That’s what everyone thinks, that’s what everyone says. He used to make drum and bass, and now it’s dubstep. But Martyn doesn’t agree. Speaking from the other end of a bad line from his home “in the sticks” in Washington DC, the Dutch-born producer is discussing his debut album, ‘Great Lengths’. And he’s quite clear about what this album is – and what it isn’t.

‘Great Lengths’ is not based in dubstep. The LP is full of different tempos. It’s all sorts of styles: some 4/4, some house, some with beats… It’s Martyn music…”

‘Martyn music’ – it’s a phrase Martijn Deykers has used before to describe his sound. If it felt a bit ambitious then, it – with the delivery of the album on his 3024 label (named after the postcode district where he used to live in Holland) – makes more sense now. ‘Great Lengths’ is a very good record – and you’ll probably still call dubstep, but at least we all know were we stand, right?

I guess I just try to do what I always did. Now is a time that people are more open to what I do. I turn old influences into something new, it’s from the heart, whatever style it is.

How much of an influence was the techno and house scene in Holland when you were young?

I grew up in Eindhoven, which always had strong links with Chicago and Detroit through labels like Eevolute and DJax, so that was a big influence when I started raving and buying records. And the location was interesting – in between Amsterdam, Brussels, Ghent and Rotterdam, so often people would come to a club to play late, after-hours sets. So I guess it shaped me more than I thought at the time. I always bought records like this, and I guess it’s coming back again now.

And then drum and bass arrived…

Yes, Metalheadz…

It was hard not to be blown away by the likes of Metalheadz and Good Looking in the early 90s. I think a lot of people who liked Detroit music went the same way…

Yes, Photek, Doc Scott and more too. I guess I was a little bit older, and I decided I had to go to London to experience drum and bass, where it was from. And what I experienced over there inspired me to do my own night, and then picked up DJing and then producing… so that’s how I started to grow into the ‘scene’ more, and become less of a consumer of electronic music.

After sticking with drum and bass for a couple years, releasing on the likes of Bassbin and Revolve:r, he flipped into dubstep. Listening back to some of those releases, you can see where he is coming from with his ‘Martyn music’ theory. The sounds remain broadly the same, the feeling identical. Looking back, what were the breakthrough records for you?

For people who like dubstep, it was my remix of TRG’s ‘Broken Heart’. I send much of my music to Kode9, as he is a busy DJ and represents my music. He broke that tune, which made it easier for me to play it. And the ‘Vancouver’ on 3024 was for the 4/4 fans – the Detroit sounds and the fact they could mix it meant took notice of it.

Drum and bass feels like a thing of the past for Martyn. It’s mentioned reasonably regularly in our 30-minute conversation, but nearly always in the past tense. Similarly, bass-heavy dubstep gets short shrift, but the fresher variants – funky and the new take on two-step – get recognition.

Funky and two-step keep it interesting for me as a DJ. But I’m just as interested in bassy dubstep as I am in bass-heavy drum and bass – which is not that much. It’s more for the ravey crowd. I don’t play it – I never felt the art of it. It belongs to the scene in south London – what we do is an interpretation of that.

Once a sound goes international, and leaves the place where it came from, people make their own take on it. You get less of a headache if you don’t think in genres. The way I work, I make music with sounds, or melody, or gather ideas, and then the BPM comes in. I am inspired by people like Prince, who fit music to an idea, Prince does not decide, ‘Oh, I want to make a disco track’. This was not a natural thing for me – I made a decision to do it. And it works.

How long did ‘Great Lengths’ take?

It took a couple of months to write. I moved to the US and got settled on the outskirts of the city, it’s quite remote. So it was perfect to work in, to start on the album… I started writing, wrote lots, and after a while there was an order to it. There are 14 tracks on the CD – two have been previously released but are in new versions – and seven on the vinyl, all brand new. The album is like my DJ sets, it’s built up like a story. So it’s a bit of a listening experience… it’s not a concept album though, that is too pretentious!

Why did you move? You must be one of the few artists to move from Europe to the US… usually it’s the other way, or it has been for the past while…

I grew up in Holland and I guess I just got bored there – I also moved for a more personal reason: I got married. It was interesting travelling here – I got a fresh perspective on things. And it’s an interesting time to be in Washington DC. The change in environment was good. I’ve lived in a city all my life – I’m a city boy. But where I live now is quite remote. You can write music out here that is maybe more for listening purposes. So for the first few months, I was doing no gigs, then I did a European tour, to test stuff out, which provided me with the answers I needed. So it’s good to get a bit of both – space and time, and human interaction.

There is more human interaction on the horizon. And hopefully more genre-blazing explorations. After an acknowledgement of the emerging instrumental hip-hop scene with his selection of Flying Lotus as a recent remixer, Martyn may be moving further left of centre - a tempting collaboration with Heralds of Change member and Hudson Mohawke collaborator Mike Slott is revealed.

“We will be releasing on an Irish label, All City. Mike and I are both expats in America – he is from Scotland, living in New York – so we have agreed to meet up. But nothing is done yet – but the idea is there… we will do it.”

‘Great Lengths’ is out in April on 3024.

http://www.myspace.com/martyndnb