This week Martyn released 'The Air Between Words,' his third LP and first ever on the UK's esteemed Ninja Tune imprint which - in comparison to his past two albums -our reviewer described as, "a counter-balance of introspective darkness, serious grooves and bouts of emotive warmth." Pulse's Morgan Richards spoke with the Dutch producer about the new album, his move to DJing with vinyl, political statements in music and Henry Rollins.
Hi Martyn, how are you? Are you at home in Washington DC at the moment? Yeah, I got back from touring Europe for ten days or something. So I 'm basically resting up and getting back to good health.
Does touring take a bit of a toll on you? It does a little bit. But lately I've been playing longer DJ sets and obviously that's a little tougher than doing one-hour live sets. But it's much more fun to go deeper and use vinyl to extend your set a little.
So you play vinyl when touring now? I thought you played from a laptop? I actually quit using a laptop because I got a bit fed up with the sound quality. It also gave me a lot of stress. Just to connect everything and all that. You only really notice how stressful it is when you quit. I really noticed that I was much more at ease when playing vinyl. It's a bit more carrying and you're a little more wary at airports hoping that everything arrives alright, but I think the end result is definitely worth it.
The other thing I also find important is that you're telling people that you've actually put in some effort. People who show up with a usb stick and a pair of iPhone headphones don't really look like they've really put in the hours or put in the hard work to come and play music to people. So it's also a bit of a visual thing.
Are you sure you're not just rationalising carrying around all these heavy bags of vinyl? [Laughs] I definitely feel that it sounds better. And you also play differently when you use a laptop, you're a little more ADD when it comes to selections. You don't have that physical feeling of turning around, going through your records to make a selection. You basically have everything on your screen. So it changes the set you know?
You've got a bit of reputation for playing a lot of different styles of music. Do you find that's something you have to compromise on when you're toting vinyl? Yeah, it makes the selection before you leave for the gig more challenging. You want to have a wider selection but you also have limited space. But it's totally different when you compare ten thousand tracks on the laptop to sixty to eighty pieces of vinyl.
Your latest album, 'The Air Between Words', has quite a housey sound to it, much more so than previous albums. What influences were coming out when you were making it? I think the influences were not so much in genres or styles of music I was listening to, but obviously there was much more focus on four to the floor on the album and also in contemporary electronic music nowadays. But I think the influence was more of a process where I wanted to go back to using mostly analogue techniques and just sort of writing simple songs that were good, instead of trying to make a lot of layered music that sounded amazing but really wasn't that great. I wanted to go back to a core of drum machine, synths some effects and that's it. And try and write really memorable music.
I think that approach is apparent on the track 'Drones'. It's a simple track with a simple approach but is hard-hitting for that very reason. I think I was always experimenting with lots of samples and wanted to make music that was very rich. And working with mostly analogue tech, you simplify the music a bit. 'Drones' is quite a good example I guess. Basically a beat and then a jazz riff and an analogue riff on top of that synth. But it does tell a story in a way, or at least I try to make it tell a story.
With your 'Newspeak' EP last year, there's a few obvious Orwell references in there and it got me wondering - is politics something that comes into your musical process at all? I guess so. Not necessarily in that I want to send a message across. But I think that awareness is very important. Obviously I moved to Washington DC, I started studying here as well, doing political science, so it's something that's on my mind and something I think and write about. So that is going to shine through in some way. But as far as trying to send a message, the only sort of message that I want to convey with the music is much more a message of charity or a message of being good. It's not necessarily a punk message where you actually have a real political opinion that you want to bring across.
On the album, the track 'Drones' you could see as a political statement, but the only political statement that I want to transmit is awareness. The awareness that there are things that are drones and that they do stuff, but it's not that I’m for or against that; it's much more of an awareness message than anything else.
How do you think your music does that? Brings across a message? If you make music that has no vocals, then there's no much that you can use. You can use samples or track titles, like I sometimes do, but that's about it.
Don't you think that there's a certain aspect other than words? I mean, ambient music played in airports or elevators is designed to reassure us that nothing's wrong, to relax us, to comfort us. But then there's also a lot music that, while still ambient, can put you on edge or put you in a different kind of state. Like Biosphere or something like that. Don't you think in dance music you can still be political in a sense with the sounds you're using and how you've put them together? I guess. You know people like Perc, the techno guy? He uses a lot of noise and drones and things like that. I can see how that can put you on edge when listening to it. And being on edge could also raise a heightened awareness. But it's not like a really try to do that in my music. I've never been experimental in my music like that. Obviously I try to tell a story in my music and evoke an emotion, so on that level I am trying to a get across something. But to call that political I think goes a bit too far. 
Alright, let's get off politics now. You recently curated an issue of the Red Bull Music Academy magazine. What was that experience like? It was really fun actually. I saw someone, I think it was Levon Vincent, do one a while back. I was really intrigued to see how in curating something like that you can show your personality and your interests as well as trying to get people to read stuff they might not otherwise read. So I was very interested in doing it and the people at red bull are generally very accommodating and open to your ideas. So it was cool to work together and get some good content going.
You did a couple of interviews as part of you curating the magazine. If you could do another interview with anyone else, alive or dead, who would that be? I think David Byrne. Or maybe Henry Rollins.
What would you ask Henry Rollins? I probably wouldn't asked him about politics so much, because he's so direct about that in his music. I think he has a really interesting position in the States as a rock musician and a rebel. But he's also turned quite mainstream now. And as far as politics goes, he's somewhere between left and right. I mean, he started off as a proper punk, but he's also said things about supporting US troops in Iraq and stuff like that. So it's a weird mix of left and right. That would be a pretty interesting thing.
What inspires you in electronic music today? Not that much, to be honest [laughs]. Maybe it's because when I write music I’m in a little bubble, trying to limit myself to listening to music that I'll want to buy while record shopping. But I try not to listen to too many people who are doing something else because it's just going to get confusing in the studio for me. I haven't really listened to a whole lot of music in the last year or so. It's only really now that I’m starting to follow what's going on and what other people are doing. Like I said, most of the inspiration that I have musically is from older records or older artists, and also a lot of music that's not electronic.
What have you got planned for the rest of the year? The next couple of months is gigs and festivals in Europe. I’m also doing some stuff with Inga, we do a small live PA where we play a song and she sings on it. I’m also starting to get back into the studio and doing some more songs. I did a 12" with Steffi from Ostgut that's coming out after the summer. I’m working on some other collaborations as well. It's good to get straight back in here and not take too long of a break so I don't have to completely start from scratch.
Your bio on Resident Advisor introduces you as an "intergalactic jedi funkateer". I take it you're a bit of a Star Wars fan then? Yes. For sure. [Laughs]
What do you think about the new movies coming out? They could never be worse than the last three that came out! So I’m hoping for something in between the old three and those ones.
OK Martyn, thanks for the chat. Hope you get over to Australia sometime soon. Thank you. I do too!
[Martyn's new album 'The Air Between Words' is out now on Ninja Tune. Read our review here.]