A well-known face on hard dance/trance scene, Tina Martin has emerged as one of the most promising talents on the circuit over the last 2 years. With her role at Rebirth Artist Management looking after the likes of Lost Witness and Jan Loper, she's been making strong bonds with the wider trance community too. If you haven't heard of her, it's about time you did...

So Tina, how did you first get involved with the dance music scene in London? I remember seeing you lurking down in Sid’s Bar on Thursday nights in Central London...but did your passion start earlier than this?

Haha yes good old Sids! But I have to say...it’s all Will [promoter of Frantic]’s fault! Lol.

Looking back at it all though my mixing background is actually quite vague – I initially my first experience at mixing was when I was 18, at a few house parties in Kent where I’m from, on some friend’s decks, who also ran some parties in the area. At that time I was into Underground Garage and US House and was actually venturing up to Club Colosseum and Ministry of Sound with friends at the weekends, and then about a year later in 1999 when my musical tastes changed, I witnessed the likes of J00F, Graham Gold, Darren Stone and some other local DJs thus leading me to attempt mixing what are now the true trance classics of today. It was something I felt I took to very easily but obviously at that time very inexperienced!

My love for Trance music passionately carried on, but after these somewhat small attempts, learning how to mix took a back seat and it wasn’t until I moved to London in 2001, and attending Frantic every weekend - the good old Camden Palace days - that I truly experienced what dance music was all about. Hearing the DJs who are the legends and innovators of hard dance today, i.e. Nick Sentience, Phil Reynolds and Andy Farley, totally inspired me and so along with some very helpful DJ friends who I had met on the scene at Frantic events, in 2003 I was taught the logic behind the skill and so I got hands on some decks to take my mixing further!

Which other clubs and DJs in the past helped to form your education into hard music?

Having the opportunity to work with Nicki S, Nick Sentience and Craig Paxton when promoting Innovate, gave me a huge insight as to what a performing DJ had to do other than just beat matching and mixing records...which is fairly easy to do, but as a DJ it’s about keeping your clubbers entertained on the dance floor so they have the most banging night of their life! So in various aspects I was taught how to interact, read and work the dance floor, learning how to keep things moving by using a combination of old and new material and what styles of music worked well together, thus showing me the importance of being diverse, and most importantly having a good sense of progression.

You’ve only been DJing a short amount of time but have already played for many of London’s biggest promotions. Did you learn all on your own or did someone give you a helping hand?

I have to say that working within the industry has certainly helped my DJing career, as it’s the affiliations I have made through promoting who are my contacts to this day, who I speak to for bookings etc. I am so thankful for every opportunity I have been given, and the people who had faith in me, i.e. Karl giving me my New Years Eve set in ‘05 at One, and Tony Duzzit for giving me the opportunity to play out in Ibiza! My DJing career has started to roll along very nicely for me ever since, thus having the opportunities to play for Polysexual South, play out in Amsterdam and perform a live guest mix on the Gallery Sessions Radio Show with Gavyn Mytchel, and now playing the main room Frantic, the party I once raved at all those years ago!.. I’m well happy ?

How would you describe your style as a DJ then?

Last time I was asked this I stressed about how I was diversifying my style, and now it’s happening again! I’m known for playing Hard Trance sets, but have been hearing so many fresh and interesting sounds out there at the moment, and so really been getting into more tech and electro influenced trance, and even boshing out some hard house in the latter of my sets! So I’m really mashing it up at the moment and experimenting with some new stuff so expect something a bit different from me when you hear me out there in the future ?

You are now running ReBirth Artist Management, a company which manages trance artists such as Lost Witness, Nick Rowland and P.H.A.T.T. How and why did you make the leap from promoter to manager?

I am indeed! The idea of the agency was conceptualised back in July 06 when I arranged a UK tour for Pierre Pienaar (P.H.A.T.T.). Pierre, who I met at the Hard Dance Awards at the beginning of the year wanted to come play over here, and so with my contacts I made it happen for him. The tour went very smoothly with no hiccups, and so he popped the idea in my head that I should carry on with artist management. I was a bit unsure at first but when I was also approached by Lost Witness and a few other artists on my roster I was in shock but very excited so jumped at the chance!

