Before he tore up the late-night dance floor at Gem and Jam Festival, we caught up with Christian Martin, a founding member of Dirtybird Records, to look back at how he helped bring the label to life, favorite memories from Dirtybird Campout, his love of drum and bass, playing alongside brother Justin Martin, and the outer-space influences of his own label, Trippy Ass Technologies. Listen or read the interview below!
I’m here with Christian Martin, co-founder of the Dirtybird label. Man, it’s 15 years now. So as the lore of the label goes, you bought those speaker systems in the early days on a credit card.
I did.
Was that the biggest risk you’ve taken that’s paid off for you?
Yes, definitely.
What were those early days like?
We had kind of an idea of a sound that we wanted to push and play and we realized – we being me and my brother, Justin [Martin], Barclay Crenshaw who’s Claude VonStroke, and Worthy – that we were going to have to do it ourselves if we were going to make any impact. To have a chance to make an impact. Cause the San Francisco DJ scene was always very competitive and established, it felt like. I didn’t feel like it was an option to try to like, break into that or something. So just like you had to build it from the ground up.
So that’s the biggest risk that’s paid off. What’s the biggest thing that did not pay off that taught you something, the most valuable lesson?
It’s hard to say. I mean, I feel like everything that’s gone down in the last 15 years has overall been positive. There was definitely some dark financial days, like after it sunk in that I really went there and maxed out the credit card. But it was totally fine, you know, it was all good when we would get into the park and set everything up and start rocking it, it was just like – it didn’t matter, anything else.
So you’ve talked about Moontribe in your past. How did Moontribe play a formative part in your DJ scope and what you bring to the Dirtybird sound?
Moontribe was really the first party that I experienced of a big-ass sound system. I had been to one indoor party at my college, that they threw, but I’d never experienced a massive sound system, especially outside. So it was just kind of like an “everything new” experience. And I was pretty anti-electronic music throughout high school and maybe the first half of my first year in college. But I was also like, a close-minded, East Coast hip hop-head. So I didn’t know that it was possible that something like Moontribe could exist, because it could only exist in California. Like there’s no way that people would be bringing a sound system in the snow on the East Coast, to rave. Maybe now people would, but, you know what I mean.
So they were doing it, the Wicked crew was doing it up in SF, but the Moontribe was very close to where I was going to school. So every month was like this growing tumbleweed of friends that would all go to Moontribe. And it was kind of just, something that we had on the schedule, cause it was so rewarding. So that shaped my early love, it kind of ignited my love for electronic music, and I feel really honored to have played for Moontribe – many times now, I think four or five times – that they’ve kind of brought me in, in a way, to what they’re doing. It’s kinda mind-blowing that it comes full circle like that. But yeah, they really influenced my early years of my taste of electronic music.
So in the 15 years of the Dirtybird odyssey, can you pick a moment that, to you, represents the vibe of what Dirtybird is all about? What comes to mind for you?
There are two. I think one was my set at the first Campout, because they didn’t give me an ending time. They gave me question marks. So I ran with that and I played a very long time. Everyone that was producing the festival was there, and at a certain point I think they realized that I was never going to stop, so they had to kick me off. But that, and then also DJing with my brother the next night, playing drum and bass as the sun came up. Those two moments. That’s more selfish, both of those (laughs).
I think that they represented Dirtybird because on the first night, it was kind of like “We made it.” We didn’t know – it was the biggest endeavor that Dirtybird had done, the Campout. And you can hear Barclay, talking on the mic throughout (laughs). But the drum and bass was amazing cause we never really did anything like that before. And it took a long time for me to be comfortable with playing drum and bass, but Mixed in Key [DJ software], helped me with figuring that out. So just being able to step out of my comfort zone, but then also have a full field of people that are trusting that it’s going to be something special. And the fact that I could experience it with Justin was even, you know, double. So I’d say those two.
I saw you guys do the renegade set the first night [of Campout] last year. And you two, together, just that mad dash with the drum and bass. That’s one of my favorite memories, that’s a very Dirtybird vibe to me. Can you talk more about playing with Justin like that and your dynamic when you do play with him?
Oh, it’s great. I mean, we’ll prepare, but it’s usually pretty quick, where we’ll both bring big folders of music and go through them and then make a short list. So we had a Yes folder, a Maybe Later folder, a Musical folder, and then a Nasty folder. We have the like, the brother communication, so we’d just kind of, instinctively talk a little bit and go in a direction or be like, “Ooh, you know, what’ll be good with that? This!”
What’s your drum and bass background? Cause I know Barclay started out with that.
Yeah, he was doing that before house. My drum and bass background was discovering LTJ Bukem “Logical Progression Vol. 1” in the summer of ‘96. Got that double CD. And it was just like, game over, because it combined the epic, like, trance synths, like the crazy, heady synths, with this like, trunk-destroying basslines. That was game over for me. That really brought me into electronic music, discovering drum and bass. Because I moved away from trance relatively quickly I guess, but drum and bass is still this backbone. Like when I’m driving, I’ll listen to drum and bass almost exclusively (chuckles) and just let Spotify radio stations build my catalog of stuff that I love. So yeah, drum and bass is very powerful for me.
I feel that. So with your label, Trippy Ass Technologies. You have these sci-fi ideas that are very strong behind it. I’m very interested in that, I really love the sacred geometry and these kind of diagrams for all the [label release] art.
I’m intrigued by the big universal stuff, like the forces of the universe and stuff like galaxies that are far away and what’s in them and how do the stars explode and gravity and all that stuff. It’s just really interesting to kind of grok out on because it’s so esoteric. But yeah, it’s like trying to capture that in music form too, to let people get into that reverie – not a trance, not trance music – but keep that pounding, house and techno kind of feel. Or breaks. You know, one of the things that I love about the label is that we have this freedom to go back and forth between those two genres quite a bit, and it’s worked out really well.
So capturing those universal concepts in a very abstract way – if it kind of takes you out of your comfort zone and there’s a track that it’s like, “What the hell is going on in that track?” It’s a really rewarding moment to watch on the dance floor because people trust you to go there. So I feel like the label has kind of peaked down that tunnel in a way that is attracting all these really talented music producers that share a similar kind of sonic palette. I feel really blessed to be, you know, we’re 27 releases deep now. And I feel like we’re just starting, so it’s a cool time.
Do you have a most alien sound?
Yeah, I was thinking about that… “Don’t Look Down,” me and Lenny [Kiser], I had just gotten a Moog Grandmother, and that will make some really sci-fi sounds. So making that EP last year with him, I just brought the Grandmother over to his studio and, uh (laughs), put it through its paces. So just like playing around and there’s one in the pay-off bassline of “Don’t Look Down,” just start fucking around with the octaves and like, reverb. Yeah, I think that was the most alien sound.
Cool. And then what superhero or comic book character would you say represents you or you relate to the most?
I was gonna say Ant-Man is one of them. Cause he’s this goofy dad, like I’m trying to be, and he’s kind of just..dealing with this shit. He’s like, “Alright, I guess I’m a superhero now.” So I like that. He’s not like, you know, unbeatable. He’s pretty easily beatable, but he’s pretty awesome, also (laughs).
