1. Hey Martin, how are you doing? What’s going on these days in the
life of the mighty Martsman?

Well, it's going quite good actually. I'm enjoying the summer in Berlin, 
writing music, making plans for the next year and preparing for 
exams to finish up studying during the next half year. I can't complain 
really.


2. What’s up next for Martsman? Releases? Albums? Tours?

Unfortunately, there was sort of a hole output wise in the last half 
year but I am looking forward to new releases on Raiden's label Offkey 
and LXC's Alphacut in the next few weeks and months. Some might be 
happy to hear that my remix of Macc's Boomer track will be out in 
November on the Leipzig based imprint. Afar from that I am still working 
on an album for Med School which will most definitely contain a larger 
bandwidth of styles as I've been branching out into slower tempi as well 
in the last year. That's also reflected  in my sets  - I've been playing out 
more and more Breaks and Dubstep as well as some Mashup and 
Breakcore recently.
I've always been thinking of a larger tour of course, but I guess that's 
not going to happen this year still, due to uni related commitments and 
stuff. However, there are a few gigs lined up already for the second half 
of the year - mostly in the UK.


3. You’ve been involved with a few different labels now, from the MP3
label Plain Audio to smaller leftfield labels like Counter
Intelligence and Offshore and lately your home has been Hospital
offshoot Med School. Is there a difference between working with these
labels on different levels of the dnb scene?

There's a huge difference in working with those labels, of course. 
Hospital is a company with own employees and therefore their approach 
to music is more one of a market related object, whereas smaller labels 
like Counter Intelligence or Offshore do it more for the love of the 
game so to speak. That doesn't mean that Hospital only put out music 
that is sure to sell out - on the contrary, I feel they're quite 
adventorous to some extent. Only the risks they take have to be within 
a smaller margin, if that makes sense. For me personally, working 
together with Hospital has obviously been quite fruitful. They work hard 
on promoting their artists, arranging interviews, gigs and whatnot; not 
to speak of sound technique and production related advise - they have 
been very demanding as far as mixdowns are concerned and it has really 
been an intense process finishing tunes for them (in the best possible way). 
All that might sound unthankful towards the other labels mentioned but I 
don't meant it to be. I've grown on every single release there was and 
everybody involved was helpful in the one or the other regard (thinking 
e.g. how picky Brett Offshore was on the first two tracks he wanted 
from me, haha). However, signing with Hospital has opened up the UK 
for me not only terrain wise but also in terms of an "over ground" 
Drum&Bass scene without unbinding me from my left field roots.


4. We hear you’ve been branching into different genres of electronic
music, making mixes and composing tunes. How and when did that come
about?

Well, obviously I've been into a lot more than just Drum&Bass and 
I've always tried to integrate those influences into the 170bpm frame. 
On the other hand I didn't seriously try to write music in those other 
genres I was citing which eventually appeared to be as limiting as 
writing 'standard' Drum&Bass, just from another angle. Simply put - if 
you want to cite a genre, you have to know about more than just sound 
vocab, but also what really happens in regards of space, time, mood etc. 
Compare it to writing a paper - if you cite a text, you obviously have to 
know what that citation means as such or you end up copying single 
words. That in mind it seemed like a good idea to switch tempos, write 
stuff in 100bpm as well as 180, 120, 140 and so on. It sounds a bit self 
evident but this has opened up quite a new perspective in regard of what 
is possible in Drum&Bass as such.
Afar from that highbrow babbling it's just big fun switching genres, 
both in writing and playing out! I've gotten quite into that whole 
Breaks thing of labels like Tigerbeat6 etc. Also Techno extremely grew 
on me and the majority of my output recently has been around the 130s. 
I'm sure this will reflect on the Drum&Bass I am writing from now on and 
I am curious myself how this whole switch will turn out eventually.


5. Does it mean that you’ll be leaving drum & bass?

No. I don't see any reason to leave anything behind - rather the 
opposite is the case: I am quite looking forward to continue writing 
Drum&Bass.


6. What artists and labels are you feeling right now, in- and outside
of drum & bass?

Sleeparchive - extremely focused and stripped down Techno. 
Monolake/T++ - amazingly open arrangements and dense soundscapes 
(and a remix of Shed's 'The Fall' that knocks me out each and every time). 
Aaron Spectre - in particular his mid tempo stuff. Sileni - still! 
Mochipet, Moderat, Untold, Randomer, LXC, Instra:mental. Alvin Lucier's 
'Music on a Long Thin Wire', Steve Reich's mellow melodies, 
Autechre...and i could go on, sigh...

7. You are a student of philosophy right? How does that influence your
music and wise versa? Do junglism and philosophy make for an
interesting weltanschauung?

It's probably helpful to reflect on club musical Zeitgeist and what 
other producers have Angst about when writing music. In terms of 
creativity: it can make your Dasein as a musician much more easy, 
because you might be able to decide wether your tunes are eigentlich or 
not.


8. Which german philosopher, living or dead, would you want to go into
the studio with?

Probably Heidegger - we could make German Dub music and he'd probably 
bury the finished records somewhere in the Schwarzwald mother soil to 
improve the sound. On the other hand he wasn't too keen on Technik in 
general so I think it wouldn't work out.