Name: Martin Fisher

Band/Production Name:
J-Walk/Martin Brew
1st started producing:
1992
1st Track ever produced: Strangerbrew:"HASHASHIN'S GROOVE"
Label:
East West

J-Walk has been around for a while now - What got you started?

I've always been playing around with music since I was 15, as part of various bands which led into collaboration with Jake Purdey to from Strangebrew.

Rob's Records took an interest and we started to release records with them. Martin Desai (the other half of J-Walk), used to engineer for us and had a similar taste in music. When Strangebrew ran its course, Martin seemed the ideal partner for me to work with.

Tell us more about your early influences.
An art teacher at school, who saw I was interested in music, used to bring an album in each week for me.

This is how I first heard stuff by the Velvet Underground, Kraftwerk, Tim Buckley, The Cramps, Joy Division and New Order amongst many others.

I later got into Funk, Reggae and Hip-Hop followed by House and Disco. The motivating influence for me was the futuristic techno that was coming out of Detroit at the time. These influences are still with me.

Tell us more about the early productions of J-Walk.
The first two EPs were very electronic, in a sort of minimal electro style. They were highly influenced by the Detroit producers such as Aux 88 and Drexciya.

We then started incorporating more organic samples from the 3rd EP onwards.

Who do you most admire in music today?
The Neptunes, Ward 21 (Jamaican dancehall crew), The Flaming Lips.

Who is your music all-time legend?
Serge Gainsbourg.

The Album was critically well received, what's next for J-Walk and for Martin Brew? We're producing tracks for a singer called Michelle Lawson for Mercury Records at the moment. She's a very exciting artist so look out for her.
We're also writing stuff for the next album and it's sounding hot!!! As for me, I'm just starting a debut album for Fat City at the moment- which I very excited about!