MARTYN JOSEPH

PLUGGED

Steve Adams finds Martyn Joseph breaking the mould

(originally appeared March '98)

Martyn Joseph is the kind of chap who's too nice to be popular; the good guy plugging away at the lower end of the musical (industry) scale, keeping himself and his fans happy without the pressure of record company big wigs looking for a hit single. His upcoming album Tangled Souls continues in the same vein as its predecessors, combining his personal and storyteller-style lyrics in the time honoured tradition of the singer-songwriter.

In fact Joseph seems to follow the tradition of spurning the industry almost to excess. He's back out touring this month without a word or a press release &endash; and despite the fact the new album's release is still over a month away. How laid back can you get?

"Well that's not really the way it was intended," he says, sighing at the lack of fanfare to herald his latest outing and the fact that I've actually caught him as he proof-reads the aforementioned press release. "The album is coming out slightly later than the tour due to circumstances that we won't go into, so the record company is saving their big wave of publicity for that, which is why you didn't get the full whack."

Still able to smile through the clenched teeth, the affable Welshman is looking forward to something of a new chapter in his career. After being dropped by Sony after two albums &endash; largely for failing to follow up the chart success of Dolphins Make Me Cry &endash; he put out the third (Full Colour Black & White) independently and got picked up by Grapevine.

"While Grapevine aren't Sony, they are very keen, so this will be my first album for a while that gets the proper publicity treatment from the start," he says.

He also reckons the songs might garner a bit more attention simply by featuring the sound of a full band. "I hope this album's a bit more bouncy than the last one in terms of there being drums and bass on it, so it might just pick up a bit more air play, although that wasn't my intention.

"The idea was just to try and continue to explore different ways to make an album that somehow recreates what happens when I do a live gig, because I'm always aware that &endash; without wanting to sound conceited in any way &endash; that something special can happen when I play live. It's always a very immediate experience and a bonding between the audience, but how do you capture that on a CD? And believe it or not making a live album isn't the answer."

Martyn Joseph goes rock 'n' roll? Well not quite …

"I concentrated on doing one takes and all the rest of it, and because I thought some of the songs lent themselves to a band I thought I'd try and re-create that excitement without colouring it too much. I tried to keep it fairly raw and not polished &endash; because I can't compete with the top guys and all the money they're spending on their albums anyway.

"I even had a Telecaster in my hand when we cut some of the tracks, so I hope it might open up a slightly wider audience who might think of my genre of artist as someone who plucks away on a nice folky guitar and sings the odd protest song."

Like I said, it's impossible not to like Martyn Joseph.