We are thrilled to finally share this with you all! This one’s real special because Martijn was touring India after 5 years and the hype around tour has been truly unimaginable.
We’re forever grateful to Team Garrix and the crew at Sunburn for helping us get this scheduled between this crazy press run.
Hope you guys enjoy this! ❤️
Intro by Sam
Hello hello hello! Can’t believe we are finally doing this. Welcome Martijn! So we will get right into it. We had received a bunch of questions from the community, and we really thought it was time to do an interview like this. We both (Sam & Milind) will take one question and you can answer it. So, let’s begin!
The first show was incredible. I was there. A bunch of my friends were there too. And, you know, it was really energetic. And even because of all these last-minute troubles, the entire team actually made it happen. There were so many people yesterday. It was crazy.
Sam
To sum it up, the tour started with a bang, but what else can we expect? Can we expect some new music during this India tour or any guests joining you on stage across cities? Can you tell us about that?
Martijn
So tonight we have a guest (Ranbir Kapoor). You already figured it out. It’s hard to keep any secrets with you guys because you know everything! But yeah, yesterday’s show was amazing. It was really special. And also, this is the first time we brought, like, the Sentio production here with the X flames, with the fireworks, the laser package. So it really feels really good to give India the full Garrix experience. Yeah, I’m really happy. I played for 2 hours last night. Tonight, I’ll do the same.
Sam
Two hours in every city?
Martijn
2 hours in every city. I also don’t want to have, like, 90 minutes or 1 hour. I want to play every Garrix song from my latest one to Break Through The Silence to the older stuff. So it will be really cool and I’ve got some other surprises.
Sam
Can we expect some new music?
Martijn
Yes. The thing is, if I play it, it’s everywhere.
Sam
Yeah because I’ll be the first one to record and post it! (laughs)
Martijn
Hahaha!
But yeah, I have to be comfortable with the version that I play. So we have a heavy schedule, but I have a studio set up in my room. So today I got some work done, did a workout. So it was a good day.
Milind
Awesome! Your latest single, Hero, was loved by the fans! Even in India, a lot of people were listening to it, and it was a collaboration with Marvel. So are you really a fan of Marvel? Do you watch Marvel movies?
Martijn
I love Marvel. In general, I don’t watch that many movies. I’m very much in my own bubble in front of my computer. But to work with the Marvel team and also getting to know the characters, because it was for the video game Marvel Snap, so it was fun. And making the song was a lot of fun too.
Milind
How was it working with Marvel? With the team, making the song?
Martijn
It was cool. I went to Comic Con as well, and the team, they were super sweet. They gave me full creative freedom. They were not controlling. They were not like, you have to do like this, you have do that. They were like, you do what you really like. It is very futuristic but still not too aggressive, I think also for non Garrix fans, but people who like Marvel, it was interesting.
Milind
And we also had two new remixes out today.
Martijn
Yeah, I’m playing the DubVision remix tonight. I played it yesterday, I played one drop, but it was a really cool moment. You’ll hear it tonight again!
Sam
It’s going to be ten years for animals, and it’s been a long time since that song was released. You have grown a lot as an artist. When you produced that song, you had different types of skills. Now it is like an upgrade (Laughs). You have become much better at it. You have access to all of these recording studios, all of this tech. So do you sometimes feel like, there are any changes you could make to ‘Animals’ or do you think it’s pretty much a perfect song?
Martijn
For me, I wouldn’t change a single thing. We did change the artwork though.
Milind
We saw that, and also on Keygen!
Martijn
Yeah, also Keygen, I got the rights back so I fully own the master again, which feels really good. So we changed the artwork. But sonically, I feel like every song that I made, it’s like a chapter in my diary. You’re not going to try to rewrite that stuff. I have so many memories of these songs. Also Poison. I asked in my story, which intro I should play today. Everybody voted for Poison. We’re doing it tonight. But for me, I have so many memories also with Poison being my intro here. Every song for me has a different memory, so I wouldn’t change anything for the world.
Milind
So you have done a lot in life. You have climbed a mountain, you have sat on an F-16 jet and you play at the craziest festivals. You have done so many crazy things in life. Is there anything else left on your bucket list which you are yet to do?
