It’s hardly been a meteoric rise to fame for Martinez. Since his first release in 2001, the natural born Swede has moved easily between labels such as Dessous or Soma, via his own 2 labels, Out of Orbit and Re:Connected picking up remixes along the way from the likes of Nathan Fake, or Rui Da Silva, but always bubbling below the surface, a name on a record sleeve rather than one headlining the main poster. The last couple of years however, as he settles deep into the Moon Harbour collective, Martinez has become one of the vanguard of the new wave of house. Along with Matthias Tanzmann and Luna City Express, Martin (his real name) has become a symbol of all that is shiny and new about this thing called house. And this week as his latest album lands on Moon Harbour, Paradigm Shift, the mission statement couldn’t be clearer. Here we have a exclusive Interview preparing our engines for the MedellinStyle.com Megaopening 2011:
To begin first can you explain a little about your surroundings in the times. How your artist career sounds, ended influenced by Sverige, København, Detroit and Chicago, Berlin and kind off South American grooves at the same time?
“Well, I live at the moment since 11 years in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. I was born in Sweden and grew up there and moved to Copenhagen when I finished high school. There is a much better scene in Copenhagen for this music and much more opportunity to make something big and get inspired. So this felt like a natural choice for me. I think that back then I was living in Sweden, I was very influenced by the local DJ’s in Helsingborg (the city I grew up in), whom all played very slow and pitched down US Deep house. I liked this a lot and started to be 
inspired by it. When I got a little older I started to go to Copenhagen to buy records and later also to visit clubs there as it was very near to my hometown in Sweden. So the Danish DJ’s also inspired me a lot and changed my view a bit to the more party side of being a DJ and not only the art form. So, I think these two inspiration sources gave me the best of both the artistic form and entertaining form of performing as a DJ. As I always loved Detroit Techno and Chicago House, when I later started to produce I was very inspired by this sound and tried to bridge that with the ideas and surroundings from Swedish and Danish sound. For the South American grooves, I always loved percussions and strong hypnotic rhythms, which South Americans are the kings of! I even worked briefly in 2003 with a Brazilian vocalist who lived in Copenhagen for some stuff, but it was very different from what I am known for these days.”
• From Vanilla Monkey to Gourmet, what are the most strong changes that ¨la escena electronica mundial¨ had with the popularization of technology, superstar marketing and end of vinyl era?
“Yeah a lot has happened in the music scene and also with my sound over the last 5 years. The strongest change for me has been to find my way back to the more basic groove of house music and techno. To find that stripped down middle point of those sounds. I like to keep things more minimal, but with a strong sensation of the house 
feeling, which I think has been the most essential change in my sound. For the general change of the electronic music world, I think it has been great with the development of technology, more and more people can realize their dreams now and we have more talents showing up. Some people are very scared of this because it makes the competition harder, but I just think this is healthy. And for the fact that we have too much music coming out and the quality might drop only applies to lazy DJ’s that don’t spend enough time in searching and selecting their music. The end of vinyl? Hmmm… I don’t know about that. Of course the sales are going down and less people buy records, but this is just a development, because most people either can’t get vinyl or it is too expensive for them. I think its great with MP3 because more people will have access to the music this way. Of course I love the vinyl medium and I think its great if people can afford to support and still buy records, but its also hard for a kid in Argentina or Colombia to be able to get a hold of the European records in time when they still are fresh, because shipping is slow and expensive. If people go for one format over another its just natural and some formats just die with time. That said, I still think there is a lot of people that buy plenty of vinyl and these “heads” will always be around, it just becomes a more collector items these days.”
• You said København is the largest village of the world, Medellin is kind of also a city where feels you know and see everyone, different to New York or Berlin where you see thousands of persons in the metro and know already you will never will see them again in your life. In context, this can cause very delicated and conceptual variables for music, creativy and identity. Music, Can become as one dedicated community form, but as a escene, will ve condenmed to be limited to the slow importation of other cultures and expresions to it, what do you think about this?
