The Martin Garrix interview | 'Performing live is similar to football — the crowd, the energy, the adrenaline'

Dutch DJ Martin Garrix has collaborated with Bono end The Edge from U2 to compose ‘We Are The People,’ the anthem for UEFA EURO 2020, the international football tournament scheduled to run from 11 June to 11 July, 2021. After getting delayed by over a year because of the coronavirus, the tournament has finally kicked off. In an exclusive interview, Garrix talks to Firstpost about collaborating with his childhood idols, how performing live shares the energy of a football match, and the dream animation project he has been working on for years. Edited excerpts below: How surprised were you when you were offered to compose the EURO 2021 anthem? So UEFA, when they confirmed, they said, “Martin, we want you to do all the audio." I was very, very excited but also very nervous. And then they were like, “You have carte blanche. Just make sure it’s euphoric, and it feels good, and we trust you that you will do something that matches the feel and the vibe of the tournament," which is an amazing honour, but also a big leap of faith. A lot of trust and, in the back of my head, some pressure because I was like, “Woah, okay! Great!” Because the expectations were really high. At what point did you know you wanted to work with Bono and The Edge? When I had this demo, it sounded a little bit like The Edge, the intro guitar, and Bono. And then we were talking about who would be incredible to have part of the song, and for me, Bono and The Edge looked so impossible that they were not even on the list that I was thinking about reaching out to. And then UEFA and the team said, “Well, if you don’t ask, you’ll always have no for an answer." [caption id=“attachment_9691931” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]  The Edge, Martin Garrix, and Bono[/caption] And then we sent over the demo and then, I think, a few hours later, I was on the phone with Bono, talking about the song. And he was singing along the melody lines. And I had to mute myself: “Aaaaah!” Screaming! (Then I) unmuted and played it all cool, but that was crazy. Because the last thing that I expected was for him to be so open-minded and so cool, and like, “Sure, let’s try it out." And he was, from day one, excited, super-involved, really pushed the song. He really pushed me, as well, also production-wise. “No, that can be better. This can improve." And it was an amazing, amazing collaboration. And also, with The Edge and how he helped the song. Have you been able to work together in the studio? How was it working with them? They’re both geniuses, and I’m very grateful and still cannot believe that I had the chance to work with them on this song. I flew to Eze to record Bono singing, and I’m in the studio next to him. We did the lyrics over the phone, and he really lifted a song lyrically to the next level. Also his voice, there’s nothing like it. When he starts singing, and it’s in the studio or at the shoot, we had the music video shoot where he was singing without a microphone, he was just singing a song, and everybody was just looking at each other like, “What is happening!” It’s very special.   [caption id=“attachment_9691961” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]  Bono, Martin Garrix, and The Edge[/caption] Fast forward, I was in Eze (French Riviera) with him, recording this song. It’s such an iconic voice I had goosebumps during the whole session. And after the first take, I was already like, “Cool, we got it, perfect. I can go home now." But he loves singing, and he gave us so many amazing takes to work with. So I’m very excited. And then, I was stuck on the main part of the song, the main melodic part, and  Edge came in and he helped with the hook. So I feel like this song…

It’s not a Garrix song with Bono doing the vocals and Edge playing guitar. No, everybody has contributed so much to the final song, which is very exciting. It was a really, really collaborative song.

Where did you find the inspiration for ‘We Are The People’? In what way did football and the EURO help?  We took a lot of inspiration from how football made us feel, and how it unites people. I tried to capture it even with the chord progression, but then also with the lyrics that Bono did, with the guitar that Edge added. They really took it to the next level. And we really, really tried to capture that feeling of euphoria, excitement, happiness. Yeah, really excited with how the track has ended up. How you describe football reminds me, do you miss the electric atmosphere of a live performance? Do you have any ritual to follow before every live gig that you miss now? It’s hard not to get hyped before every live gig. You hear the crowd, the energy, the adrenaline. I kind of miss that feeling because I haven’t done a show in over a year, but before a show, there’s such a… Because there’s no music. It’s like changeover music. And before a Garrix show, you’re just meditative. You’re like, “Mmm…”, and then, the music will go a little bit louder, and the crowd will think the intro will start and be like, “Ahh!” And before every show, I’m nervous, and I still have goosebumps at every show. Yeah, I still get nervous but it’s such an exciting moment of the crowd being together, the energy, the tension that’s in the air before the music starts. I think it’s similar to football in a way. [caption id=“attachment_9691941” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]  Martin Garrix[/caption] Unlike Bono and The Edge, your team, The Netherlands, are taking part in the tournament. Can you describe the feeling of cheering on your nation, knowing that your song is the soundtrack to the tournament itself? It’s crazy. I cannot imagine how it will feel hearing the song on TV broadcasted before the game. Sitting on something for so long is exciting but you also want to share it with the world, and now when that moment is getting so close – because it also got pushed back a year because of cornavirus – but now that moment is so close. I’m just very excited, I think for everybody who was involved with the tournament, the music video, everything, everybody involved. I feel like when it gets to the big audience, everybody will have a moment of relief and really realise: “Wow, it’s happened." Is there anything else you are working on at the moment? What can we expect from you in the coming months? I’ve been working on something super exciting already for five years now with my dear friend, Maejor. It’s about two aliens that crash on Planet Earth, and upon their arrival, they don’t understand that there’re borders, they don’t understand the division. They basically look at humans, and are like, “What are you guys doing?” But we want to do it in a fun, playful way. We have an amazing animation team behind us who help cartoon-animate the journey of the aliens because they’ve been flying around the universe not paying attention, and they hit a satellite, crash on Planet Earth, and then the real journey starts.   We were thinking about how people would perceive or how people would look at humans if they weren’t human, if they looked from an outside point of view, because there are a lot of things that people do and think are normal which are not kind of normal sometimes, and we wanted to just shine a light on it in a fun, playful way. The music is very different from the Garrix stuff. I play guitar, I’m singing background vocals; Maejor is rapping, singing, playing drums. This year, I had so much time because there was no touring, so besides the Garrix stuff, we’ve also been working on a full album with this project.