We recently connected with Joe Martin and have shared our conversation below.
Joe, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
I have just recorded my first album and am taking it on the road for a 14 date UK tour in April. I am a fully independent artist, so have self funded the album and booked and organised the tour myself. In a post covid era, establishing yourself as an original artists has agruably never been more challenging… But that doesn’t mean the challenge isn’t worth taking on!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Joe Martin, I am a singer songwriter and independent artist. I’ve been performing as long as I can remember but only started writing songs in my late teens… After three years of study at Leeds College of Music, I dived into the industry head first and started touring the UK, Europe and visited Nashville several times, performing out there and writing with some top class songwriters. I started out, very much in the Country genre and have evolved more into the broader scene of Americana… Though I like to let people make up their own mind about my music rather than put a label on it…. After several recent tours of the UK and music releases including 2 EPs and a live album, I have finally recorded and produced my first studio album, set to be released May 1st. I have also booked a 14 date UK tour which starts on the 13th of April in Devon and finishes in my home town Manchester on the 30th. On the tour, I’m visiting venues such as the Half Moon in Putney, Hen and Chicken in Bristol, Spring Arts Centre in Havant, Glasgow’s 13th Note and The Live Room in Saltaire, Yorkshire to name a few… all tour dates can be found at my website (www.joemartinmusic.com/tour). As a songwriter, heavily influenced by Country music and American folk artists such as James Taylor, Bob Dylan, Townes Van Zandt, Joni Mitchell and more recently Chris Stapleton, Kacey Musgraves and Jason Isbell… I find the type of song I like to write is one with a captivating story. I see it as a challenge to try and write a song that plays out like a short 3 minute movie, taking the listen on a vivid journey, through the stages of someone’s life and hopefully leave them feeling like they’ve been there with them and experienced the same emotions as the song’s character… My forthcoming debut album, Empty Passenger Seat, features a collection of music ranging from songs written over six years ago, to songs written just a few months ago. I believe this album is the best representation of where I am musically and puts across a lot of things I’ve to say for a long time… I will only be releasing the album in physical form until the tour has concluded, which might seem counter productive. But I want to bring attention to the fact that streaming services aren’t really working financially for indie artists like myself, and if people want to support me, they can buy physical, knowing they’ll be able to listen to the album before anyone else!
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
I have recently come across an idea that is trying to tackle the root of the problem all artists have been facing since the internet started to demonetise music (among other things..). It’s called ‘value for value’ and it starts from the premise that trying to restrict access to information is a losing battle in the digital age… Being that computers are copying machines and the internet is an open protocol, once a file is uploaded to the internet it can be copied and diseminated at zero cost (this includes MP3s). So the saying goes MP3 files aren’t scarce, but the people that make them are..! We need to find a new way of thinking about value online. Those of you old enough to remember Napster or Limewire will recall it felt like a revelation to suddenly have whatever music you wanted for free… That was quickly clamped down on by the record industry and platforms like Youtube and Spotify filled the void. Arguing that an advertisement model (in return for user’s data), could be passed on to the artist if there weren’t enough paying subcribers… The problem was, that the advertising revenue never saw its way to the artist.. It went towards server costs, software engineers and an army of lawyers to keep the record labels at bay… I’m the first to admit, I also use and benifit from these platforms as a consumer and don’t want to sound hypocritical but I think we can do better for artists… All these streaming platforms are valueless without the music on them in the first place. The value for value model is a way for artists to voluntarily release their music for free and ask any listener to contribute any amount if they found value in it… It uses peer to peer micro-transactions (a current barrier with paypal and credit card fees) leveraging the lightning network built on top of bitcoin. Anyone with an internet connected device can send any amount of value (however small) to anyone else in the world at no cost, instantly. I have already made many times the amount through people sending money this way than I have on all streaming platforms combined. The payment went from my fans to me and no one took a cut. The digital equivelant of someone buying merch at your live gig! I have a more indepth blog related to value for value at my website https://www.joemartinmusic.com/valueforvalue and would encourage anyone interested to go and check it out!
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
I think a lot of people’s misconception about an artist’s day to day comes from what they’ve seen on TV or in films. It’s definately not the rock and roll lifestyle many people think (at least not for indie and mid sized artists). The music makes up only 1% of what I do, the other 99% is admin, booking and planning. The ‘gotcha’ of being an artist who has full control over their career and music, is that you also have the responisibility of booking tours, negotiating contracts, building websites, marketing yourself and doing the million other technical things involved in producing a record from scratch. Most artists, myself included, would love to just be able to write songs and perform them to people and leave the boring stuff up to someone else… But you find that you have to very quickly become multi-disciplined and somehow find the mindspace and energy to still be creative and productive. It’s a hard line to walk and can quite often get you down, especially when you feel like you’re running in circles or banging your head against a wall! What makes up for it all is when someone you don’t know drops you a nice comment online or at a gig, saying a certain song means a lot to them because of X or Y. A few pre-orders have already come in for my album through my website which has been a great boost, now my sights are set on my UK tour, selling tickets and giving this album the best release I possibly can!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.joemartinmusic.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joemartinmusic/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoeMartinMusic
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoeMartinMusic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@joemartinmusic6293
- Other: https://linktr.ee/joe_martin_music
Image Credits
Jonathan Davies