Doc Martin, born Martin Mendoza, has been behind the decks since house music first took shape, and this Saturday the Los Angeles producer-DJ brings that decades-long résumé to St. Petersburg for a date at The Nest. The show lands as the club's Serious Soul x Hallucienda residency wraps up, with organizers billing it as a long-awaited homecoming of sorts for a DJ widely credited with helping define dance music on the West Coast.
Martin began playing house music as soon as it appeared, in 1985, according to The New Yorker. He went on to help shape Los Angeles' early-1990s rave scene after relocating to the city, as Billboard reports, and that chapter of his career includes a set at the infamous 1991 L.A. rave Gilligan's Island, per the same New Yorker profile. Those credentials are part of why local promoters and Creative Loafing Tampa Bay have both framed him as a godfather of the genre ahead of this weekend's show.
From San Francisco Bookings to Deee-Lite's Road
Martin's path to the West Coast scene ran through San Francisco, where he told Billboard he was booking acts like Inner City, Liz Torres and D Mob in early 1986. Not long after, a packed Los Angeles show featuring Deee-Lite and Aphex Twin led to another turning point: Martin became Deee-Lite's tour DJ following that performance, the same Billboard interview notes. From there he built out residencies at clubs including Twilo, Tunnel, Roxy, Metropolitan, London's The End and fabric, according to a Resident Advisor event listing.
Along the way, Martin launched his own label, Sublevel, which Billboard notes he started with the goal of releasing his own music. He has now run the label for 25 years and has racked up almost 40 years of studio and DJ experience, according to MusicTech. Martin has described Sublevel as an outlet that began as a way for him and Lillia to put out their own work, per the same MusicTech interview, and the label started as a vinyl-only operation.
A DJ Who Makes Records, Decades Into a Career
Even with that long résumé, Martin keeps it simple when describing what he does. “I've always said that I'm just a DJ who makes records,” he told MusicTech, a sentiment he echoed on the Powertools podcast according to Creative Loafing Tampa Bay's reporting on the upcoming show. His catalog of mixes bears that out — Resident Advisor notes his sets weave together house, techno, acid, tribal rhythms and deep basslines, while a recent Pre-Ocaso House Jaunt set leaned into R&B basslines and vocal elements in a style fans call deep house, per The New Yorker. His February 2001 BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix, remembered as reggae-flavored, remains part of that same body of work.
Martin has said his influences span hip-hop, punk, funk, industrial, reggae, new wave, electro and disco, according to NPR. He also told Billboard he still listens to music three hours every day, and this year he's releasing new original tracks, remixes and collaborations with Harry Romero and D'Julz, per MusicTech. In that Billboard conversation, he also pointed to saturation and social-media-driven promotion as problems he sees facing dance music today.
Saturday's Lineup and the Residency's Last Night
Saturday's bill pairs Martin with Brian Busto, Dreez and Slick Vizion at The Nest at St. Pete Brewing Co., according to Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, which reports the date marks the closing event of Busto and DJ Three's Serious Soul x Hallucienda residency and Martin's first Serious Soul set in 12 years. Busto called Martin a mentor to DJ Three and one of his biggest inspirations, and said the pair never imagined it would take this long to bring Martin back, per that same report. An Eventbrite listing for the show advertises a 3.5-hour set running from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m.
Creative Loafing Tampa Bay reports Martin is slated to play a three-hour set for the residency's closing event, and that tickets start at $24.80 and remain available. Whatever the exact runtime turns out to be once the night gets going, Saturday gives Tampa Bay a rare chance to catch a DJ whose work helped set the template for the scene Busto and DJ Three have been building locally.
