Walter Martin

Walter Martin, formerly of the cult-favorite '90s outfit Jonathan Fire*Eater and the well-regarded 2000s indie group the Walkmen, creates solo material filled with charm and affirmation that connects music aimed at children with songs that appeal to grown listeners. Albums such as 2014's We're All Young Together and 2017's My Kinda Music, both recipients of Parents' Choice awards, highlight the delights and marvels of existence in a manner that speaks to youngsters and those who remain young in spirit. His recordings intended for adults, among them 2020's The World at Night and 2022's The Bear, explore topics ranging from art history to mortality through understated humor that situates him alongside narrative masters like Harry Nilsson and Randy Newman.

Raised in Washington, D.C., Martin began performing with the other members of Jonathan Fire*Eater during high school. Across the band's run, which reached its peak shortly after the appearance of their major-label debut 1997's Wolf Songs for Lambs, his Farfisa organ playing shaped their distinctive sonic identity. Once the group dissolved in 1998, Martin joined guitarist Paul Maroon and drummer Matt Barrick in constructing Marcata Studios, a combined rehearsal and recording facility located in Harlem. The three musicians also performed briefly under the name Today Okay before linking up with former Recoys frontman Hamilton Leithauser and bassist Peter Bauer to establish the Walkmen in 2000. The band went on to issue a series of critically embraced albums that included 2002's Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone, 2004's Bows + Arrows, and 2012's Heaven. Upon finishing their touring obligations for Heaven, the Walkmen declared an "extreme hiatus" toward the end of 2013.

The next year Martin issued We're All Young Together, a collection sparked by his experiences as a father and by the purity and playfulness of early rock & roll. Guest appearances came from Leithauser, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O, and several musicians from the French Kicks. In 2016 he followed with the intimate Arts & Leisure, which took cues from art history, architecture, and his own early years. For his second juvenile album, My Kinda Music, Martin collaborated with Laura Gibson and the National's Matt Berninger.

His subsequent release, 2018's Reminisce Bar & Grill, emerged from sessions involving players from Fruit Bats, French Kicks, and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah; the resulting songs offered wry observations on marriage and fatherhood. In 2019 Martin supplied the track "Do-Dilly-Do (A Friend Like You)" to the film Missing Link, which earned the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature in 2020. That January brought The World at Night, an album that paid tribute to his father-in-law and to his former Jonathan Fire*Eater colleague and close friend Stewart Lupton, who passed away in 2018.

Martin reacted swiftly to the COVID-19 outbreak by delivering two digital collections in March 2020: Common Prayers, a sequence of tranquil meditations, and Green Beans & Tangerines, his third juvenile album that incorporated "Let the Tall Ships Sail" from the Netflix animated series Hilda. That April he partnered again with Berninger on the single "Quarantine Boogie (Loco)," whose proceeds supported the New York City food-rescue group City Harvest. After relocating to upstate New York, Martin commenced work on his following project. Recorded alongside a team that featured Bonny Light Horseman's Eric D. Johnson, Josh Kaufman, and composer Emile Mosseri, March 2022's The Bear stands as Martin's most personal collection of songs to date.