DJ Mag
DJ, producer, label boss, global headliner: Martin Garrix went from sneaking into clubs to becoming one of the defining electronic music artists of his generation. Now, as he marks 10 years of his Ushuaïa Ibiza residency, he reflects on the journey so far — and why he still feels like he’s only just getting started
DJ Mag is sitting in the Green Room of Ushuaïa Ibiza when Martin Garrix invites one of the DJs who played earlier to join us. Eleganto is one of the new artists releasing on the Dutch star’s SMTPD label, and we’re listening to a selection of tracks he has has prepped from his phone. Its maybe an unusual setting for an impromptu A&R session, but Martin is visibly excited by what he’s hearing, undistracted by the fact he’s due on stage soon.
It’s this uninhibited enthusiasm for music that’s seen Garrix, 29, reach landmark moments in his career that most only dream of. Since breaking onto the global stage as a teenage wunderkind with his 2013 hit ‘Animals’, he’s been voted No.1 in DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJs pool five times, a figure shared only with fellow Dutchman Armin van Buuren. Celebrating his win in 2022, he played a DJ set on top of the Empire State Building in New York.
Another milestone, and the reason we’re having this chat today, is that he’s now celebrating the 10-year anniversary of his residency here at Ushuaïa Ibiza, which first launched in 2016. “If you’d told me in 2014 that I’d still have the same residency ten years later, I wouldn’t have believed it. It’s more than a third of my life,” he says.
With the exception of a COVID-induced 2020 pause, and a year in Hï Ibiza in 2017, Garrix has spent the bulk of his summer’s in Ushuaïa Ibiza making thousands of memories with a tight-knit crew who’ve been part of the ride since day one. Reflecting on some reliable highlights, he says: “I think… honestly, the opening party is special. But it’s the closings that always hit. By then, everyone’s put in so much work — from security to stage managers to the whole crew. Week in, week out, they’re there. They’re representing. And we’re doing something really beautiful together.”
“My first time ever in Ushuaïa was when I snuck into a Swedish House Mafia concert… I actually ended up meeting the guys that night and I was just in, like, shock and so inspired. It was a really special moment.”
What clearly means the most to him isn’t a single moment — it’s the collective effort. “We get to create memories for people that will hopefully last a lifetime. It’s such a cool thing to do that with a group of people that really lift each other up. It brings us together. So, it’s not one favourite moment — it’s the whole experience of building something with the team and seeing it in real time touch people.”
Sometimes, that impact takes unexpected forms. “We’ve had wedding proposals during the show,” he says. “And for us, it might be one show out of fifteen that summer. But for them? That’s a memory they’ll hopefully carry with them for the rest of their lives. It’s really cool to be even the tiniest part of that.”
He tells us about the first time that he actually visited Ushuaïa Ibiza. “I snuck into a Swedish House Mafia concert,” he remembers with a laigh. “At the time it was a lot easier to sneak in than it is now. pretended my parents were eating in the restaurant, so I managed to skip past the first layer of security, which was the front door. Later, every now and then, they would open the doors at the back to let people through into the restaurant. At one stage, they opened them, and I saw my golden moment of opportunity, and I just sprinted through the doors onto the dancefloor. I had one of the best nights of my life, watching them, I had tears in my eyes. I was in the crowd, and better still I actually ended up meeting the guys that night and I was just in shock and so inspired. It was a really special moment.”
That dogged determination to get up close and personal with DJs that he admired has been part of the driving force that has seen Martin rise up through the ranks to where he is now. He tells us about another “crazy moment”, playing for the first time at Ushuaïa. “I was playing warm-up for Avicii, I think 13-14 years ago. It was crazy, I’ve so many memories of this place,” he recalls. “And then ten years ago we started with the residency, and I was just in disbelief. I was like, ‘why me? This is crazy’.”
As this point in our conversation, Garrix stops and shifts his attention to his phone, pulling up a collection of photos that his mum sent to him just this morning. In a packed folder, the collected images chronicle almost every step of Martin’s DJing life to date. There’s a picture of him as a kid with his first set of decks, a few with Tiësto, David Guetta and other top tier DJ names, and more from various gigs along the way, including his first show on the White Isle in 2011.
“It was at Privilege,” he remembers. “My first show outside of the Netherlands. One of my friends was organising the party, Julian Jordan, and he gave me the opening slot.”
It’s interesting how it’s all gone full circle now: the building that previously housed Privilege is now the home of [UNVRS], Ibiza’s brand new superclub. We ask Martin about the creative relationship with The Night League — the owners of Ushuaïa, Hi Ibiza and [UNVRS] — and how after ten years together they still manage to keep things feeling fresh.
“It’s been amazing,” he says. “Yann, Romain, the whole team — they’re just genius. Yann’s magic with the clubs is insane, and Romain… creatively, he’s such a savant. They’re closely involved in a lot of things, even stuff outside of Ibiza — they help me with my tour designs. They’re hungry, they’re excited.” “I was at the office with Romain a couple of days ago. I was playing him all this new unreleased music, and we’re just brainstorming. The thing is, no idea is ever too crazy.” He grins. “Well, some ideas are too crazy. But you don’t get a hard no. It’s always, ‘Let’s figure it out — can we make it work cost-wise? Technically? Is it even possible to build?’ And that’s what makes it fun.”
