Singer/songwriter Charlotte Martin is no stranger to keeping up with a busy schedule.
With her new album Stromata being released today, Martin prepared for her tour with barely enough time to relax and get her nails done.
Hard work has been the heart of Martin’s career since she entered the music scene 10 years ago. As her music took a new direction in her second full-length album, Martin embarked on the newest chapter in her musical journey.
As an opera major at Eastern Illinois University, Martin began writing music her senior year after the death of a close friend. Purging tiny ideas and broken thoughts onto pages of a notebook, Martin wrote a song each day and eventually picked up and moved to Los Angeles after graduation.
The juxtaposition of success and failure followed as Martin signed on with RCA Records only to have her first album shelved, sending her into a crisis.
Unwilling to accept defeat, Martin worked tirelessly, releasing the EP In Parentheses and her first full-length album, On Your Shore. In 2005, Martin split with RCA and became her own producer in conjunction with her husband, Ken Andrews. For Martin, the elimination of company pressure liberated her music.
“I wanted to sell a lot of records but I didn’t want to compromise my vision as an artist – just to sell more records,” Martin says.
Replacing the live orchestra and expensive recording sessions with a personal recording studio in her Pasadena home, Martin reclaimed her musical freedom.
“It’s amazing to have the knowledge to be able to do that and not have to depend on people,” Martin says.
With her newfound independence, Martin strayed from her usual acoustic style and experimented with a synthesizer, creating her own drum beats and vocal collages.
Focusing on her own insecurities, every song poured forth her emotions about hardship, loss and addiction.
The title Stromata was born out of the fact that the album doesn’t focus on a single theme, yet each song is connected through the common thread of Martin’s voice. Stromata are the frameworks that connect cells in the human body. Just as these cells hold together the body’s organs, Martin’s voice unites the songs on her album, each expressing a different crisis in her life.
Martin felt that this new twist to her music brought her closer to where she wanted to be as an artist.
“Every artist has their artistic peak,” Martin says. “I feel like with Stromata I’m starting to ripen into what I want to be.”
Despite the struggles she has faced for the past 10 years, Martin has remained dedicated to her music.
“This is my job,” Martin says. “This is my love, and I’ve had to work hard…My motive is to live, and I’m very blessed.”
Martin hopes to continue writing and recording as long as she can.
“I will keep writing until my inspiration runs out.”
While Martin sees traveling and attending culinary school in her future, for the present, she simply looks forward to life on the road. Late night runs to McDonald’s and watching the first two seasons of Entourage were the guilty pleasures she hopes to enjoy while on tour.
A contrast from her sunny hometown of Pasadena, Martin also can’t wait to see the New England fall when she performs in Washington on Sept. 21.
“I love Maryland,” Martin says. “It’s beautiful, and I love driving through it.”
Contact reporter Kristi Tousignant at diversions@dbk.umd.edu.