The Martinez Brothers and Rudimental compare New York and London's underground

Following the release of The Martinez Brothers' and Rudimental's collaborative track 'No Fear', the artists sat down to interview each other for a feature in GQ earlier this week.

The piece plays heavily on the two groups' icon status in their respective cities. Rudimental speaking on the growth of London's underground scene into the mainstream and The Martinez Brothers giving accurate commentary on the prosperous moves between New York City's boroughs.

"London was a place where British dance music really kicked off", Rudimental details, "...from drum 'n' bass, jungle, garage, house...proper underground raves going on which were very diverse and brought many cultures together. It's interesting because the last few times we've been to New York we've ended up in very similar raves to London!".

The UK band continues with how MC-led music has grown now that it's stepped into the mainstream.

"The music scene will become more exciting and versatile due to the way streaming has taken over. It's less about radio play and it's more about people searching and finding what they want to hear themselves. It creates a bigger platform for underground cultures like grime and MC-led music because the kids can find and listen whenever they want."

And as for New York's native superstars, The Martinez Brothers report on the underground scene's undeniable move to Brooklyn.

"...you could find warehouse parties at nine in the morning and also random Chinese restaurants or other eclectic places [in Brooklyn]. Everything you could think of is happening right now", Chris Martinez comments, "the scene in Manhattan has changed and everything has become really corporate".

Steve Martinez elaborates on his brother's words: "...before everything was in Manhattan, now everything has moved to Brooklyn. The scene out there has been popping for a while, but now the whole NYC tech house scene has finally shifted from Manhattan to Brooklyn and the people are going with it".

The interview continues with the Bronx brothers discussing their core values as artists and Steve Martinez's hidden talents as their label and brand's illustrator.

Read the full interview here.

Watch The Martinez Brothers in The Lab Miami 2017 here

Watch a special 2017 Brooklyn rooftop set from Rudimental here

Sydney is Mixmag's US Digital Content Editor. Follow her on Twitter here