Island tunesmiths claim international prize

Published 10:06 am Wednesday, March 16, 2016

The Seattle area is known far and wide as a musical mecca, having produced some of the most important American musicians ever.

And, though the artists from the Emerald City have excelled across many genres, nearly all of their sonic stylings tend to be heavy.

Think of Heart frontwoman Ann Wilson’s moody wail and siren shriek; she means business. Or Jimi Hendrix’s blending of old school blues, funk and soul with his own psychedelic demons. Even his cover of the National Anthem had an edgy sense to it, something dangerous underneath. And, of course, there was the grunge revolution that put rock back in blue jeans and washed off all that ’80s glitter with a sheen of working class sweat.

Maybe it’s the rain and gloom so common here. Maybe it’s the city’s economic rollercoaster history — Seattle is no stranger to boom and bust times, often one on the heels of the other. Maybe it’s just something in the water. But there is an undeniable pervasive sense of gravity in songs from Seattle.

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule.

One such noteworthy anomaly is two Bainbridge High School grads, best friends eschewing such somber staples and focusing on fun, who are crafting upbeat arrangements and making a splash in the decidedly un-moody world of electronic dance music (EDM).

“It’s happy music and I think that’s really nice,” Tyler Martinez-Green said. “Dance music originated from disco. That’s where it really came from. In that sense, disco’s all about that in-the-pocket drumming, those bass grooves, because disco is happy music.

“You listen to disco, you listen to Donna Summers, it just makes you want to dance,” he added. “It’s all just feeling that groove and feeling that positive vibe.”

Martinez-Green and Tor Eimon, both 2014 BHS grads, recently had their remix of Adventurer’s dance music tune “Still Young” chosen by the international label Ensis Records to be signed and released on an upcoming collection of rearrangements titled “Still Young – The Remixes EP” as part of a worldwide contest.

The original song was made available to the public, and the label judged the 20 most popular re-imaginings as decided by online voting.

It is a big victory for the island collaborators – both accomplished DJs not even old enough yet to get into most of the clubs where the music they love is performed – made all the more impressive by the distance that separates them now. Eimon is in Boston studying at Berklee College of Music and Martinez-Green is currently enrolled at Seattle Central.

“With this one it was tricky because [Tor] was over in Boston,” Martinez-Green said. “So it was a lot of phone meetings.

“The original record was out and they gave you the vocals and you could arrange it any way you wanted and work it the way you wanted,” he explained. “So basically, this is your own original take on it.”

Distance be damned, the two musicians — who say they’ve never had so much as a disagreement in their four years of musical collaboration — worked it out, made the time and put together their ideal arrangement.

“We’re like the perfect duo,” Martinez-Green said.

“We’re very in synch when it comes to a lot of musical stuff,” agreed Eimon. “I feel like we approach things fairly similarly.”

Projects generally begin with a small idea or incomplete arrangement by Eimon, they explained, and then the two progressively build from there with a steady stream of back-and-forth.

“We do a lot of records together,” Martinez-Green said. “[Tor’s] just like cranking out these awesome ideas and a lot of time he sends it to me, like, ‘What do you think?’ It’s like a minute long or a melody, and I’m like, ‘Let’s take this,’ or ‘What do you think of this? What if we make the melody this?’ Or, ‘Let’s make the kick drum a little harder.’ And it kind of just builds like that.”

House music, dance music and club beats may seem an incongruous passion for two young guys from the affluent, sleepy suburb of Bainbridge Island. But both agreed that in the digitally democratized world, where you’re from doesn’t really matter anymore.

“I think music is a very free thing,” Eimon said. “Anyone and everyone should have the opportunity to be able to make whatever they want.

“I think anyone can kind of pick it up and get a good understanding of it from anywhere in the world,” he added.

First experiencing dance music in a less active scene like Bainbridge gave him a greater appreciation for the style, Martinez-Green added. With no like-minded peers to tell him what was cool, he got to listen to it all without influence.

“For me it was different because I was really into it from when I was younger,” he said. “It was something that I always really liked. It was like a guilty pleasure, because it was that music that I listened to that I knew nobody else really liked or cared about — so it was like my own kind of thing.”

The duo intend to keep making records together and submitting original work to labels around the world to be considered for signing and release, something the name recognition from being chosen as winners of the “Still Young” contest will greatly help facilitate, they agreed.

But mostly, they added, their music is still all about fun and personal passion.

“Those records just make you feel some kind of way that make you just want to dance,” Martinez-Green said.

“When you’re in that aspect of dancing and in the club or festival or just listening to something on your headphones or Djing, there’s nothing else there. It’s an outlet that you can just do your thing and feel great about it.”