“My thoughts on this is that of course the “smaller” cities get more closed and the import of other cultures and music are not as big. On the other hand I think that today it is such a difference because of the Internet and globalization. I am always impressed with how much people know about me in the smaller cities somewhere in Japan, Australia or South America, for example. Today fans of this music will go to Internet forums and share their music, information and ideas. You can also buy music online and also people travel much more these days and so many DJs can come and play in different cities all around the world. This way it gets much more spread around the world and accessible to people. So, I don’t think it’s a big isolation to live in a smaller city today.”
• You said that the sound of the Danish Scene is hard to describe, But don’t you think this ¨Dark thing¨ have its roots on new wave electro from middle 2000´s?
“Yes this might be true that there was more of a darker electro sound coming from Denmark in the mid 2000’s, like with Trentemøller etc… But I really think there was inspiration a lot from Cologne, Berlin, London and New York as well for this sound to grow. So I would not call it a specific Danish sound. Also many artists from around the world sent me this kind of music back then, so it is really hard to say that it’s a certain sound of a certain city, in my opinion.”
• And about globalization, basically, house comes and goes, techno comes and goes, but both are always there, is the software, creativity and gains to broke the schemes and have an own identity what counts in a flooded market of formulas and reformulas. Whats the most difficult part of not crossing the line between musical contribution and money!
“Well to answer the first question, I think the most important thing when it comes to standing out these days is the soul and passion you put in your music. Trying to think your own way, doing what feels right and not try and copy anyone (it is always good to be inspired by others, but not copying!). Find your own methods for making music, use software, instruments and effects in your own way, the way it works for you and the way you get the most out of it. This is the way to make something special I believe. About crossing the line between passion and money, I think its quite easy, don’t focus on the profit from the music. Let the profit come if it comes, but never ever let it influence the work you do. If we use the example of a painter, you will first sell the picture after its painted and the process of painting happens not with commercial intention, but with the expression of a feeling. It is the same with music, in my opinion.
• Without guilt your artist name ended sounding more Latino than Celia Cruz, what’s the story about your name?
“haha, Well, this is the classic question from any Latin interviewer. OK, as my real name is Martin Swanstein and in school there was a lot of Martin and I was called Martin S. to keep us apart, when you say Martin S. it sounds much like Martinez and when I started Djing and producing I used this nickname as an Artist name and suddenly I signed an EP to Guidance recordings with this name and know everyone knows me as Martinez! ”
• What is La Peña and what other projects are you in? We know something about dubby sounds but cant find where to hear them! Besides some really cool jazzy and downtempo tracks under Martinez.
“La Pena is a collective of many different producers that unit under one name and release good strong songs. I have made much music over the year, but most of it is released under Martinez. Mainly I had one other project called Lowtek Soundsystem, but it was only two releases on Out of Orbit Recordings, which was more dubby tech stuff. I have also released some reggae / dub stuff with different vocalists on Crucial Records from Denmark under Martin:ez.
• Where did you learn your spanish language grooves?
“I was hanging out a lot on Ibiza and in Barcelona for many years!”
• What have you heard about Medellin, what other Latin American scenes have you visited?
“About Medellin I’ve head nice things and that there is a good party/electronic music scene. Besides this I don’t know too much about Colombia, but I am very interested to find out more and excited to come visit Medellin style!! I am ready!!! ;)”
10- To end add a word in front of each SPANISH concept!
GROOVE: Maracas y Congas.
BUENA MUSICA: Made with spirit and true passion.
VIDA: Enjoy it and keep smiling.
MUERTE: The end at some point for us all.
DIOS: A strong goodwill force in all humans
RICO: Family, Friends & Happiness
TECHNO: Inspiring
HOUSE: Soulful
TRANCE: Hypnotic state
DENMARK: Cold, but home!
GERMANY: Efficient country, great people and home of Lufthansa the best airline in the world!
DETROIT: The heart of techno music