Martijn
Yes. I still dream every day. There’s so many things I wanna do. But for me right now, I wanna get into scoring, also like for movies. Doesn’t have to be as Martin Garrix but like classical arrangements, like weird stuff or not weird (Laughs). But that’s definitely something that I want to do, because also at one point, I want to tour a little bit less because last year we did 117 shows, which was nice because during COVID there were zero. But there was one point where I was like, fuck. Also, need to think in the longer term. And I was thinking, what do I want to do ten years from now? What do I want to do 20 years from now? And also working for others, working for other acts, helping produce, write for them. And then again, like the F-16 stuff, the Kilimanjaro, those things were just things that happened randomly or not random. But I didn’t plan on it very far in advance. Kilimanjaro, I was two weeks before with my friends and we were like, challenging each other at dinner. “Let’s do Kilimanjaro ‘’. “I don’t think I’ll make the top”. He’s like, no, you’ll be fine. Let’s do it. And after a few drinks I was like, let’s do it. Kind of forgot I commited to it and then I get this email saying Flights booked, hotels booked. Then we bought the gear, but it was actually a life changing experience.
Sam
There has been a big talk in the community with the Ryan Tedder songs. You premiered both the songs at the Amsterdam Dance Event. I mean, you have been quiet since then. I mean, we didn’t see, Do you think those songs will ever see the light of day?
Martijn
I hope so. I don’t know in what shape or form. Maybe just instrumental, maybe with someone else singing the vocals. But I still really love both of them, especially ‘Wake Up’ because the chord progression is so cool. I’m doing the music for a TV series now. I was even thinking about maybe using the instrumental for it because I think the chords are too sick to go to waste, to never be released. And then I was with Alesso and the song is not finished yet, but we’re trying to finish it in time in the next two weeks. So I’m actually going to probably, hopefully finish it in India. And we were dreaming of having Ryan do the vocals on it. But we haven’t spoken to him about it. We’re now working on a version. Okay, this will be okay to send, but it’s a very progressive song, so it definitely fits a big vocal. Yeah, I’m very excited.
Sam
Anything you want to talk about the TV series project you are working on?
Martijn
Yeah, I cannot say that much yet, but it’s very cool because they reached out to me in a very early project. So I met with the director, with the writers of the script, just Brainstorming, and I already sent them 30 songs last week. A lot of it is not even electronic, like some just guitar songs. Some of it just atmospheric stuff. But because we’re already talking so early, we could polish it perfectly to the scenes. So I did underestimate the amount of work it is. But I’m also very excited because I think once everything comes together and you see the video, how they shoot it, like music is such an important part of film as well. So if we get to nail that, I’m very happy.
Milind
You were with Afrojack too last week. Is there a ‘Turn Up the Speaker’ version 2 coming up?
Martijn
We worked on three ideas. Realistically, I don’t think we’ll finish it in time before Ultra. Also, because I’m here during this tour and I made a background on my phone. Can’t show it on video. Never mind. I changed it. I changed it (Laughs), but I had a to-do list of five things that I wanted to finish while I was in India, which is the intro, which I finished, and then Brooks collab. And then there’s three more, which I hopefully finish, one of them being the Alesso collab. But I think the Alesso collab, there’s such expectancy around it that right now so that is my main focus to work on.
Milind
In an interview before, you said that you have been working on some rock music.
Martijn
Yes.
Milind
Can we expect it soon? Maybe not under the Garrix name?
Martijn
Yes, very soon. Towards the end of the year, the first of those will get released. I’m very excited for it.
Sam
Martijn, there’s one question we received from Reddit. Whenever we see videos of you playing at shows, you don’t usually wear earplugs. How do you take care of your ears?
Martijn
That’s an amazing question. Most important thing in the world is your ears. My ears, they still work, but I cannot do my transitions when I have earplugs. I had a bad experience one time where I was wearing earplugs and the booth speakers were on, but the main system turned off and I kept going.. it was bad. So for me, I don’t try to put the booth monitor too loud because then I can still hear the crowd. I can interact with the audience better. But yeah, the most important thing is wear earplugs to every show you go to because it’s loud and your ears, you need it 50 years from now, but no, my ears still okay. I can still make music! The moment I start messing up positions and then something’s wrong.
Milind
You do a lot of shows, like regularly, day after day shows. So how tiring is it? How is it affecting your body? How often do you get sleep? Is it enough?
Martijn
Well, it depends. Like, the show itself is not tiring at all because I get so much adrenaline, so much happiness, so much excitement. But the traveling in between sometimes makes it tiring. This tour is pretty heavy. We do nine shows in eleven days. So this tour, I’m not drinking, trying to work out every day. And also because I want to be productive in preparation for the summer, everything. But no, I think most of it is traveling. But this tour, we fly everywhere. I have my own bed on the plane. I think I’ll leave India, not tired, but very inspired, very happy and feel, very good.
Milind
Even we are very happy to see you!
Martijn
Amazing, Thanks so much, guys. I’ll see you guys in the show tonight. Awesome. Thank you. Cheers.
