Martine grew up in Lausanne Switzerland – in a house filled with classical music. Before studying jazz at the EJMA (Lausanne), Cornish College of the Arts (Seattle) and the University of Montréal, Martine spent years singing covers and playing the college music circuit with her guitar voice duo Listen 2. Martine’s first album, Swiss Girl, will be released January 15, 2011. She lives with her husband and two children in Bellevue, Washington.
How did you get started in music?
Music was always in our house growing up – I played violin, my sisters played flute and piano and my parents sang in a choir. But it was all classical music – I remember one Beatles album. Still, even then I was always composing songs in my head; it just never occurred to me that I would ever perform them to anyone.
Until I was 14, my sister called me up to her room to listen to a song – “I’m On Fire” by Bruce Springsteen. This is a key moment, because something instantly shifted inside me. He is a driving force, yet imbued with such genuineness and fragility that I felt he was singing to me, for me. I was a trapped and misunderstood teenager who would find her way out with Springsteen’s songs. Had he been a technically great singer, I might have just listened, but his raw style made me think that if he could sing his heart out, so could I. So, I went from singing in my head to writing complete songs and sharing them with my friends and sisters.
What artists have influenced your music?
Early on, besides Bruce? Janis Joplin, Tom Waits, two other broken voices and characters and of course I would listen to a lot of blues. Later, when performing with my duo, Tuck and Patty and Sting, whose work I revere and who is still a huge influence. I was also very inspired by artists such as Rachelle Ferrell and Gabrielle Goodman for their phenomenal musicality and mastery of their vocal instrument. While working on the album, I was listening to Corinne Bailey Rae and Sara Bareilles. I love their music: these are two gorgeous, talented, independent artists who keep it natural and simple on stage. I have a lot of respect for that. And more so, they seem like two very likeable persons, which is always a plus, right?
Tell us about those early days in Lausanne – singing, gigging – how did that begin?
I was living in a squat in Lausanne, with other students and musicians. Most buildings there had bomb shelters, some of them had been converted into music studios – for bands to come rehearse. The squat I lived in had a studio like that. I used to go and sing, when nobody was around. I wasn’t ready to sing in front of people, but one day a band arrived to set up for practice and I finished the song I was singing, I remember it being Mercedes Benz (Joplin). One of the guitar players approached me afterwards and said, pointing his finger at me, in a very intense and authoritarian voice– ‘You! Never stop singing. Get lessons, learn how to sing well, but do not ever stop’. That has stuck with me; I enrolled in a singing class and haven’t stopped learning yet.
So, how did you come to start singing in front of audiences?
I would sing at friends’ parties all the time, but always solo – no band, no accompaniment. I didn’t think that I could do that, truly. I could do my own thing, people liked it. Being in a band? I’m not sure it even crossed my mind, until – at a party, a guy started a blues with his guitar and someone suggested I sing with him. And magic happened. It just worked.
That man would become my music partner for the next year and has been my life partner since, that was in 1993, I let you do the math! JC and I started playing private parties, college bars and festivals like VivaPoly, ArtyPhys and so on. By the time a friend arranged for us to play a side stage at the Off of the Montreux Jazz Festival, there was starting to be buzz – It was very exciting, I’m sure something great could have come out of it.
So, what happened?
Honestly, we were lazy- we never expanded the 35 minute set we first set up. And it became complicated, being a couple as well as a singing together.
Not long after, I dropped out of university, probably dipping into depression at that point. I tried to stop singing – I think I was trying to figure out how to be a grown up. I thought about nursing, midwifery, teaching, lots of careers.
And that brought you to jazz?
Yes! That searching brought me to the realization that I would stay unhappy unless I’d give a singing career an honest shot. I was making up my mind about teaching school, when this guidance counselor looked at me in the eyes and asked me – ‘do you really want to be a teacher?’ And I realized with horror and relief–No!!
I finally embraced the fact that I needed to sing. I didn’t ask anyone’s permission or approval, I just signed up for the program for jazz music in Lausanne. How’s that for growing up? It was time, I was 27. I studied there for a year and a half before following my partner to Seattle and enrolling at Cornish College of the Arts. Again following my partner, to Québec this time; I finished my bachelor’s degree at the University of Montreal.
So, your professional training took place in three different colleges, three different countries? What were the differences in what you gleaned from each of those programs?
They all had their own things to offer – it ultimately served me well to have such a variety of experience in my education.
At the EJMA (Lausanne), I learned the foundation – of chords, music theory. I worked hard to learn the theory, and feel grounded in that understanding. It was a formal, pretty structured, yet very demanding program.
At Cornish (Seattle), it was – freedom. I was blessed with the generosity of the Seattle music community, and learned the generosity of the music itself. I feel very fortunate to have played and learned with grand musician like Hadley Caliman, Chuck Deardoff, Jay Clayton, Randy Halberstadt, just to name a few. These extremely talented and experienced musicians are very dedicated to passing on what they know to their young fellow musicians. There is a definite tradition of mentoring in Seattle that I haven’t found anywhere else.
Cornish and Lausanne had given me enough to get in at the University of Montreal. Even though it was very friendly, it was just a much bigger place. The program was very demanding, very heavy not to mention that I was expecting my first child. And if you sucked, well they would tell you so. At Cornish, I was the exotic Swiss Girl and I never once got any negative feedback from any teacher. In Montréal, I was lost among hundreds of very talented music students who couldn’t care less if I was speaking French!
There is a formidable artistic emulation in Québec. I feel people take pride in their artists, as if they are the guardians of their unique, rich yet isolated culture. There are a lot of opportunities for musicians, from music contests for new talents to government grants. Montréal is also very big on TV shows with live music and I learned a lot about the professional side of it all. It was a great place to complete my training, not to mention that it’s in Montreal that I was trained to be a vocal teacher.
And you are currently offer singing lessons?
Yes, I am in the Seattle area, and am offering a limited number of openings for singing lessons. I’ve gotten such joy from my singing, and learning how to fully express my voice; it is exciting to feel I am helping others achieve that as well.
Finally, tell us the story of ‘Swiss Girl’.
I knew, coming back to Seattle after finishing my degree in Montreal, that I was ready for the next step. I needed to record an album. But it would be a slow process. As life with two young children allowed, I started working on songs every other week with pianist Hans Brehmer, who plays on the album. He helped structure and develop my music, but most of all, he believed I could make a great album. Him being a jazz musician and me writing pop songs, I made contact with another colleague from Cornish – MTV Music Award nominee Yakup Trana. He is such an extremely talented guitarist! He plays many different genres from flamenco to jazz, Turkish folk music to rock. His own most recent album “Fame Money Sex and Rock’n Roll” was released last year. We worked on pre-production for 2 or 3 months, then recorded in the gorgeous Rogue Island Studios with Eric Janko as the sound engineer and finally mastered the album with Ed Brooks at RFI/CD Mastering, all that in Seattle and that was it! Smooth and easy! Swiss Girl is a reflection of my evolution, because it contains songs that I wrote at 15 until now. I talk about each of them in my album notes.
And what’s next?
The stage is calling to me! I want to bring the songs out – perform them, live them, and experience them all over again. And of course, keep writing new songs. Swiss Girl has a song for everyone; each of them has a story – which fits into mine, and hopefully also into yours.