“Two years ago, we did India — nine shows in eleven days — and when I came back, my parents said, ‘You look more rested than when you left’.”
We ask how they make each night at Ushuaïa feel different. “It’s pretty mental,” Garrix says. “The way every day has its own identity with different stage design, different sound… No one’s coming and saying, ‘Oh, Garrix’s show reminded me of Calvin’s,’ or ‘It felt like Tomorrowland.’ It’s its own thing, a completely different set up.”
It’s something he’s detected at all of TNL’s clubs. “I was at [UNVRS] the other night for Jamie Jones, then back on Sunday for Carl Cox’s opening. I was just like — how is this the same place? They flipped the whole thing. It’s mad. The team here is incredible and they do the same thing across Ushuaïa, Hï and [UNVRS]. What they’re doing is really special. So, after ten years I still get excited. I walk in here and it’s just adrenaline, that excitement I feel 110%. Excited. Yeah, I’m like, I’m tingling.”
In spite of the sheer scale of his successes, for Garrix, everything he does is about staying true to what brought him here in the first place. “In the first year when I was No. 1 [in the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs poll], I was like, ‘Oh, it can only go downhill from here’,” he says. “It was a thought that I was very much just whispering in my head. But then, no. I feel like the more I just focused on what made me happy, the more the fans appreciated it and the better the rankings went.”
That shift in mindset changed everything. Rather than trying to replicate a hit or tick boxes, he’s leaned fully into spontaneity, including in his productions. “If I go into the studio thinking, ‘Oh, I have to make this’, or ‘I have to do something in this genre’, or ‘I have to do a female vocal… anything — this bpm, this style — it will limit whatever I’m going to do. I won’t be painting in the full canvas that I can paint in.”
Instead, the studio is his playground: a space for curiosity, chaos, mental cleansing. “Right now, and also for the last few years, I’ve really just been having fun and just doing whatever I felt like making. I’m just making music, experimenting. And worst-case scenario, it’s something that I will never release. But then I still had a great day in the studio. I enjoyed it. It’s therapy.”
And amidst it all, Garrix still feels like his best work is ahead of him. “I feel like even with the polls, the residency — it’s mind-blowing, but I still feel I’m at the start of what I can prove and also what’s about to come.” He trails off with a quiet confidence. “I’ve been working on a crazy bunch of music which I’m really excited about. Next year — and also the end of this year — is going to be a very special year for me.”
After years of experimenting and stockpiling ideas, Garrix is finally feeling ready to release a new album — a project he’s been quietly developing since 2016. “Some of the tracks started back then. We kept revisiting them. Now it feels right.”
There’s no hesitation when we ask if the hunger is still there. “There’s so much hunger,” he responds, and what’s just as important is the joy he still finds in the process — not just the releases, but the act of creating itself. “Most of the time, if you’re having fun, people can hear it back in the track. Sometimes I will do something that’s unexpected, because you’re like, ‘Go for it, let’s try it, might as well’. And then afterwards, you’re like, ‘That was sick’.” He laughs. “Some stuff I hear, sound design–wise that I did, years ago, I’m like, ‘how the hell did I even do that?’ At the time I was just messing around and thought, ‘Oh, this is cool’, and I did it because I liked it. Some of those songs didn’t perform well at all. But listening back to them now, I’m like, ‘that was so creative’. And I remember the joy it gave me.”
Garrix is also excited about something else that’s on the horizon — a newly announced Brazil tour. It’s a full headline run: seven shows in eight days, hitting multiple cities with his own production, stage design and set structure. “I just love the whole vibe there,” he says. “The culture, the people. They are so passionate about everything — music, football, just life in general. Everything they do, they do with heart.”
He’s played Brazil before, of course, including huge appearances at Tomorrowland and Lollapalooza, but he explains that with these gigs you are part of someone else’s line-up with other artists. With this tour it’s his own show, something that he’s really excited about. “The reaction to the announcement has been huge. The response has been going really well,” he adds. “Seven shows in eight days — it’s going to be intense.” Still, this kind of schedule is exactly the kind of pace he thrives on. “It’ll be fine,” he shrugs. “The craziest thing is I actually love to be in that kind of mode. Two years ago, we did India — nine shows in eleven days — and when I came back, my parents said, ‘You look more rested than when you left’.”
That run was fuelled by discipline. “I wasn’t drinking, I was working out every day, checking in with the team. We’d look back at videos from the night before, go through feedback, visuals, ideas. It was such a flow.” Even the lead-up to that tour had him heavily focused. “I was up ‘til 5 AM every night in the studio putting together new tracks. But I really think if you build a rhythm and routine around this lifestyle, it becomes way more sustainable.”
As our conversation comes to a close, and Martin gets ready to take the stage once more, we ask him where he think he’ll be ten years from now. “Sat here with you on the couch talking about the last ten years,” he laughs. “No, I’ve really no idea. I just want to continue doing this year and enjoying it.”
