Italian duo Paul C & Paolo Martini have been making some noise for a little while now. Coming from Verona the guys got together five years ago and haven’t looked with plenty of great release, including the seminal “We Repeat” among many other hot releases. This year looks set to be their biggest so far, so the Deep House London team thought we should drop Paolo a line and find out a little bit more about them…
Firstly, can you explain your own individual histories? How did you get into making music? Who were the first people who inspired you to become musicians? How did you get into house/techno?
We both dreamed about becoming DJs, as we were listening to music since we were kids… The rest of the story is quite long but let’s say we both became first DJs and then producers at the beginning of the nineties. First alone and then we experienced working with someone else successfully. Between 1999 and 2004 Paolo worked together with his long time friend Gianni Bini (as Bini & Martini) – they were responsable of some big tracks in UK on Azuli and other very respected labels of that era; Paul C worked with Luca Morris as Microdinamic, breaking into the Beatport charts several times, getting the attention of many interesting labels as well.
Where did you go to find this kind of music in your hometown? Who were the local DJs/producers who inspired you?
In the nineties Riccione was the place! The house music movement exploded around that time. We were all influenced first from Ibiza and Alfredo, who was the resident DJ of Amnesia at the time, and then we had clubs like Peter Pan, Vae Victis and Pacha with local DJs such as Ricky Montanari, Marco Trani, Massimino… all of these guys inspired us at the time.
Can you remember the first time you met? What did you think of each other?!
Almost 10 years ago Paolo was about to start a new label and I got a demo from Paul. The tracks he sent me had something special about them so I called him up and he started to produce few tracks for the label. In the meantime we became close friends and started to play some gigs together as well…
Why did you decide to form a partnership?
In 2009, after a few years we decided to join forces as a team because we thought that it could be good to put our experiences and musical talents together in the studio to create good productions, and so we made it. We felt that we could create something better by working together.
[youtube id=”IIXeqB787XI” width=”620″ height=”360″]
What was your first track together?
Violet EP on Tenax Recordings.
You’ve remixed some big commercial artists over the years, how did these projects come about?
They asked us, they must of liked our sound!
You’ve been working together for five years now, how has the relationship evolved/developed during that period?
Paolo is the groove master, Paul C brings the bass.
You must be very close friends now, how do you spend time together when you’re not making music?
We’re not living in the same city and also we both have little kids so we love spending time with them and our wives while not making music.
So 2014 is looking like another strong year for you both, what do you have planned for the summer?
We will have couple of remixes out on June on labels like Bedrock and Terminal M, then we have an EP due for release on 8bit for the second week of July and we are currently working on our new EP for Hot Creations. We’re tour around Europe and we are super excited about our first gig in Ibiza together. In September we will play at Paradise at DC10, the night hosted by Jamie Jones and we can’t really wait for that one!
You seem to work across different styles – who’s inspiring you at the moment? Any tracks/artists that have really got you excited?
For sure there’s a lot of good music around at the moment. We just like to experiment a little bit every time we do something. We like to take some risk as well and sometimes it works but sometimes not but that’s part of the game. It depends also on the mood we have, sometimes we go more techno, others more deep – we just try not to be obvious..
[youtube id=”-5Sg9mpoaBI” width=”620″ height=”360″]
What’s the scene like in your city at the moment?
Regarding the house scene, not really good. We don’t have so many clubs that are busy every weekend. They need to do big events with top DJs to make the places busy. Clubs with commercial music are more busy at the moment.
Where would you recommend someone to go to for good quality house/techno in the city where you live?
Amnesia in Milano. It’s not where we live, as we are from Verona, but it’s one of the best in our area – every weekend they have special nights with top DJs.
And tourist-wise, what are the main attractions?
In Verona, The Arena, of course. People from all over the world come over here to visit it!
Being Italian I guess you guys love your food, what’s your favourite dish? And, if you can cook, what is your speciality?
Spaghetti with the clams!
What is so special about your partnership, what keeps you guys working together and making great music?
We just have a good feeling with each other and the same taste in music. Then we think we have a positive attitude about building up something together.
Which musicians have really made an impact on your own lives?
Nile Rodgers!
Which track/song is guaranteed to make you happy no matter what situation you’re in?
Machine – “There But For The Grace Of God, There Go I”.
If you were going to recommend one of your tracks for people who haven’t heard you before, which one should they check out?
“We Repeat” on Cecille, “Spunk” on Material, “Get This” on Hot Creations. There’s a few, it’s impossible for us mention just one.
What are your hopes and dreams for the future?
To keep making good music together.
Keep an eye out for Paul C & Paolo Martini’s new EP on 8bit, which is due for release in July…
