Joe Martin on music challenges, Alone in Valentine & Nashville’s magic

After essentially starting his career as a five-year-old child, performing alongside his father, who happens to be one of the most famous Lancastrian comedians – Chorley-born Phil Cool – Joe Martin hasn’t been a stranger to the spotlight in recent years. Martin has earned plaudits on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, and with influences ranging from Bob Dylan and James Taylor, storytelling is at the heart of Martin’s sound.

His second studio album, ‘Alone in Valentine’, which was carefully crafted over a period of the last few years, was recorded with Cal Campbell and Cornelius Webb – sons of the much-loved Jimmy Webb and Glen Campbell – in Nashville, Tennessee. Having released ‘Empty Passenger Seat’, his first studio album previously, Martin was acutely aware of the challenges of making a record; with budgets tight, the Ribble Valley-born artist is thankful everything fell into place.

“I designed all the artwork myself for the vinyl and the CD,” Martin admitted. “That was kind of a bit of a learning curve. And I did that really because the budget was getting burnt through pretty quickly. And I thought, well, I'll take a crack at it, because I knew I had a very strong idea of what I wanted it to look like. So I thought, well, I'll maybe save a few quid by trying to do it myself.

“Honestly, I have to say, with all the different variables involved, as in getting to Nashville and to Texas to do the artwork and all the people involved, and I was kind of going back and forth with the mix engineer and mastering engineer remotely, it was amazing how it all sort of came together, because any one thing could have gone wrong on the timeline and screwed the whole project up.

“And with flights these days and travelling, if I'd have gotten to Nashville a couple of days later, or then when we booked the session for, that could have thrown the whole project off. Going out to Texas, to Valentine, we'd booked in enough days to try and get everything done, but if we'd have had, if something had gone wrong with the equipment or something wasn't quite right or the truck we were in had broken down, there could have been so many things that had happened that would have just thrown a spanner in the works completely. But thankfully, miraculously, everything fell into place and it all worked out,” Martin finished.

A dream trip to Nashville

Martin gravitated to country music quickly into his professional career after becoming enamoured with the hit TV show ‘Nashville’. In 2017, the Ribble Valley-born troubadour had the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of his labour after he was asked to perform at the legendary Bluebird Cafe – a venue that has hosted Taylor Swift, Garth Brooks, Faith Hill, Keith Urban and surprise guests ranging from Post Malone to Jon Bon Jovi.

To make Martin’s time in Nashville even more memorable, he gained the opportunity to collaborate with Aaron Raitiere, who he met in a chance encounter at a writer's round at Belcourt Taps, and later took Martin on a tour around RCA Studios on Music Row. “I've been very lucky with who I've met in Nashville and who I've written with and worked with. And it's just one of those magical places where things just seem to happen,” a thankful Martin said.

“It was definitely a bucket list thing to have done. And on that trip, well, I met my songwriting hero the week before. I went out to Muscle Shoals in Alabama, and I met John Paul White, who's part of the Civil Wars. And he'd written for the show Nashville. He'd written a song called No One Will Ever Love You that's on the show, but I didn't realise he'd written it, actually, until I met him, which was crazy. But he gave me some sounds, life advice and career advice and wished me luck at the Bluebird the following week. And he handed me his guitar, let me play him a few songs of mine, and was very gracious, giving me the time.

“And it was just great to have met him. And on that trip, I don't know whether it was the 2017 or 2018 trip, but I wrote with Garth Brooks' guitarist, Johnny Garcia. I was more interested in hearing stories about Garth Brooks than writing the songs. But he was a really nice guy. Johnny was great. And yeah, that was a cool co-writing session,” Martin finished.

The challenges of making music independently

In the years since the coronavirus pandemic, the music industry has yet to fully recover, especially at the grassroots level. Much has been made of the closure of notable grassroots venues; increased prices for concert tickets, rising touring costs and the expense of recording and mastering original music are just a handful of the challenges facing artists such as Martin.

