The Martinez Brothers Talk Blending House & Reggaeton Music, Representing Their Latino Roots
The Martinez Brothers are one of the world’s top house music acts. The sibling duo are crossing over into the Latin market through the recent releases with Rauw Alejandro and Fuego. They’re bridging the gap between Latin music and EDM in their own way. In an exclusive interview, the Martinez Brothers talked about embracing their Latino roots in their music, their new single “PAP,” and the history of Latinos in dance music.
The Martinez Brothers have over a decade in house music game.
The Martinez Brothers is comprised of siblings Chris and Steve Martinez. They’re proud Nuyoricans from the Bronx. Growing up in New York, the guys count salsa legends like Héctor Lavoe, Willie Colón, and Roberto Roena as inspirations, as well as house acts like Louie Vega, Timmy Regisford, Blaze, and David Mancuso. Their dad got them interested in dance music and the duo turned that love into a career as teens. Over a decade later, the Martinez Brothers are representing Latinos in house music.
“Latinos and dance music has been [together] since the conception,” Steve tells mitú. “That’s what people need to understand. Black people and Latinos really created this music. It comes from the inner cities of New York and Chicago from Black and Latino communities. That’s always something we try to bring forth in our music. We try to play different types of styles and things that we grew up listening to back in the day that people might not know.”
The Martinez Brothers blended house music into Rauw Alejandro’s “Química” song.
The Martinez Brothers’ unique style of dance music has taken them far. The guys have performed all over the world, including having multiple residencies in Ibiza. They’ve performed at all the major electronic music festival. Now the Martinez Brothers are being tapped into the Latin market. Last year, they featured on Rauw Alejandro’s hit “Química” with Zion y Lennox and Mr. NaisGai.
“One of [Rauw’s] producers, Caleb Calloway, we know him from the dance scene — at a certain point, he started doing more Latin music and they had this idea of a Latin track that goes into house music,” Steve recalls. “They gave us a call. We ended up coming to the studio and we just vibed out. That song came together in like no time. It was a crazy vibe.”
While blending reggaeton and house music seems like a new frontier, that’s always been a part of The Martinez Brothers’ sets. “We’ve been doing edits and blending both genres already, so I think that’s why it was a natural fit,” Chris adds. “We were already doing that in the clubs, playing popular Latin records and putting hard beats to them.”
The Martinez Brothers tapped into the Latin market again with Fuego.
The Martinez Brothers followed up the success of “Química” with another Latin and EDM crossover. In August, the guys released their collaboration with “PAP (Pendiente Al Paso)” with Dominican-American singer Fuego. They revealed that the song actually came together two years ago through sessions with Fuego. People who have been to their shows before had most likely heard the song in their set.
“It’s a track that we kind of been teasing to people over the last two years,” Steve says. “It always got a dope reaction. People would always ask us when it’s coming out. People already knew it in South America, in Venezuela, Colombia. Everything happens when it’s supposed to and we’re glad it was able to get released now.”
The Martinez Brothers’ Space Jamz 3 mixtape is coming soon.
The Martinez Brothers hope to collaborate more with Rauw Alejandro and Fuego in the Future. Among the artists on their collaboration wish list are El Alfa, Rosalía, J Balvin, and Tainy. Up next, they have new songs due out soon with hip-hop producer Scott Storch and Puerto Rican icon Randy. The guys also revealed that their Space Jamz 3 mixtape is coming soon. There’s no limit to the kind of EDM that these brothers produce together.
“We definitely want to get more of a widespread audience and reach people who may not be into dance music,” Steve says. “While we’ve been making tracks for the clubs, we want to be able to make things that you can listen to at all times. We’ve just been experimenting and trying to incorporate different flavors and hopefully people will mess with it.”
“We want to stay in your heads,” Chris adds with a laugh. “We definitely want to cross over to all different types of scenes with our sound on the music and not have to change things.”
