Peaks & Valleys

Like the hopeful saying goes, "Good can come from bad," and that is no exception when it comes to composing songs. Just ask pianist and songwriter Charlotte Martin, who turned her bouts of depression into picturesque musical snapshots for her debut album "On Your Shore."

"I was pretty depressed when I wrote the song 'Every Time It Rains' with label troubles and such, and my record was just shelved," she said. "A lot of the songs on the album were written on my couch where I was pretty upset."

Martin's full-length debut is now out on RCA Records and covers the emotional gamut with songs that touch upon romantic breakdowns, professional setbacks and memories of fleeting friends.

"Not all of the songs are about romantic relationships, a lot of them had to do with breakups with friends," said Martin. "They are about how there are people who move in and out of your life for a certain period of time, and sometimes they come in and drown you, and it's so intense. You look back five years later and you can't believe you were as close as you were with that person, and realize they were there for a reason or I was there for them for a reason."

Martin, originally from Charleston, Ill., moved to Los Angeles to actually break into the music business about five years ago. Before leaving for the big city, Martin attended East Illinois University to major in opera, an art form she's studied since the age of 7. Her interests changed while at school where she met a group of friends who hailed from Chicago and exposed her to the music of Kate Bush, the Cure, Joy Division and Depeche Mode.

While a student, one of Martin's close friends died, which is what became the impetus for a career in composing.

"I never really had anything tragic affect my life," said Martin on her friend's death. "I wrote my first song for her funeral and I kept going from there."

Martin, who is in love again, has over the years relied on sadder times as both inspiration and material for the new work, and said that the darker times are what prompted her prolific songwriting.

"I have always been obsessed with bodies of water, maybe it's because I grew up around flat cornfields," said Martin about the album's seashore theme. "Even when I was writing in college, I wrote a lot about water. I don't know why, but those seemed to be the songs that kept coming out."

For the work, Martin and company, including bassist Justin Meldal (Beck, Macy Gray) and drummer Joey Waronker (Nelly Furtado, Air), recorded about 20 songs, 13 of which made their way onto "On Your Shore."

"I actually don't understand people who can write who are happy," said Martin. "There are a few people who do it well. Bono does it well, but there is still an underlying melancholy that I love in his music. I wonder what would happen if I were completely utopia happy, I don't know if that's possible being a human being in this terrible yet at the same time wonderful world."

Many people have heard of Martin as an opener touring with musicians like Damien Rice, Howie Day, Liz Phair, the Cardigans and Jason Mraz. She was just finishing up her own tour as the headlining act when she spoke with The Beach Reporter.
"It's been going really well. I'm pretty surprised, it's my first headline tour ever and the turnout has been amazing. A lot of the shows have sold out," said Martin. "Whether you have 50 people or 250, it's your house and I think opening, a lot of people didn't know who I was and so I hoped that the crowd would like me. But when it's your own show and people know the songs, it's just a different energy. Every show is so different, but it's not like a show as an opener of 'Please like me before you see Howie Day or Damien Rice.' There is an advantage to both but I certainly like headlining more."

With her fianc/, Ken Andrews, Martin is a member of a cyber band called the Los Angeles Digital Noise Academy, LADNA, for short. Andrews is Martin's co-producer for "On Your Shore" and actually produced her four-song EP "In Parentheses" also on RCA.

Andrews has also produced works by the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Pete Yorn, Jimmy Eat World and Tenacious D. Andrews is also a member of the band Year of the Rabbit, among others. LADNA comprises 20 of Martin and Andrews' friends who either maintain their own studios or possess the online recording capabilities to place pieces of a potential collaborative song on the Internet. The group is currently creating its first album that will most likely be completed by the fall.

"The music is the thing that takes you, you don't take the music," said Martin on the songwriting process with either LADNA or as a solo artist. "At a certain point if you ever get a big head as a composer and forget that you're just kind of the interpreter then I think things become unbalanced and that's not good. So I'm always very humbled and thankful when I can get something down on paper that is good. I don't believe in writer's block but I think the songs actually worth listening to are really rare and really hard to write whether it comes in two minutes or two years."

With the new work "On Your Shore," Martin envisioned a specific sound inspired by her heavy listening of Peter Gabriel's "Security" and Kate Bush's "House of Love."

"I really wanted big, huge drums, and I wanted to record on all different kinds of keyboards and lots and lots of background vocals because I sang in choirs all throughout college," said Martin. "I really wanted my personality and what I like musically to be on this first major record. Where I go from there, who knew. I know now because I am recording, but at the time it was going to be my debut and I wanted to put everything in a blender in terms of what I liked sonically."