inthemix | Features | Martin Solveig: He says "C'est La Vie"

“Is this a mirror of myself? Am I somebody else?” So the lyrics go in Martin Solveig’s famous hit Everybody, but truth be told we think you’d have to go a long way to even come close to mirroring Martin’s musical magic. Hot on the heels of his new album C’est La Vie and his upcoming tour of Australia as part of the Parklife festival, we asked the French house DJ/producer what’s going down in his music town.

Martin points to all the time he spent singing in Cathedrals when he was younger for helping him establish an understanding of music and how it works. “It helped especially with the work or harmonies & melodies for arrangements,” he told ITM. Receiving his first turntables at the age of 13 didn’t immediately set Martin on the DJ path. It wasn’t until the early 90s that he started his first residency in Paris. So what was it that struck a note and made him decide to do it full time? “It was always a hobby for me and at the time I was just going into the clubs to party. It wasn’t until I got into the producing side of things I thought it could be something more.”

Working as a ‘jack of all trades’ has allowed Martin to take that extra step in mastering his arts and craft. Dabbling in writing, composing, producing and even singing has meant Martin has been able to cover all aspects of his music and define his output, adding diversity and authenticity to all of his tracks. “It helps me explore different aspects and to go a bit further. And also in the future I can try new things and perhaps write with other artists or new projects.”

C’est La Vie is Martin’s third album, and it’s something new for him. There’s a certain level of pop-rock influence in there, a modern influence that he combines with all sorts of funky grooves. It’s all part of his efforts to keep his style constantly changing and evolving. “I wanted to do find a new style, something different from what I did before. It’s another chapter of the book so I took some time to find another direction for this one.” You could argue that it’s this very changing of styles and evolving that keeps people coming back. “Sometimes you have to say goodbye to things from the past & start fresh.”

Martin is known as one who likes to inject a little bit of personal experience into his songs, and his tunes of late have all seemed to share a similar subject matter be it about relationships, life, love or loss. Things that we can all relate to! “I’m very life like. These things are all a part of life and everyone feels these things.”

Martin has displayed such a level of diversity during his career as a producer, but naturally, it’s something that he needs to carry across to his DJ sets in order to have the necessary effect on the crowds. Does he often find himself doing much preparation before going in and playing his sets? “Twenty to forty per cent of it is improvisation. If you have an idea of what you’re going to play then it makes it too easy and it becomes boring. So I like to stay very open and listen to what the people like to hear.”

So what can we expect from Martin Solveig on his Parklife tour? “I don’t know! I’ll decide on the day!”

You can catch Martin Solveig as part of the Parklife tour when it kicks off in Adelaide and Melbourne this weekend…

Sat Sep 27th – Adelaide, Parklife
Sun Sep 28th – Melbourne, Parklife
Mon Sep 29th – Perth, Parklife
Sat Oct 4th – Brisbane, Parklife
Sun Oct 5th – Sydney, Parklife
Sun Oct 5th – Sydney, Sounds on Sunday