Martin Vogt, a.k.a. Haywyre, is bringing new and innovative ideas to the electronic world. His sound is both classically and futuristically influenced, incorporating heavy synths and trippy samples to create his unique style.

Words by Taylor Ann Trad
Photography by Anastasia Velicescu

His newest album, Two Fold Pt. 2 was released earlier this year as a dual-album compilation with his Two Fold Pt. 1 (which was released back in 2014). As I browsed through the tracks, I detected not only the contrast between the two albums, but also how well they interplayed with one another. Titles like “Dichotomy” and “Voice of Reason” in Pt. 1, as well as “I am Me” and “I am You” in Pt. 2, help guide the audience in understanding the philosophy behind his tracks.

“The album itself was named Two Folds because [of] the concept of duality, opposites, and contrasts. Creating two contrasting albums was really the idea behind it – kind of unfortunate that I have to say goodbye to it; the album project as a whole, that is. The album epitomized my thoughts and feelings in the form of music. It was a pretty heavy driving force to my music for a long time, but now I am ready to move on to whatever is next.” –Haywyre

Touring with Zedd, Gramatik, and Mat Zo increased Vogt’s exposure, and his popularity has only continued to expand. He has lived in several parts of the world and traveled to many more, but he currently enjoys residing in Vancouver where he is signed to Canadian-based independent electronic dance music label Monstercat. While the self-taught producer admits to being a fan of Technical Death Metal and an ex-member of a short-lived Death Metal rock band, he says that his main influences stem from his early childhood experiences.

“My parents exposed me to a large variety of music from an early age. They always wanted me to listen to a lot of classical music, because my mom was a firm believer that listening to classical music made you more intelligent. She played a lot of reggae, jazz, and rock as well. I also moved around a lot in my life, so naturally the music that I was exposed to was multi-cultural.” -Haywyre

Vogt first started making music when he was six years old. His dad bought him an early keyboard workstation that allowed him to record, loop, and create backing tracks. It was one of the largest driving forces that led him to pursue electronic music.

“I didn’t get serious about [music] until halfway through high school when I started releasing music independently. I would get it up to digital distribution: Beatport, iTunes, etc. on my own and I just kept going with it. I released three albums, and by the time I was in college I got my first offer to work with a record label. It wasn’t until then where I was like, ‘whoa there might actually be something to it,’ so I dropped out two years ago and three years later here I am.

As of right now I’m doing a little bit of soul searching to figure out where I’m going next with my music. I’m currently working on a lot of performance video content of me jamming out on my keyboards. It’s where the value of my music is most communicated.” -Haywyre