9+1 Q&A with MARTH

What inspired you to first start making music? And how did you come to be in your current incarnation? Or if you prefer, a brief bio about you.

So my name is Sascha van Loenen from the Netherlands and I produce music under the name MARTH. I’ve had the fortune of being brought up in a musical household. My dad is a pro guitar player and he exposed me to a lot of different musical genres at a young age. I started playing trumpet when I was 10 and I started an education at age 17 to become a session musician but during this I gravitated to producing and recording.

Provide us with some info about your latest release…

Golden Hour is my first single under the name MARTH, it’s inspired by a painting from Van Gogh. The song is about that one hour during the day when everything is more beautiful because of the specific angle of how the sunlight comes in. I have had difficulties with depression but sometimes you just need to look at stuff with a new angle. I hope this song will help other people get that new outlook. To me the song represents that there will always be a moment when things gets better.

Which ones would you consider your main influences both music-wise & non-music-wise?

I’m a real fan of Kaytranada how he combines hiphop with other genres. Bonobo is also a real big influence, there’s just some nice elegance to everything he makes. The great Trumpet player Miles Davis plays a big role in my sound. I also like the way he approached music, he was always on the move musically, always on the look out for a new sound. Thats why he was so relevant for so long. That really inspires me.

In what way does your sound differ from the rest genre-related artists/bands and why should we listen to your music? In other words, how would you describe your sound?

The first thing that makes my sound stand out from other chill-out lofi tracks is the lyrical trumpet lines. I’d like to think that my approach to songwriting and sound also helps making it stand out. The story behind the song is a very important part of my writing process. Sometimes the story is more clear from the beginning, sometimes it comes later, but I always write and play from my gut.

Please name your 3 desert islands albums, movies & books…

Man! A hard question! Movie would be “the Good, the Bad and the Ugly”. I think I will go for the classic album Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd. Books is more difficult but I probably would take some Harry Potter stuff.

Do you prefer studio or performing live and why?

I really like both. I love the grind of making new stuff everyday and working on it in the studio and making it sound better. But nothing feels better than making a crowd go wild. Also live performing is a good way to see if the songs you will catch on. Every 4th Sunday I release a live looping video on my socials and I will be performing golden hour live on my socials as well.

Is there any funny-unique story you would like to share with us, always in relation to your music ‘career’?

The name MARTH is actually taken from the Nintendo game Super Smash bros. I used to be really into that game. Together with Luigi, Marth is my favorite character but Luigi might be a bit too much to use as an artist name.

Which track of your own would you point out as the most unique and why?

Golden Hour is the most unique right now! 😉 I will be releasing new music every 6 weeks or so. What makes MARTH special is that I really want to create autonome songs, which are catchy in their own way. That’s why I think every song of MARTH is in a kind of way unique. So you stay tuned on my socials, there’s some more unique stuff coming out soon :).

Would you like to share with our readers your future plans?

My future plans are to keep releasing new awesome music and videos. Also I’m forging new alliances with other producers to make new tracks. I want to put out a request to the readers to connect with me thru my socials if they want to work with me or know somebody who they think I should know: who knows, we might make a masterpiece ;). Also I will be putting out requests for feedback in special talk groups, this is also an opportunity for people to get feedback on their work. If you want to become part of that group hit me up!

Free question!!! (Ask yourself a question) you wish to answer and haven’t been given the opportunity…

I think this was a very thorough interview. I would like to give this one to the readers, ask me Anything!

Curated by: Christos Doukakis

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