MGHUB : How has 2017 treated you?

MG : 2017 was amazing! I got to travel the world. Looking back at this year, I am super happy with the music that I have released. Scared To Be Lonely, Byte, Pizza, There For You, So Far Away, it’s been a year of a lot of tracks which I am really proud of. Also studio wise, I have been working on so much new music. I’ve been in the studio with some really talented people. I am very happy with 2017; show wise we got to do Coachella, we got to introduce a whole new show, new visuals, new lights and I feel this year we lifted everything to a whole new level which I am really proud of. I can’t wait for 2018!

MGHUB : What are you looking forward to the most in 2018? Any specific shows or festivals?

MG : I am excited for all the shows! We recently launched STMPD recording studios in Amsterdam. Over there, I’m going to focus on bringing new artists, lots of different types of music, so we are excited about the music part in 2018. Also show wise I’m super excited, right now we have a lot of shows that are not announced yet. And we are working on something really crazy which will create unique moments for fans who are a part of the whole journey, so I’m really looking forward to that. Hopefully next year my new house will be finished and I will have 2 studios in there, so it’s going to be one massive creative place.

MGHUB : Talking about your contrasting alias YTRAM, how did you come up with it?

MG : We just had an idea to play a more deep house set. Basically, the whole idea started every time at Ushuaia, in the green room, I ended up playing a deep house set in front of the people who had invites to enter the backstage area after my set. One day, I was like f*** it, I’m just going to play an YTRAM set and see if people like it. Only thing was that I didn’t want people to think ‘’ugh it’s Martin again’’, so I was like ‘yo we need to put on some mask or something’. But it was fun! I did this at Tomorrowland and the feedback I got was really crazy. I’m doing it again during New Year’s Eve, so it’s going to be fun!

MGHUB : We are looking forward to that set! How do you pronounce YTRAM?

MG : I don’t even know myself haha! It’s Marty but it’s just spelled backwards. It’s /etram/ I think. It’s just something fun to DJ under. Even if YTRAM releases a song one day which is like crazier, weirder. But for me at the moment Martin Garrix and AREA21 have my main focus.

Martin Garrix performing at TimeOut72 Festival, Goa. [ Photo credit : DLDK INDIA ]

MGHUB : How do you handle all the negativity that the internet loves to hand out?

MG : For me, my whole life is based on positivity. I don’t even look at the negative shit. At the beginning of my career, I got negative feedback and I was like “Ugh what are you doing…”. But now I get so much more happiness and I feel like the moment you decide to focus more on good and positive things, it will come back to you. If you think positive, you get positivity in return. For me, to best way to shut up the haters who say negative stuff is to continue what we are doing right now. 10 years from now, 20 years from now, 30 years from now, we look back and be like, whoa we did something f****** crazy! We left a positive impact in the world. Because for me, making music is being positive. I’ve got a new single coming up with AREA21 called ‘Happy’ and that song will probably release in January or February. That song is literally our life. Like it’s just a Happy song! The lyrics are ‘’I’m so happy, happy. Good vibes, good vibes. Everything is alright!” and I feel like, the moment you tell yourself you are happy, you think about positive shit, you feel more happy and you are always proud of that.

MGHUB : Oh my God, I wish I could just tweet about this right now, like I do every time!

MG : You can do that haha!! You can tweet, “AREA21 - HAPPY, COMING VERY SOON ON STMPD RCRDS!”

MGHUB : What do you think about the state of electronic music in 2017?

MG : A lot of people are like, ‘Oh my god, it’s going crazy’ but I actually like it because there was a point in 2015/2016, where everything sounded the same, which annoyed me. That’s also one of the reasons why I refrained myself a little from the big room sounds, because everybody started doing it.

I love melodies, I love chord progressions, I feel like with all the Martin Garrix songs what I try to do at least, is to give out a certain emotion, a certain feeling with the music that I put out and I feel like, in some electronic music, it’s kind of missing. It’s just like who can create the loudest kickdrum with the most annoying sound on the top of it which can make everybody jump at a festival. But for me, what you heard this year with ‘Pizza’ as well, I tried to bring violins, guitars. I’m also playing guitar on the Troye Sivan song. I just want to go back to the base music again. For me, music is music, a good song is a good song. That’s why we started AREA21. I can’t even tell you how many other things we’ve got coming up. We did a crazy rock kind of song the other day. I just love making music, I don’t want to think like, oh I’m just an electronic music producer, no, I just do whatever I feel is good. Sometimes it’s a pop song, sometimes it’s a dance or club song. I’m actually going to premiere a brand new unreleased song tonight, which no one has heard before. It’s a surprise for India! I don’t know when we are going to release it, probably January or February. I’ve also got a lot of club songs coming up, some happy Garrix songs, it’s crazy! I think we can release an album with AREA21 now, which I’m not going to do anytime soon, but that’s how much unreleased music we have. And then I’m about to start a complete new project, but that’s not publicly. It will be in the background just for helping and guiding other people. So a lot of exciting things are going to happen!

MGHUB : How important the Asian market is for you & STMPD?

MG : For me, every market is important. What I like so much is that every market is unique & different. When I’m here in India, it’s completely different from when I’m in the USA. For me, that’s what makes it interesting. If everything was the same, I would be bored. I get bored really quick, but the fact that everything is different and unique, every place there’s new faces, there are new cultures and it really inspires me. And also for STMPD, it’s just not Asian market. We see the feedback from all over the world, which is really inspiring and exciting. Right now, we are signing some really crazy music and cool artists on STMPD. I don’t want it to just to be an electronic music label, I want it to be a super diverse label. I want people to see an upload from STMPD and be like, ‘I’ve no idea what kind of song it’s gonna be but I know it’s going to be good!’ Cause’ we don’t want the label to be focused on one specific genre.

MGHUB : Oh yeah, you guys released Codes EP few weeks back and after listening to it, the first message I wrote was to Watse saying, how different it is from other tracks released on the label. I never thought STMPD would put out a record like that. I’m totally digging it!

MG : You’ve got no idea what’s coming up next, we’ve got more new things! I’m really excited for you to see it!