Christian Martin

This weeks podcast has been put together by San Francisco resident Christian Martin. Christian's music making journey began in the mid nineties under the tutelage of his brother and partner in crime, Justin Martin.  In 2003, Christian purchased a massive portable sound system and along with Justin, Worthy and Claude, began throwing outdoor parties in San Francisco called 'dirtybird'. Since then, dirtybird records has become synonymous with heavy bass and loose parties. Kristen Marconi caught up with him at home before he played the Lights Down Low party, to talk about dirtybird, the podcast and big sound systems. 

Download the podcast here

Pulse: Tonight you're playing a gig with Jokers Of The Scene, is it nice to play at home? Christian: It's always good to play at home. This is the second time I've played for this particular party, there's actually a way better sound system this time than there was last time. It's a nice change to play in front of a different audience than the typical dirtybird crowd too, obviously I love and prefer the dirtybird audience but it's good to be able to try new music with that different audience. I went to a few of the other Lights Down Low parties to do some research, so I'm quite excited to play music I haven't played live yet.

Do you get into the crowd or sit back when your researching the parties, will they recognise you from partying with them when you play? Hopefully some of my homies will show up. I just like to get in the sweet spot of the speakers, see what the sound is like and see how the DJ is playing and just absorb. From what I've seen It should be a good night tonight.

What's the scene like in San Francisco? It's really healthy. There's a lot of different crews that are doing parties. The audience are really savvy, there's not so many venues with good sound systems and people sort of figure out early when clubs first open whether it's going to be a go to spot. It's not based on bottle service or being hip. A lot of clubs try and approach it that way without much success. It's the clubs that have the big sound systems, no bullshit attitudes and a good booking policy that are going to rise to the top always.

The promoters that are in the city at the moment are really aware of that. It's only a small city and the promoters that are really strong in the scene at the moment have their ear to the ground, they know what's poppin', it's nice, there's a lot of really good talent coming through here all the time so there is never a shortage of inspiration.

How did dirtybird records com about? Other than you and Justin, obviously, how do you all know each other? I met Barclay Summer of 2000. I was working on an animated music video with some people and he was working at a post production studio. We were doing the whole thing in Flash and he really helped us get from the vision to the final product. In that process he played us some of the music he was working on. At the time he was playing and producing drum and bass and some real bass heavy tracks. Our friendship started there and from there we kept in touch about the creative projects we were doing.

I always had sound systems on my mind and when it came around that I wanted to buy one, he was around. Worthy was always living with Justin and it sort of organically became the foursome it is today. It had always been obvious to me that in order to stand out I'd have to be doing my own events. Because it gets pretty competitive  and there's only a certain amount of DJ spots. So to stand out I wanted to do my own parties from day one and we all shared that mentality.

Soon after that Barclay was working on Intellect, a DVD documentary about DJing. He took a year or two and went and interviewed all these A-list DJs about how they became successful and what to do. I think the record label was his experiment to see if he followed the advice from all these DJs what would happen. Justin was just starting to make his own music at that time. It was a really good time for us all to come together.

We were all really up for it and ready for something new. It was almost a reaction to the sexy house that was dominating the scene in the early 2000's, there was a new sound we wanted to hear and we just happened to make it. It was really fortunate we had a sound system so we had a platform or voice to put the sound out there. We scouted a bunch of locations in Golden Gate park. When we first started it was just about playing music and hanging out. Not so much about a bigger plan, more lets play some music and see where our passion takes us.

You began managing the dirtybird label in 2008, are you still heavily involved in organising the label? Not really. I only managed it for one year and while I learnt a lot it also taught me that I had to not manage it [laughs] if I wanted to pursue DJing. It was almost like a conflict of interest. To manage a label really takes a business minded person, focussed on the success of the label, where as I wanted to make and play music. To work a nine-to-five managing the label and to then go and try and make music around that was too much. I really had to make a choice so around the end of 2009 I stopped managing the label to focus on DJing.

When did you realise music could be a full time career? I would say when I was signed to Blue Collar which is now Liaison. I realised I had the opportunity, I was on a label with a lot of talented people, so it was a chance to really pursue it and travel, that is as long as I keep pushing myself and putting music out there. Justin really showed me that making tracks was the way to be heard. There were a lot of talented DJs that had been DJing forever that would never get further because they weren't making there own music. That is the way to go forward, production and making your own tracks is the key to getting your music out there.

Is San Francisco a good base for music production? Is this where you need to be to get your music heard and out there? Actually I'm moving to Berlin in like two months, at the beginning of June. I'm very excited about it. I'm signed to Jackmode agency over there. They've started a record label so I'm working on an EP for them. I've still got work going on the dirtybird label and I'll be doing a Night Slugs EP, so there's a lot going on. I'm setting myself up for this move so I can make a splash over there with some European labels aswell.

Have you spent much time is Berlin before? The last two summers I was there for about two months and last fall I was there for a month. I have a lot of friends in the city, I really love it. It's one of my favourite places in the world besides San Francisco, so I'm not really too apprehensive of how I'm going to be because I feel like it's already my second home.

You've just mixed the podcast for Pulse, what have you put together for us? The best flow I could possibly put together as far as an hour of music. When I do a mix I've usually got about six to eight months of music I've been banging around and playing live. My goal is to make a mix that when you play it you want to start it again as soon as it finishes. I'm not always trying to make the best club bangers and some artsy ambient stuff. It needs to sound good in a car, at an after party or on some plane headphones. It needs to sound good wherever. I want it to be kind of melodic and challenging.

It's like a snapshot of what's going on in my head at the time and always a good baseline. Always bassy, that's the main qualification. As long as there's some baselines in there that tickle peoples fancy and get them dancing I'm happy. If it stays fun it will resonate.

Is it fun for you as well? I have a blast when I finish mixing in a track and I'm about to change the baseline over and watching peoples anticipation. Seeing whether they know what's going to drop. I like to surprise them and surprising myself with making new mixes and seeing if it works.

Are there any cons of being a DJ? Job security, though it's also a pro because it keeps you active and keeps you pushing yourself and making new music, to keep yourself in the game.

Is there anything you want to finish off with? A big shout out to Wax Motif for getting me on his remix lately, The Shimmy Shake Remix, it was really cool to be a part of that EP, so thanks also to the Down Right Crew and Aden from Ministry of Sound.

Kristen Marconi

Download Christian Martin's Podcast here

Tracklisting
01. Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – That One [Greco Roman]
02. Dollar Mambo - Gringo (Michael Ho remix) [Scrambled Rec]
03. Wiley & MJ Cole – From the Drop (Lvis 1990 remix) [Prolific Recordings]
04. Darling Farah – My Red [CDR]
05. Ramadanman & Appleblim - Void 23 [Aus Music]
06. Pariah – The Slump [R&S Records]
07. Daniel Haaksman – Put Your Hands Up (French Fries remix) [Man Recordings]
08. Bambounou - Abodan [Sound Pellegrino]
09. Reboot – Frank Und Frei [Oslo]
10. Minilogue – Jakata B [Minilogue]
11. Mark Henning - Supersonic [Clink]
12. Gabriel B – Controversy [Dessous Recordings]
13. Daniel Maloso & Rebolledo - Loro Lady [Comeme]
14. Space Dimension Controller – Temporary Thrillz [R&S Records]
15. Wolf + Lamb - You Will Find [Wolf + Lamb Music]
16. Fis-T - Night Hunter [502 Recordings]
17. Amerie – One Thing (French Fries remix)

Later in April Jackmode radio starts on Pulse with monthly exclusive mixes from Jackmode artists. First up is.....