call me up soon!
What would you say makes these collaborations different then your solo work?
MartyParty: They use different sounds. All of a sudden I hear a sound that I don’t know how to make or that I haven’t made yet so I get inspired by a melody or a tuning or a scale that I wouldn’t do naturally and it takes me there, and I learn, you learn as an artist. Remixes teach you, collaborations teach you, if you sit on your own and you only do your own thing, you’re only going to go one way. The more inspiration you get from others the more diverse it’s going to get. And that’s the way I’ve gone, more diversity comes from more collaboration and influences, which come from the internet generation. Look how much music we have coming at us, it’s crazy. We have no excuses as artists not to make the craziest shit ever.
Do you prefer playing in front of a large festival crowd or a small intimate club setting?
MartyParty: I get introduced to a lot of songs through other people because I spend so much time in the studio, like my tour manager Sam, and my wife Mary. They show me the good songs and it doesn’t take long before I fall in love with one, and then I remix it. And lately, its been good, like Die Antwoord’s new album I think is amazing so I had to do one of his songs. The new M.I.A. is so sick and I thought it could’ve been better, so I made it better. I left it as it is but I made it a little much bigger. And the Gucci I’m playing on my set is another traphouse. When I see something I like, I know I have to remix it. And the opposite is true, there are some songs that I just won’t touch.
How do you know what songs you want to remix?
What would you say makes these collaborations different then your solo work?
MartyParty: I like it all. I’m MartyParty. The way I do it is I make a party for myself, behind the booth, with the music, and the monitors, with the energy of the crowd. I can kill it for one person on a small on a small speaker, and I can kill it for 20,000 on a huge system. I like them both. The most favorite thing though is when everybody knows your songs, and that’s the MartyParty tour that I’m on now, where everyone is following every bass line.
What’s the funniest thing that’s happened to you on this tour?
MartyParty: There was this guy who said he ran Camp Bisco, and stole my entire bottle of Jameson and hid it under his jacket in my green room haha. I don’t know all kind of crazy shit, but it’s a party man.
What’s the future hold for MartyParty?
MartyParty: Make music till I die. Keep doing this till my body gives up. Then inspire the young people to make music. Start the MartyParty school of music and teach young kids how to make beats like as an extracurricular activity instead of chess. Instead of video games and TV kids should be learning how to make music.
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