Martin Solveig Interview

Martin Solveig was thrown onto an international platform after the release of his track ‘Hello’ sold record copies and became “much more famous than Martin Solveig” himself. BBMLive caught up with the world-renowned DJ in the middle of his schedule, which includes mega-collaborations and global club residencies, to discuss his many achievements, his favourite clubs and romantic locations.

Hi Martin, how are you?

I’m good thanks.

Where in the world are you speaking to us from?

I’m in Paris.

Sounds lovely. How has the year been for you so far?

The year has been amazing. After the ‘Smash’ era, which is my previous album, I started to work on a number of collaborations with different people that I like. The first track I released was ‘Hey Now’ which was a collaboration with The Cataracs and Kyle. It’s had quite a strong success. The latest one is a new track that I just leaked on the Internet a couple of days ago. It’s called ‘Blow’ and it’s with my longterm friend Laid Back Luke.

You spoke about collaborating, how did the collaboration with The Cataracs and Kyle come about?

We met a couple of years ago when we both had tracks out at the same time in the US. It was ‘Hello’ for myself and ‘Like A G6’ for The Cataracs and we happened to meet a lot in the promotion of those two singles, which were breaking through at the same time.

You produced six tracks on Madonna’s album ‘MDMA’. What was it like working with Madonna?

It was the biggest experience of my life, meeting with another artist. It’s such a blessing to work with someone who is so talented and someone who has managed to stay relevant for three decades, which is so unique. I’m not even sure that kind of thing will ever exist again to the younger generation of Pop artists.

Where do you find inspiration from when creating music?

I get inspired by different things, situations, life. I also try to be inspired by different locations such as hotel rooms or aeroplanes, which are my two favourite places to hang out because this is where I live the most actually.

‘Hello’ was such a big song that catapulted you into the limelight, what do you think it was about that track that got people so interested?

I strongly believe that it’s always accidental. There was a chain of events around the release of that song that made it very popular, and it became something that was actually much, much bigger than myself. I know that this song is so much more famous than Martin Solveig.

You must travel a lot! But what would say is the single best thing about Paris?

I’m almost never in Paris anymore unfortunately. Paris is a sleeping beauty as I see it. It’s a place I would recommend for people who want to propose because it’s a very romantic place. But when people ask me “where’s the best place to go to party?” I never recommend Paris. That would be like the 20th or 30th city in my chart for having fun with friends. But when you want to have a romantic weekend, Paris would probably be my second.

Your second! What’s your first then?

I think Rome. Rome is the most romantic city.

You’re clearly very busy, but when you’re not making music what do you do for fun?

I play a lot of tennis. I know it shows from the ‘Hello’ video that I have a passion for this sport. So definitely tennis. Another one would be cinema, which is my other big passion. I’ve started to read a lot about psychoanalysis. I’ve actually started to read a lot of books by Freud. I do a little bit of practice for my brain. I think it’s very boring, most DJs like to go out partying.

Talking of partying, you’ve got a few dates lined up in Las Vegas. What’s the scene like out there?

Vegas right now is so impressive. I’m really having a lot of fun at XS, which is my residency. It’s a fun thing, and it’s also new compared to Ibiza, which has been running for a very long time. It’s still very American though so I don’t think it’s necessarily going to translate to the European crowd. But for sure, it’s a big deal.

You mentioned some killer clubs there but can you name one that’s your favourite. It can be anywhere in the world.

One club?

Fine, you can name two! Go…

My favourite club this year was XS in Vegas, the parties I played were the biggest and the craziest, so many things happened there. Other DJs bumped into the DJ booth and all that stuff made the Vegas experience number one. I’m going to mention one other place that was a big surprise for me. Pacha, Ibiza, where I really did not expect anything special, but I found a very, very good musical crowd; very positive, very smiley, all the things I love. This season, this year at Pacha was the best I had played in my life and I’ve been playing there for 10 years.

What have you got planned for the rest of 2013?

I have maybe two, three or four tracks that are on the go, that need to be finished. I try to not release things that I’m not 100% sure of. And that doesn’t mean it’s a guaranteed success when I release something, it just means that when I release it I’m going to be happy to play it for a year or two in my set.

Can you sum up your personality in three words?

I would definitely say talkative, because you can’t deny I’ve been very talkative in this interview! Creative, I think I’m very creative and in a word…
[and] not synthetic!

Thanks Martin!

By Bryony Curtis