Five years after first testing the melody live, Marten Lou finally releases ‘Chemical’, a collaboration with British artist Ross Quinn.

Some melodies are gone the morning after. Others are still there five years later. Let’s rewind for a moment. It’s 2021, and Marten Lou is sitting in his bedroom when an idea pops into his head. He builds a tune around it and even starts playing it at his shows. There’s footage from one of them: a small open-air event, a very modest crowd, Marten behind the decks. “No crowd back then but full passion,” he writes in the caption. The melody stays. Five years later, it’s ringing out across festival main stages, and on September 25, the tune finally gets its official release. ‘Chemical’ is a collaboration with British producer and songwriter Ross Quinn.

Marten knew from the start that there was something in the idea. What he didn’t know was what to do with it. He tested the tune live, worked on it, put it aside, then came back to it. Somehow, it never quite fit where he was musically at the time. It wasn’t until 2026 that he pulled the old idea back out and rebuilt it from the ground up, this time through the lens of the sound he had developed in the years since. The breakthrough came during a writing session in London. Marten played an older version of “Chemical,” Ross Quinn joined in, and together they wrote the vocals. Suddenly, the melody had found the piece it had been missing. Months of fine-tuning followed. Then the tune was ready.

“Chemical” sits somewhere between melodic house and the pull of a late-night dancefloor. Rolling basslines and a steady four-on-the-floor beat provide the foundation while layers of melody drift overhead, gradually lifting almost without you noticing. Oud sounds add an unexpected colour to the production, with Ross Quinn’s high vocals floating above it all. And right at the centre is that melody, the one that started everything five years ago. Hear it once and there’s a good chance it’ll stick around.

The lyrics tap into a similar feeling. “I’m longing something magical / Been feeling kinda cynical,” Quinn sings, capturing that strange space between disillusionment and the urgent hope that something might still happen tonight. Soon, it turns into a mantra: “I think I need a chemical.” The lights need to go down, and the mind along with them. As the vocals keep circling that thought, the production pulls further towards the dancefloor.

“Chemical” follows Marten Lou’s collaboration “Technicolor” with French artist RIVO, which has amassed close to one million streams since its release at the end of June. Before that came “Save Me” with CamelPhat, now approaching seven million streams. Over the coming weeks, Marten Lou will be on the road with a packed international live schedule. And this time, the melody that stayed with him for five years is coming along for the ride.