TIME LOST:

MARVIN HUMES: “THERE IS A MAGIC ON THAT ISLAND THAT IS HARD TO EXPLAIN. WHEN YOU’RE THERE YOU JUST FEEL COMPLETELY FREE”.

Interviews
by

YOU’RE THE FIRST TO DROP A TRACK ON O BEACH MUSIC’S NEW LABEL. HOW DOES THAT FEEL, BEING THE ONE TO KICK IT ALL OFF?

It feels great and an honour really to be the first release on O Beach. Always had such a great time partying there, played there loads this summer. So yeah, it’s amazing.

WHAT WAS IT ABOUT ‘THINKIN’ OF YOU’ BY SISTER SLEDGE THAT MADE YOU WANT TO GIVE IT YOUR OWN SPIN?

The original, of course, Sister Sledge – Thinking of You is a very special song to my wife and I because of our 10 year Wedding vow renewal in 2022. It was our first dance, and it’s just our song. Whenever it comes on, me, my wife and our kids always dance to it, it has so much meaning to all of us which was one of the reasons why I decided to do a remake of it.

YOU’VE BEEN SMASHING IT IN IBIZA FOR YEARS, PLAYING AT LEGENDARY SPOTS LIKE PACHA, HÏ IBIZA, AND USHUAÏA. HOW HAS THE ISLAND SHAPED YOU AS AN ARTIST?

I’ve been super lucky to be part of Residencies at Pacha with Bob Sinclair, Martin Solveig and regular spots at Hï with Jonas Blue and David Guetta and lately Ibiza Rocks with Craig David and Joel Corry and obviously O Beach with KISS and D4D4NCE – Defected. I’ve played many venues in Ibiza for the last 10 years and it’s always great I love the variety of the places that I’ve played.

Some places are a bit more late-night/early morning like 3am sets in the club room at Hï which is obviously a different vibe to playing a day party at O Beach and that’s what I love, the variation, there’s no standard set that I play when in Ibiza they’re quite varied actually and I love that.

FROM LUVBUG TO NOW, YOUR JOURNEY IN HOUSE MUSIC HAS BEEN DIVERSE. HOW HAVE YOUR PAST COLLABORATIONS SHAPED THE SOUND YOU’RE PUSHING TODAY?

My releases have been varied and I think that’s just been a feeling of where the house/dance music scene’s been at. I remember it was very heavily tropical house influenced back in 2014 and that influenced my tune ‘Troy’. Then it got a little bit more ‘techy’ in 2018 which influenced my tune ‘All My People’. Then fast forward to today where I’m not trying to be too clever with it, I just made a straight-out floor-filler, dance anthem with a massive sample of a Sister Sledge classic.

That’s what I love about being a producer and a DJ, it’s the variety of what you can do and what represents me at that time in my career.  It’s never been a set sound that I’ve stuck to, I’ve always tried out different things and gone with new sounds that have influenced me from my time in Ibiza.

YOU’VE GOT SUPPORT FROM LEGENDS LIKE PETE TONG AND PAUL OAKENFOLD. WHAT DOES THAT KIND OF BACKING MEAN TO YOU IN AN INDUSTRY THAT’S ALWAYS EVOLVING?

It means a lot. The support has been amazing over the years and it’s so nice to see because of the obvious pop background I’ve come from to being Mixmag’s DJ to watch a few years ago and then getting support from legends like Pete Tong and Paul Oakenfold. It’s been amazing and it just goes to show that there are no barriers in music, you can have a pop background but if you’ve also got a passion for house music you will still be accepted.

That’s how it should be and that’s how it’s been with me I love that and have big respect to those guys that have supported me over the years and still continue to support me.

HOUSE MUSIC IS IN YOUR BLOOD, WITH INFLUENCES LIKE TODD TERRY AND FRANKIE KNUCKLES. HOW DO YOU BALANCE HONOURING THOSE LEGENDS WHILE KEEPING YOUR SOUND FRESH AND RELEVANT?

I think that my tune ‘Dan Stuckie’ represents this really well because I sampled a vocal of Frankie Knuckles, who was a big influence to me. I was introduced to him by my dad, who’s a DJ as well. Using that vocal and putting it over a fresh sound gives a hybrid of the two. You see that a lot, of course, samples in music to this present day. It’s just about taking that influence from the greats of the past and updating and making your own edits for 2024 and beyond.

YOU’RE PART OF THE O BEACH FAMILY NOW. WHAT’S IT LIKE TO HEADLINE THERE AND SET THE VIBE?

Yeah, great to be a part of the family. Such an iconic venue now with people going to Ibiza just to go there – and they programme so many amazing, different events. I really enjoyed the D4D4NCE day that I played at because I’m a big fan of Defected and it was a great line up to be a part of with DJ SKT. Then, as you know I’m a Kiss DJ as well, so to play at the Kiss events, they have been amazing. We were streaming live on air so the set I was playing at O Beach was going out on KISS radio back in the UK, and that was a really special moment for me.

HOUSE MUSIC IS ALWAYS EVOLVING. WHAT TRENDS ARE YOU EXCITED ABOUT RIGHT NOW?

I mean, it’s nothing new, but I’m loving the sort of old school R&B classics that are being updated with new edits. PAWSA has done this with ‘Too Cool To Be Careless’, it’s an old Dennis Edwards record, which is a classic, it’s one of the songs of the year for me. Also, the Nate Dogg sample that PAWSA did is amazing. There’s a Sean Paul edit of ‘Get Busy’ that I love playing at the minute. As I say, it’s nothing original, but it feels like that is a big trend at the minute with the old school tunes getting sampled. I’ve technically done it myself. So, yeah, they’re my big plays of the Summer.

ANY NEW PROJECTS OR COLLABS WE SHOULD LOOK OUT FOR?

I’ve got a brand new tune coming out next week called ‘Tick Tock’, which has an interpolation of Dougie Fresh and Slick Rick. You might recognise it from the Colour Me Bad song – ‘I Wanna Sex You Up.’ I wrote the tune with Poppy Baskcomb and my boys TCTS and PARX, again, another tune that I’ve loved. So we sampled a tiny bit and then put an original verse and chorus on it. It’s a bit more tech than ‘Ecstasy’ and more for the club, late night. Super excited about that coming out.

IBIZA FOR YOU IS…

Ibiza for me is freedom. Being able to express yourself in any way that you want. Being able to do what you want, whether it’s day parties or night parties or both. Going to the beach hitting the hotel pool. There is a magic on that island that is hard to explain. When you’re there you just feel completely free and everyone’s brought together by something that has been a big part of my life, and that’s music.