Martin Saint shares his latest album, Radio Murmurs
Montreal, QC-based Martin Saint, known as the lead singer and second guitarist of The Ember Glows, has unveiled a new solo album, Radio Murmurs.
Listen to Radio Murmurs below and learn more about Martin Saint via our Five Questions With segment.
Care to introduce yourself to our readers?
I’m Martin Saint, lead singer and second guitarist with Montreal’s The Ember Glows, but I also keep busy with a solo project under my own name and various other collaborations with fellow local scene artists.
Tell us a bit about your most recent release.
Radio Murmurs is my fourth solo release since 2019, including my experimental spoken word album Fly Tales, out that same year.
Whereas my first 2020’s One Word Away included a few songs dating back a few years, and 2021’s Last New Year’s Eve EP was a study in slow tempo, this new collection emerged during the pandemic with the specific intention to produce a full-length album.
The goal was to achieve a result similar to David Bowie’s Low album, with half the record featuring more accessible pop hooks and the other half more atmospheric and texture-driven.
As always, lyrics aim at standing for themselves outside the music as a major cornerstone of the ensemble.
Glimmers of Nick Cave, Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Simple Minds, and The Doors infuse most of my work, and Radio Murmurs displays these references a little at a time.
Where do you tend to pull inspiration from when writing?
I love writing lyrics, so that’s something I do almost daily. I try my best to cover a wide spectrum of human emotions and behaviours. It doesn’t always have to be pretty. I neither condone nor judge. It can be more observational and sometimes more personal. Inspiration can come from a dialogue I’ve overheard, a line from a book or a movie, or a picture. Then I let it take me somewhere else and see what visions they trigger. I’m interested in the major forces that drive us, such as power, spirituality, love, lust, travel, the passing of time, politics, etc.
Musically, again I like to explore and not limit myself too much while remaining cohesive. That is the challenging part but also very stimulating on a creative level. Sometimes I’ll start from a progression, sometimes from a beat, or it can be a specific instrument or sound that’ll inspire me. I try to vary my approach so as not to repeat myself too much. This technique is particularly useful when I come across writer’s block
Do you have any upcoming shows you’d like to tell us about?
Not so much at the moment, but I’m looking into that as we speak. When I perform solo, I’m alone on stage but without any backing tracks. I adapt the songs to stripped-down arrangements with some effects on the acoustic guitar. At some point, I’d love to put a band together for solo gigs, so we could reproduce the recorded arrangements more accurately
What’s your goal for 2023?
Finding more opening slots on quality bills, whether in Montreal or elsewhere. I’d love to tour again, even alone with my guitar like some troubadour.
I’m good to go anywhere, anytime. As I mentioned above, finding a way to replicate my album arrangements would be awesome too.
In the meantime, I have some more collaborations in the works, and I’m quite excited about that.
Last but not least, start working on my next release. We all know the time this can take, especially as a solo artist.