May 20th, 2008
Musical Rooms Part 27: Jeff Martin
“My favourite place to create music is home at home - I live alone so anywhere in the house is fine. I have guitars placed around the house, at the end of my bed, in the sitting room and my little home studio - it’s nice to pick up the guitar at any point and play away. I’ve just moved in here so it’s a brand new space. I wanted to have just plain white walls and no pictures. It’s a very basic plain white room so it’s exactly what I’ve wanted for a very long time.
Guitar is definitely my main instrument, everything starts with that. Vocals, lyrics and arrangements come later. I have a basic home recording set-up a Mac laptop some mics and some software that I use for demos and home recording. Any recordings for releases are done at the Experimental Audio studio.
The most important thing in this room is time. It takes time for me to get into a creative zone and the more time I spend in there, the more I come up with. It can be fragmented by the day-to-day requirements of life and external commitments, but time followed by silence are the most important things.
Isolation is vital for me. Creating music is a hugely personal thing, particularly vocal melodies and coming up with, and trying out, lyrical ideas. I have no internet connection or telephone in my studio room, the mobile phone is always left outside too. There’s nothing worse than being interrupted by a call.
I like to keep things simple and I don’t need too much as I only demo here. I love the guitar, so I have a few nice ones: a G&L Telecaster, Fender Telecaster, Gibson SG, Fender Jaguar, two Acoustics (Guild & Takamine) and a Fender Jazz bass. I have a vintage 100W Marshall head with a 4×12 cab along with a smaller practice amp. For recording I have an Apple Mac laptop with Alesis monitors running Ableton, Reason and Pro-Tools. I also have a few basic mics, synths, glockenspiel and some other odds and ends.
I love seeing all my gear permanently set up ready and waiting to be used, I can go in any time I feel like it, I don’t have to work around other people’s schedules. It’s a place to escape from everyday pressures.”
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Jeff Martin releases Spoons – A Collection of Remixes, Collaborations & Interpretations on Friday May 23rd. Contributors include Minotaur Shock (4AD), John McEntire (Tortoise/The Sea & Cake), The High Llamas (Drag City), David Pajo (Slint/Papa M), Mice Parade (Fat Cat), Jeniferever (Drowned in Sound) and John Parish (PJ Harvey) amongst others. Visit www.myspace.com/jeffmartindublin for more information.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Sinead, I don’t think people tell you often enough just how brilliant this series really is. A lot of the musicians you’ve featured are unknown to me, but I still find it fascinating to see where their creating takes place and how they describe it.
May 20th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Andrew, thank you for the nice words. Glad you enjoy them.
One of the reasons MR works so well is that you DON’T have to have heard of a musician to be interested in how they create. Everyone has a very different story to tell about their space, the process of writing etc, and sometimes I think of the MR pieces almost as little short stories. Like a peep through a porthole into someone else’s little cabin.
May 20th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Well I think thats the most musical looking musical room I remember in the series. I can almost hear the picture. I think its in D major.
(Guitar collection. Drool emoticon.)
May 20th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Oh my, I have xylophone / glockenspiel envy!
May 21st, 2008 at 7:58 am
John, I think my brother would share your droolyness on the guitar front, and Mish, well, you know how I feel about Xylophones.
May 23rd, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Lovely image, and another great Musical Rooms piece. Cheers Sinead. Jeff, loving the Spoons Remixes album! It’s enough to nearly bring me out of retirement.
