The Review
Charlotte Martin's voice is so surprisingly powerful and beautiful - you'll find yourself entranced listening to this CD. In a time when image rules over substance, it is so refreshing to find a true talent.
I can't wait to hear more from this emerging artist. Her songs match her voice in power and emotion. Great, great music!!
~Trixie, September 2003
About Charlotte Martin
There's a one-girl invasion coming.
Count Charlotte Martin's piano-driven songs among recent work from the likes of Coldplay, Ryan Adams and PJ Harvey as a set of passionate, emotionally open songs that don't skimp on the hooks. Her work comfortably balances both artistic
credibility and commercial appeal.
Martin's approach encompasses the orchestrated ruminations of Kate Bush, the
poetic storytelling of Joni Mitchell and Billy Joel, plus the fiery piano playing and alternately dark and humorous lyrical take of Ben Folds.
What sets Martin apart from her peers is the candor in her songs and her
willingness to not take herself too seriously. Her songs brim with her
personal passions, without self-indulgence, perhaps due to her small-town
upbringing. Martin grew up in a small college town in Illinois, fairly prim
and proper. Singing since she was four, Martin started voice and piano
lessons three years later. Martin attended her hometown school, Eastern
Illinois University where her father is a music professor, earning her
Bachelor's Degree in opera. Yes, opera.
"I love singing opera… I don't like listening to it," she says. "I thought I
was going to be a professional opera singer until I started writing songs."
Her career goals changed after a series of life-altering experiences. "I did
a lot in one year," she says, understating it. "I met this guy, with whom I
had sex for the first time-and boy was that a disaster. His sister, who was
one of my best friends, committed suicide. I think life just decided, 'Okay,
I'm going to kick the shit out of you so you have something to say.' I wrote
my first song for her funeral."
Despite the dark roots of Martin's artistic career, the blond-haired singer
has found a balance among emotions. Sure, she has a fascination with gothic
comics such as Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Lenore and wrote her own
semi-autobiographical comic, titled 766 6th Street, but she's not dark or
miserable: "My sense of humor is edgy and off-beat, that's what I love about
the comics, not necessarily the moroseness. I mean, I don't dress all in
black."
Her quirks and contradictions are out in the open. She's a former anorexic
who now relishes eating steak and peanut butter M&Ms and has little patience
for the waifs in her adopted home of Los Angeles. ("It's the most horrible,
pathetic, selfish disease in the world.") Among her more interesting
idiosyncrasies are a fascination with drag queens and a love of Andrew Lloyd
Webber. Also worth noting are her two pet turtles, one of which is named for
The Cure's Robert Smith.
Live, her gregarious personality and willingness to share whatever is on her
mind make for an engrossing concert experience-even when she's just
introducing the next song. When the music starts, Martin plays full-contact
piano, perhaps forgetting that she's seated, by throwing her legs and body
around, twisting sideways, and filling up more of the stage than her tiny
frame seems capable of.
In order to capture the energy of her performances, Charlotte has worked with producer Tom Rothrock (Beck, Foo Fighters, Gwen Stefani/Moby, Badly Drawn Boy) recording most of the songs with Martin on piano and vocals, bassist Sasha Krivtsov (New Radicals) and R.E.M./Beck drummer Joey Waronker playing live for 40 headphone-wearing guests in a studio. The unconventional approach worked, with the trio punctuating the coda of "Silver Honey" with a sense of jam and improvisation, giving off the tightness of a group performing within eyesight of each other, while keeping the looseness of a concert. And still, her work is fully realized, with studio touches adding fire to Martin's intense melodies. Put on headphones and you can hear her feet working the pedals of her piano at the opening of "In Parentheses" or the left-field new wave feel of "The Girl I Left Behind". No less a songwriting authority than Richard Thompson sings backup on “One Girl Army” his baritone swooping in like an evil conspirator.
Martin's shows her straightforward manner of reacting to and processing her experiences. "I can't sit down and just write; I need to live first," she says. Whether delivering a lighthearted song about stalking-from the stalker's (read: Martin's) perspective-"I'm Normal, Please Date Me," or the note to a friend, "Raven," her living comes through her confessional, conspiratorial style of singing. Listeners will see themselves somewhere in her songs, meaning the ‘One Girl Army’ will have plenty of recruits.
The Review
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