So I then decided to give up promoting – I Love VC at the time - and Pierre and I started to put our heads together and get things rolling. It’s been a lot of hard work up until now which I didn’t anticipate - we’ve had to start completely from scratch, from writing biogs, to designing and creating the website, (www.rebirth-productions.co.uk) and promo material which is due to go out very soon, and constant work on building relationships with promotions and contacts not just on a UK level. And in addition to this I have to balance my full time job in Conference and Events, and my own DJing! Just as well I’m motivated and determined! Lol! But I’ve got some exciting fresh talent on my roster who I really do believe in – and so although the agency is still in its infancy, with the hard work we’re prepared to put in I believe 2007 is going to be a good one for all of us.

What exactly is your role and what are your duties at Rebirth?

My role is to be the point of contact for booking our artists, which involves sending out promo material and scouting out and making contact with parties/promoters across the UK and internationally, regarding what artist I feel may be suitable for their event. I have to keep constant contact with the artists so I know what’s going on with them production wise, so to keep their biogs and our website always up to date by sending the info over the Pierre as he does all the tech jobs. He’s based over in Namibia but we keep in contact pretty much every day. I also do all the PR and Administration behind the bookings themselves – this is where my transferable skills in Sales and Administration/PA work thankfully come into effect...but the work is always ongoing.

Have you got any predictions for the trance scene in 2007?

There’s so many good upcoming trance artists out there, and someone who I saw at the end of last year who I thought was astounding, was Frase at Vaccine. Every aspect of his set blew me away, and to add, his productions are getting massive support by some of biggest trance artists in the world. Defo one to watch I believe ?

You will be playing with a certain Emma Dicey at Frantic presents Timeless Romance at The Colosseum on February 10th in The Girls arena. Who is she and what’s she all about?

Well Miss Dicey happens to be a very good friend of mine, and she is the other half of MDA, of MDA and Spherical Live feat Jennie Rix, who are also performing at the same event. Her DJ career is really taking off at the moment playing at some huge events - and making a good name for herself right across the country. Emma usually plays the harder edge of dance music but is proving herself to be a good electro DJ also! We met in Amsterdam back in March ‘06 when a few of us went out for the Riot ‘I Love Hard House’ album launch. She’s a top girl and DJ so I’m well excited to be playing a b2b with her ?

The dress code for the night is “Red & White” – so what will you be wearing? And no you can’t just wear your Xmas outfit again!

Haha.. how do you know what my outfit was ;) We’ve had a brief chat ‘bout outfits – we’re not entirely sure yet but have decided it’s a great excuse to hit the shops and do some shopping to see outfit we can put together for the event...but it’s got to be glam! ?

Timeless Romance is obviously all about classic anthems. What’s the one track you can’t wait to play?

Ah well we don’t want to give too much away do we now! But to give you an idea, Emma’s classic collection consists of the early ‘Tidy’ bouncy hard house sound, and my classics are more Nukleuz, Tripoli Trax and Vicious Circle classic bits and pieces, including some cheeky bootlegs that have managed to find their way into my CD wallet! So we’re going to hook up and put some ideas across to make sure that our styles converge well on the night and make sure it’s fun for the clubbers!

Have you got any plans to join your colleagues/artists in the studio any time soon?

I have yes! I was meant to get in the studio with Pierre when he was over but setting up the agency too precedent over it. And so I’ve recently been in the studio working on a track with Matt Hilton, as he lives fairly near to me. We’ve yet to finish it yet, as we’ve not had a lot of time over Xmas and new year. We’re aiming for the finished product to incorporate a lot of new sounds that are out there at the moment, which DJs can play in a multitude of sets.

Bit of quickfire to finish off – what are your favourite promotions?

Too many to mention but one promotion that has stood out to me over the last year, which I have enjoyed attending on a regular basis, is Vaccine at The Gallery [Turnmills].

Favourite venues?

Koko/Camden Palace and The End!

Favourite labels?

There’s a fair few: Oblivion Recordingss, Addiction, Impact, Nukleuz, Six:Thirty, Anjuna, Monster, World of Trance, Vandit...the list could go on!

And finally – what’s your pet DJ hate?

Having to play with faulty equipment...!

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Tina Martin appears courtesy of ReBirth Artist Management

For bookings contact tina@rebirth-productions.co.uk

www.tina-martin.net
www.dontstayin.com/members/tinamartin
www.dontstayin.com/groups/rebirth-artist-management
www.myspace.com/tinamartindj
www.myspace.com/rebirthartistmanagement
www.rebirth-productions.co.uk