He shot to fame on X Factor in 2008 with boyband JLS, before becoming DJ and TV presenter, now Marvin has also slipped into music production to release a debut track with his new band Luvbug.
He tells us what it was like playing his very own DJ set before David Guetta before being invited back the following night to DJ after Diplo in a Las Vegas club last month for Niall Horan’s 21st birthday celebrations.
Marvin said: “It was mad, the club [XS] is one of the biggest in the world – I know the guy who runs it from my stag-do and he asked if I wanted to DJ before David Guetta. I did really well, loved it, it’s one of the best DJ gig’s I’ve done. It went so well that after the gig the club owner was impressed and said ‘do you want to do it again tomorrow night after Diplo?’ “Diplo’s a big hip-hop dub-step producer his set was completely different to Guetta’s so I had to adapt my set, actually enjoyed that even more because I went on after him and the crowd was going nuts. It was wicked, two of the best gigs I’ve ever done.
“Diplo is really cool. I was speaking to him after. Most DJ’s when they finish they leave or go to their table but he stuck around in the booth for half an hour. He was over my shoulder so there was a bit of pressure but I opened with one of his remixes which I thought was a good way in.”
Gosh Marvin, you’re brave – especially with Diplo right behind you. And like a driving instructor giving someone their first lesson, Diplo couldn’t help himself to the controls...
Marvin tells us: “He did interfere with all the buttons a little bit, for the first couple of tracks he was playing around on the mixing decks and usually you’d be like ‘what’s this guy doing?’ but it was Diplo, you can get on with me. At one point I thought we were going to go back to back.
“When you’re DJing and you’ve got the crowd on your side and it’s just rocking, you never want to come off as a DJ, but you know that you have to because you don’t want to overstay your welcome as well. I went on and started with one of his remixes and he was flicking the mixer, and I played another and he was still playing on the mixer adding in some effects, and I was thinking ‘you want to go back to back?’ after that point he chilled off a bit and had a drink.”
Luvbug’s debut single ‘Resonance’ is out now.