Andrew Martin (musician)

Andrew Martin (born May 16, 1978) is a British musician, songwriter, vocalist, historian and journalist from Cambridge, England. He is also owner of independent record label Subfonic, history website History Repeating, and album review website Pop Rescue.

Early life

Born in Cambridge, England, Martin began his singing career whilst at primary school. He was often picked to sing at school concerts and plays, and was given the freedom to play and create music at home on his Yamaha keyboard, and later on his mother's piano.

By 1989, and at the age of 12, he had written his first song - a Michael Jackson influenced track - called 'Pepsi And Cool' whilst at school, and performed it with three friends under the moniker of 'Rather Cool'. Over the next eight years he would hone his writing skills, and record a substantial number of tracks and release them on cassettes under the pseudonym Supernatural.

Musical career

Having recorded two albums under his pseudonym Supernatural, Martin begun to write, record, produce and release his own material under his own name. In 2001 he also became a founding member of a six-piece group Octosound, which he initially played piano for, before switching to the role of lyricist and vocalist. After only a handful of performances but extensive writing and recording sessions, Andrew left the band, causing it to split, in mid-2004.

After partnering with Macmillan Cancer Support in Cambridge during 2002, he released his first single 'While You Were Sleeping'. The track was heavily electronic, and was taken from charity fundraising album 'Skyline Songs' that featured various unsigned artists.^[1] The album was supported by a live fundraising event at rock music venue The Boat Race, in his home town of Cambridge. Although present for the launch party, Andrew did not perform his song.

During 2002-2004, Martin spent his spare time working as a music promoter for The Band Agency, and would book artists to perform at The Boat Race in Cambridge. He also worked as a 'street team' promoter for la number of record labels including Mute and EastWest Records, covering the rostered artists Goldfrapp, Missy Elliot, Sunshine Anderson and Bell X1, supporting them through promotional activities at gigs, and by requesting radio play of their latest releases.

In 2004, Martin released his second solo single 'Amnesty/Wreckage', which was originally written as a poem by friend and journalist Alan Peddar. Peddar allowed him to record it as a song (with minor lyrical edits). He followed the single with his album The Fury And The Fire^[2] in 2005, which contained his previous two singles, and new compositions with producers Matt Youens and Dario Galasso.

In 2008 he released his new synthpop single 'A Moment With You' which used heavy electronic sounds and dance beats - shifting away from the style of his previous single and album. He followed this up in 2009 with single 'Irresistible',^[3] which was subject to a remix competition.^[4] The two winning remixers: Sean Goes Pop!, and Sven Erler, saw their tracks included in the single release. He repeated the remix competition for his planned follow-up single Humankind, but despite picking the winners,^[5] the single has not been released.

In 2011, Martin was asked to provide the voices of a number of characters, as well as provide the narration, for an interactive audio edition of the MacMillan Prize award winning children's book^[6] about the worldwide credit crunch, titled 'Edward Hopper and The Carrot Crunch'.^[7] After recording the narration track, and the voices for several rabbit characters, the book was released into the iBookstore in November 2011.^[8]

In October 2013, Martin released his single 'I Am The Lion',^[9] with accompanying lyric video.^[10]

His follow-up to 2005's album 'The Fury And The Fire', titled 'The Vorticist' (named after the early 20th century art moment Vorticism) has been in production for many years, although he continues to sporadically announce that he is recording new songs.^[11]

Discography

As featured artist

As narrator

Personal life

Martin is a champion for digital innovation, having taught himself to code during his teenage years, and absorbing the evolution of SEO in his 30's.

His interest in increasing access to education led him to join a board of a civic society in 2015,^[12] to promote the digitisation and improved access to historical information for local and online communities.

He is a self-confessed AFOL (Adult Fan of Lego), and has retained and added to his childhood collection. His photography of this collection has been included in several books, most recently in 2012 'Building A History: The Lego Group' by author Sarah Herman.^[13]

He is also a genealogy addict^[14] - having researched his ancestry back to the late 16th century.

References

External links

• Discogs.com Artist Discography
• Official website
• Andrew Martin's music at Bandcamp