Still only in their mid 20s, Steve and Christian Martinez have been making waves in the scene for almost a decade. Christian was just a fresh faced 15 year-old and still in school when he and his big bro received a mention in the New York Times as "ones to watch," which was a result of their father's encouragement and even starting a night with a friend so that the boys would have somewhere to DJ. It paid off too, and it wasn't long before they were signed by Dennis Ferrer and began touring the world, with regular slots in some of the best clubs before they were even of legal age.
Steve took the time last week to talk to Pulse's Kristen Marconi about where it all began for them, meeting Frankie Knuckles in their early years, their music and artistic workings outside of house music and how their affiliations with fashion powerhouse Givenchy are all thanks to that raucous party Circoloco at DC10.
Pulse: I see you're back in NYC now, after Miami, how was it? Steve Martinez: Yeah, just taking it easy now for a bit after a long WMC. It was crazy there. Pretty good vibe. We didn't go to nuts. Our parties were pretty cool, Circoloco and a couple of others. Our Dad came out with us. It was a good time.
Your Dad has been a key part in you guys DJing. First time I've heard of a father starting a night so his kids could get a chance to play. Was it your Dad who first showed you music? He was always introducing us to all sorts of different types of music. He didn't introduce us to house until later really. The start was jazz, latin and all that vibe. Then everything, really. I've got to say all the music I know of today really is because my Dad introduced me to it in one form or another.
How was it in your younger years - just finishing school, your brother still in school -adjusting with the transition from that life and into the club life? My brother was still in school when we really started getting booked often - I'd only just finished. But because we were going to clubs so young, I think it kind of gave us an advantage. We were so used to being around the club scene and the club life that when we came of age, we were already used to the surroundings so we didn't go nuts. Especially my brother, man. He was in clubs like 15, 16 years old.
Did you have to be the big brother and protect Christian in the beginning? For the most part we always had a chaperone, either my Dad or my Uncle. So the pressure was off me to have to look after anyone really, but there's always that there. I'm always the big brother. You have to look out for family.
Do you still consider the Bronx home, even with so much touring and living in Ibiza for the season? Not really, we first left the Bronx like 7 years ago. We went up state to live with my parents for like five years then got our own place in Queens. We've been gone from there a long time and it's crazy when we go back there to believe we lived there. It's another world.
Everywhere in New York is being gentrified. Even places like Brooklyn which used to be real ghetto, now has parties being thrown every weekend and so many people moving there. The Bronx is really the only place that still hasn't gone through the changes. Every time we go there it's like wow, everything is still the same. It makes us really grateful that we left.
Last week New York, house music and the whole electronic music industry suffered a big loss with the passing of the Godfather of House Music, Frankie Knuckles. How has the news and response affected you guys? Oh man, we haven't been able to stop talking about this, seriously. It's such a culture shock. Getting chills right now just talking about it. The first time we met Frankie was at our first WMC ever. We were nobodies. We were just these two young kids and we'd just rocked the party with Dennis [Ferrer] at Opium Garden and it was nuts. Then we ended up at the Shelbourne after, and who was at the Shelbourne in the booth? Frankie. He spotted us and a friend introduced us and he was like, "You guys were rockin'.”
He was so cool, man. It's incredible. It's such a sad thing. The only thing I hope comes out of this is young kids do their research now that it's all over their facebooks and find out. The music we're listening to now, if it wasn't for this dude…obviously there were others as well, but this dude. He was definitely a major catalyst in this whole thing. We lost a major one, and it sucks. You have to give respect where respect is due and I just hope people take a look at the history of what Frankie did. He did so much for this scene.
The Martinez Brothers @ The BPM Festival 2014 - Circoloco Night,Blue Parrot (06-01-14) by Livesetsarchive.Com on Mixcloud
Who stands out for you in the now of artists as pushing boundaries and being the leader in moving things forward today? Honestly, we've been working with Seth [Troxler] closely within the last year. We've got the label together now and we've been DJing together. Honestly out of all the guys in the scene right now, I think Seth is the one pushing all of it in every way whether it's his music, his DJ sets, his hilarity, his social networking, far as the whole package right now, Seth is the man. In that aspect he's killing it right now, especially musically. There's not a lot of DJs right now that I can say, wow those guys are pulling off some records. Even when we play back to back with him he's always pulling out jams and I definitely respect that a whole lot.
You've spoken of your love for hip hop in many interviews, and wanting to produce it. Is there anything out now or on it's way soon? We've always been producing hip-hop. We have all this music on our computers, so we need to get this stuff out. We've been putting some EPs out, just like for free, like the ‘Warhol * Basquiat *’ 1 and 2, which was named that because of a couple of things. In a way we were kind of poking fun at the whole thing. We felt like recently there's been this whole uproar on Basquiat and his work and all that. The other reason being a lot of people don't know we actually draw stuff too. So we were like, fuck it, let's take the piss, you can be Warhol and I'm Basquiat and let's make a mix tape. It was just a bit of fun.
We've actually lately been working on another mix tape with an artist by the name of Bodega Bamz. He's actually a really popular New York Rapper right now. We're working on an EP with him right now which should be out end of summer, which is strictly hip-hop. So yeah, we dabbling in the hip-hop.
You just mentioned you draw, what other art are you working on outside of music? We doodle once in a while. We've been getting into Oil Sticks at the moment. I don't know how to describe our art really, it's a bit out there. We draw a lot of characters. Actually, for our label Cuttin' Headz all the artwork will be done by us. Anything you see on Cuttin' Headz artwork wise is all me and Christian. Which is another way for us to showcase our art.
For me and my brother, we get bored easily, we're always having to find something to stimulate us. We love music obviously but there's so many other ways to be creative too, so we try as much as we can to try everything we love. Especially in this kind of scene as artists it's so easy to get pigeon holed and stay in one place and be scared to do other things. We want to diversify, do everything we can do and have fun.
You guys are working with one of the biggest names in fashion, Givenchy. What's your involvement? So basically we were asked to do a show with them which was in January and ever since then we've been doing music for a lot of their shows. The first one was actually a men's and the next one was a women's show in early March and we're actually going back with them to Japan in May to open the first Givenchy store in Tokyo. We've actually been working a lot with them. We feel their vibe, they feel our vibe. Riccardo [Riccardo Tisci, Creative Director of Givenchy] is great; he loves music, he loves the scene, he loves house music. We actually met Riccardo in DC10. That's how this whole thing actually came about. It's a good vibe.
Last but not least your on your way to Australia soon for the first time, on tour with Circoloco, is there anything you're looking forward to seeing here? Some kangaroos, or go on a safari of some sort. Definitely see some kangaroos though.
Martinez Brothers Australian Tour Dates
25.04.14 - Circoloco, Sydney [BUY]
26.04.14 - Circoloco, Melbourne
27.04.14 - Carnevale, The Causeway, Perth
