ABOUT
ALEX MARTIN
aka THE
OUTpsiDER (pronounced
Outsider)
ALEX MARTIN: History and Background
How it all started with Blue
Pie: Alex Martin was introduced to Blue Pie
via a mutual associate back in June 2002. Alex presented two
concepts he was working on to Damien and was saying how hard
it was to find a label like Blue Pie. Damien and Phil met
with Alex on 3 more occasions and a deal was agreed to and
now the rest, as the saying goes, is history. Alex is now
virtually part of Damien and Phil's extended family and, whether
he likes it or not, they are part of his.
Alex has a daughter aged 6 "Arki Grace" and is married
to Natasha . He lives on the upper north shore at Hornsby
and when not in the studio, can be found cruising the streets
or lurking in old vinyl record stores listening to the vibe
for his next hit.
To relax Alex goes for extended rides into the countryside
on his beloved Vespa PX.
The Music: The idea was originally to focus
on Alex's original compositions but during a production meeting
back in October 2002 everyone got to talking about songs that
stood out over the years and the song "Downtown" was
suggested by Damien as a possible contender for a remix. Alex
heard the track and immediately had the creative vision flowing.
A week later, after many hours of editing, trimming and fine
tuning, the first versions appeared from Alex’s home studio.
“Downtown” was reborn.
We began to get in touch with the right people and before long
David Baxter (“DB”) introduced the Blue Pie team
to Tony Hatch. DB got Tony's e-mail address and we emailed a
digitised version of “Downtown 2003” to him. He
was thrilled with the versions and you can see his response
in the letter on the Blue Pie website or
Click
here to see Tony Hatch's letter
While all of this was going on Damien was musing over some of
the songs and groups that Tony had been involved with in the
past and on a Saturday morning at Leichhardt Damien purchased
"The Searchers Greatest Hits", put
out by EMI and, bizarre as it sounds, this is the CD that David
Baxter put together when he was at EMI.
Damien played "Sweets for my Sweet" over and over,
Alex got the vibe for the track and they began to find others
that he really liked ... The Easybeats,
The Animals, Them
and additional Petula Clark and
Tony Hatch material.
We sent the tracks we created for “The Searchers”
to Frank Allen and John McNally - founding members of one of
the worlds greatest rock and roll bands who are still performing
today. Their comments
were: "The remixes of "Sweets for
my Sweet" are just amazing. We could never have imagined
our music, made four decades ago, could sound so fresh and exciting.
We really do have to thank The OUTpsiDER for bringing us into
the 20th Century and exposing us to a whole new youth culture".
Frank Allen and John McNally for the "Searchers"
May 2003
Future:
The Dance Hall days of the 60’s, which reappeared in
the late 70’s have twisted and morphed into what we
still call ‘dance music’ today and the ever changing
tastes of fashion have run parallel with styles to match.
And so it goes on, Alex, who started DJ’ing back in
1978, is re-living his Mod days and remixing some of his favourite
drops of 60’s magic which will result in a world first.
The sixties have re-visited us using today’s technology
to re-create a sound and a vibe that never really went away.
Radio Support:
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