Charlotte Martin

Singer/songwriter Charlotte Martin first performed opera during her enrollment at Eastern Illinois University in the late 1990s. Her father held a respected faculty position in the music department, and Martin naturally pursued the same path. Piano lessons had begun in her early childhood, filling her formative years with constant exposure to music. College life exposed her to “real life” in the form of a goth roommate, routine campus turmoil, and the suicides of two close friends, prompting her to seek refuge in songwriting. Intent on building a professional music career, she relocated to Los Angeles in a decisive move. There she completed the album One Girl Army with producer Tom Rothrock (Badly Drawn Boy, Beck, Elliott Smith), though the project remained unreleased. Late in 2002 she established her own studio and began work with Ken Andrews (Air, Pete Yorn) on a fresh set of songs. The resulting EP, In Parentheses, appeared in August 2003, its melodic dreamscapes showcasing a bright vocal style that prompted comparisons to Fiona Apple and Kate Bush; the release was supported by live dates alongside Howie Day and Damien Rice. On Your Shore followed in 2004. Creative friction with RCA persisted while Martin continued writing and recording, until she exited the major label in 2005. That move freed her to return to Test-Drive Records, which issued the Veins and Darkest Hour EPs before year’s end. Additional North American support shows extended into the fall, and the Veins tour concluded with the limited-edition DVD recording Something Like a DVD. During the sessions for her second album, Stromata, she married longtime collaborator and co-producer Ken Andrews (Pete Yorn, Year of the Rabbit, Failure). The album was released in September 2006 on the couple’s own Dinosaur Fight imprint.