SXDNS: First of all, thank you very much for agreeing to be interviewed to our platform. It is always a great pleasure to chat with you. Since we had the opportunity of playing together, when you headlined one of our events in Frankfurt, I can honestly state that you are one of the greatest persons I have ever met – despite being a Racing fan. And talking about football, what are your expectations for the next season, inasmuch as you lost “El Chacho” Coudet to Internacional de Porto Alegre?
MN: Hahahahaha, best question I ever had in a music interview. First of all, thanks for your kind words, Frankfurt was an amazing experience and I’m really glad to have met you too. Going directly to the question, to be honest, at the beginning I had bad feelings about this season and the new coach, but now, after 10 matches (6 wins 4 draws), I totally changed my mind. I’m seeing a very strong team with hard conviction and I have the best expectations to get a new championship and even more after having won the derby against Independiente with only 9 players!
SXDNS: It was probably luck. But let’s talk about Playground Records, shall we? Introduce the label to those who are not familiar with the excellent work you guys have been doing so far.
MN: Playground is a party/label from Buenos Aires, Argentina, now based in Barcelona, Spain. Kuunde, Moses and I are the 3 musketeers in charge. It started in Argentina as a party 7 years ago in an old house with a wild backyard, an illegal but amazing place where the magic happened situated in the middle of the capital. After a lot of raves in the Buenos Aires underground scene, we started to use clubs and the party started to become more and more professional, till we finally decided to create our own label through which we could show our own vision of music.
Four years ago, Moses and I decided to establish in Europe, he in Lyon (France) and I in Barcelona (Spain), to start to build our ‘little empire’ in the old continent, and 2 years later Kuunde decided to join us. Since then, Playground is officially based in Barcelona and never stopped growing. We already have 27 releases, and thanks to them and the parties, we have been working with great artists like Sascha Funke, Justin Robertson, Simple Symmetry, Autarkic, Manfredas, Zombies In Miami, La Mverte, Golden Bug, Curses, Rodion, Iñigo Vontier, Theus Mago, Thomass Jackson, Javi Redondo, Demian, Damon Jee, Mijo, Timothy Clerkin, Vicente Sanfuentes, Bufi, Roe Deers, Pardon Moi, Gameboyz, Ray Okpara, just to name a few. We managed to make parties in prestigious clubs like Kater Blau, Razzmatazz, Garage, Macarena, Bar Loreto, Niceto Club and Cocoliche, among others, and visit amazing cities like Berlin, Tel Aviv, St. Petersburg, Paris, Madrid, Santiago de Chile, Córdoba, Mendoza.
Check the releases of the label HERE.
SXDNS: And what are the next steps of the label? Any secret future endeavour you can anticipate for us?
MN: The idea is to keep releasing all the music we can. Amazing releases are coming this year from Theus Mago, Radial Gaze, ID_UA, Hanzo & Yaman with great remixes by Fairmont, Anatolian Weapons, Marc Piñol, Cornelius Doctor, Kino Todo and more. About our plans as a party series, we intend to make fewer events, but with high-level guests in our new residency at Razzmatazz.
SXDNS: What about Martin Noise? Tell us everything we need to know about you, your career and your plans for this year.
MN: Well, I don’t have a big career, so I don’t want to spend a lot of time talking about myself. I can say that I studied music productions at EMBA (Music School of Buenos Aires) and I used to play with and produce different bands of rock and post-punk in my youth. After that, I started my solo career in electronic music, created Playground Records with my partners and released music on Calypso Records, Night Noise, Controlla and Logical Records in addition to Playground.
Nowadays, I’m a resident DJ at This Side UP club in Barcelona and the manager of its new label Side UP Works (where I released music too). To finish I can say that I’m about to release on Ombra International and Duro, I’m preparing a new Ep and I have been focusing more than ever on my own productions.
SXDNS: What are your main influences? And how do you explore these influences on your productions and DJ sets?
MN: I have a lot of influences from different types of music because I have always been an open-minded guy who enjoys listening to good music, but to be honest with you, my biggest influences in what I’m doing now were my friends in Argentina, Knob, Nahuel, Klimber, Papu, and even my actual partners, Kuunde and Moses, because they were the ones who made me dance in the best parties I attended. Twelve years ago, Argentina was a volcano of creativity and crazy raves and it was there where I get my biggest influences.
SXDNS: Do you see the Dark Disco/Indie Dance scene solid and prepared to become, maybe, the next “big thing” when it comes to underground electronic music?
MN: I see it as a solid scene for sure, an underground but solid scene. In the last year it started to become bigger and it could get even bigger. I really don’t know if it can convert it in the next ‘big thing’ but we’re doing a good job all together. For me, the best thing of this scene is the amazing quality of people you can find on it.
SXDNS: Who are your favourite artists of the genre?
MN: Well, there are a lot, I hope not to forget anyone (hehe), but I think my favourite are Iñigo Vontier, Thomass Jackson, Theus Mago/Bufi, Roe Deers, Balam, Curses, Simple Symmetry, Wolfstream, Manfredas and Middle Sky Boom, just to name a few. I also have to mention some new talents who are breaking the scene with very hot productions like Hanzo & Yaman, Radial Gaze, ID_UA, and Die Jungle.
SXDNS: Football again: Pelé or Maradona?
MN: Come on! Really? For an Argentinian in the football business there wasn’t and there will not be anyone like Maradona.
SXDNS: If you say so… (hehe) We could not finish this interview differently: List your top five tracks of all times. Any genre, anything is valid.
MN: Wow, truly difficult question, but I accept the challenge dropping the first songs which come to my mind, trying to be not so obvious.
Follow Martin Noise on SoundCloud and check the incredible selection he prepared for our mixtape series, peeps!