This post is also available in: Nederlands (Dutch)
In 2017 I met Marciana, also known as Back To Mars, at my favorite place in town: the church of Ruigoord. We got along immediately and of course Marciana reminisced with me about the beginning of her DJ career and her first gig ever. “I actually had two first gigs.”
“After practicing at home for three months, I got two gigs. That fact is even a story in itself. We had a Pioneer CD player and a converted home stereo. This meant that the volume button became the pitch control, so we could change the speed of the tracks. No classic set-up, but that’s how I learned to play. My first gigs were special: it was the first time I played in front of people and the first time I played for a dancing public, which happened at my second first gig.”
Chill-out
“My debut was in the morning at an afterparty (photo above). I was supposed to play after a chill-out DJ, which meant that I had to continue playing in this genre. So, when people suddenly got up and started to dance, I slowed down the music because I thought they were meant to be chilling.” (laughs)
9Lives of Hofmann
“The gig that stayed with me the most though, was, of course, the first time when I played for a dancing crowd. It was summer and the organization I was affiliated with, 9Lives of Hofmann, were doing an after party for another event that happened the night before. They wanted to be democratic. Therefore, instead of allocating the time slots, all of them were written on pieces of paper, folded and put into a hat. Each of us had to pull one out to get their time to play. I got prime time in the middle of the afternoon. One of the other DJs asked me if I wanted to swap in case I was nervous, which I definitely was! But I thought: ‘Things happen for a reason’ and I decided to stick with it.”
Bubble
“The set went awesome, people loved it and it felt like a bubble was created in the air. I always search for this bubble-feeling created by the music and the energy from the crowd combined with my own energy. Sometimes this feeling is almost tangible.”
Music happens in the moment
“Because I don’t preselect tracks, I totally went along with the vibe. I never prepare my sets, not sixten years ago and not now. In my opinion music happens in the moment and who knows what the next moment will bring? What will be the vibe of the people and the party? These are all created on the spot. In my opinion, sets are more truthful to the vibe of the crowd if they are created there and then.”
Fascinated
“This debut went so amazing, that afterwards (photo directly above) my picture was published on the homepage of an English party website. Despite the fact that all that I had was a small stack of CD’s and not even a folder to put them in! I was already hooked to music way before that and this experience just solidified it.”
Back to Mars
“Since then, with my first DJ project Back to Mars I became more and more involved with parties, local and abroad. I play psytrance, mostly forest, dark psy and driving groovy progressive. As Back to Mars, I’ve performd at great events in quite a few countries like Austria, Brazil, Belgium, Cyprus, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Latvia, Mexico, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.”
“Later, I also created an ‘alternative’ DJ project, Marciana. With this I cover all other styles that I play: deep house, deep techno, world music, jazz, funk and lounge. As Marciana, I mostly play local. It was during a Marciana set at Ruigoord in Amsterdam, when Marceline approached me for this interview.”
More Marciana / Back to Mars?
Soundcloud Back to Mars
Facebook Back to Mars
Soundcloud Marciana
Facebook Marciana
Mixcloud Marcia Mars
Photo’s: Slava / Bea Barbarin / Shlomi Yehezkel/ Lucas Chavez