“You want to highlight this to people, but there's a fine line between highlighting it and sounding like you're complaining,” Martin admitted. “I've been doing this for 10 years professionally now, and longer, even songwriting and gigging. But it's harder than it's ever been. I thought it would be getting a bit easier by now. And in some respects it is, but in others it is getting hard. I think just in the moment in time we're in with everything going on in the world right now, people are kind of getting very cautious about spending too much, and they're cutting back on things.

“And I'm speaking to a lot of promoters just on this tour, but just before as well, who are saying the gigs are down 20% at least, if not more ticket sales-wise, and people are cutting back. That said, you see a lot of tribute bands that are doing better than ever, which is another nag that I have. Because a lot of people will pay a big price ticket to go watch an ABBA or a Beatles or whatever, but then there's a great original band that's a quarter of the price, and they're struggling,” Martin finished.

The lack of income from streaming

Martin, who performs house gigs independently, utilises a full-band arrangement when he tours following the release of an album, providing the opportunity to shake things up for concert-goers. However, even then, making a profit from touring is an impossibility in the Ribble Valley-born artist’s admission. ”The most that I can ask for when I do a band tour like this is to just break even really and then sell my merch,” Martin confessed.

“That is a win in my book when all the costs are factored in. But yeah, it is hard at the moment, I have to say. But you think, well, do you stop making music? I don't know.

“It's one of those, isn't it? There does need to be new music out there. And I say every gig to all my audiences, 'Thank you for supporting not just live music, but original music, because if you guys stop showing up, the music is going to stop.' There's no new music. It's as simple as that,” the troubadour finished.

To add further fuel to the fire, the other big challenge artists face is as a result of the rise of streaming. The rise of streaming services such as Spotify, Amazon Music and Apple Music has meant physical record sales have declined, leaving independent artists with little income from recording music and setting a “precedent in people's minds that they think that the music is free”, according to Martin.

“It puts a lot more pressure on artists to make up for that change with gigging more. So not only are artists gigging more, but other artists are coming out of retirement, and more legacy and heritage artists are competing for the same pie. And the pie is shrinking, I think, with the grassroots venues struggling, like every other business on the high street at the moment, struggling to keep the doors open and the lights on with the cost of living and everything. It's, yeah, it's a tricky situation. But I think in the past few years, I've noticed a bit of a shift in audiences that are recognising the importance of buying some form of merch from an artist and that the artist doesn't make money from streaming unless you're racking up tens of millions of streams, which, as an independent artist, is very rare, if not nearly impossible,” Martin said.

Being part of a platinum-selling group at the age of 11

To say that Martin’s journey has been remarkable would be an understatement. His career started at five years old, and by the time he was 11, he was a part of a platinum-selling singing group. After entering a competition that was listed as one scouting for choral singers, Martin emerged victorious. And the prize? He was chosen alongside five others to be a part of Angelis – a singing group created by Simon Cowell.

The ‘Angelis’ project lasted for little more than a year but was immensely successful for a short-term project. Their self-titled debut album peaked at No. 2 in the UK’s Official Albums Charts and achieved platinum-selling status with 350,000 copies sold. But what caused the project to collapse?

“I don't know if 'franchise' is the right word, but they were going to have a similar group, but in different European countries, singing it in their own language. They'll have the same branding and everything,” Martin said. “I think that was an avenue they were going to go down. And then if we just sold, I think it was 500,000 copies, they were like, 'To make it worthwhile, we'll try and break the States or just take it to the States or whatever.' But it was around the age that the lads in the group's voices would be breaking, and it was gone.

“There was that factoring in, and maybe we didn't quite sell quite enough records for them to take that leap. But, you know, things happen for a reason, and it is what it is. Yeah, it was a good experience. And yeah, I met some cool people, did some cool things. So, you know, I'm thankful for that opportunity,” Martin finished.

Martin’s tour will continue tonight in Liverpool and tickets as well as his new album ‘Alone in Valentine’ are available at https://www.joemartinmusic.com/live