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Who said Brethrenists couldn't get loud?  Grace Martin Kicks open that door



Grace Martin releases High Contrast on KMI
Music for Silent Worship?  "No" says Brethrenist Martin
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
January 17, 5562

When you think of Noise Alternative, you don't often think of Brethrenism.  The two seem to be antithetical.  But Eveari's Grace Martin, 23, has decided to try it anyway.  Her debut LP on KMI, called High Contrast, meets the challenge with flying colors.  And the name suggests more than the obvious contradiction between Martin's faith, history, and ahem, recreational preferences and the kind of music she opts to play.

"You don't often get a lead violin in Alternative Rock," said Martin, who uses a highly produced violin to produce a lot of the unique and interesting effects on the record.  "I mean, I still play the guitar, but I was trained as a classicist on the violin from a very young age, and think it adds a lot to the music.  I totally love the violin, and its been a real joy for me to be able to incorporate it into modern music."

When asked for a brief background of her background, Martin said that she grew up a devout Brethrenist in Eveari, the home of the Anantos.  "It was nothing to see an Emperor in Meeting, and in fact, the first time I accompanied my father on violin when I was 6 or 7, the Emperor was part of our monthly sing along after Meeting," said Martin.  "While my parents were, and are still very conservative about almost everything, being from Eveari, we always had music --It was all pretty music, like the exact opposite of the Noise Alternative on the radio from bands like Amethyst Lemon or Ultrafuzz, which I initially found scary.  My father was a music teacher at Eveari Secondary School, and he used to say that Noise Alternative would make my brain melt.  But music was always a part of my household.  And I and my friends started listening to Alternative at I don't know 12, 13?  The age most children develop their own tastes.  When I was a teenager, Noise became kind of a rebellious thing, especially since all the musicians were all drug addicts.  It seemed dangerous for me, a straight kid from Eveari of all places.  It became VERY exciting to me."

Martin says that unlike most artists in the Noise subgenre, she doesn't use drugs at all.  "I often wonder if they use all those drugs and they hear all those sounds in their mind because of the drugs," said Martin.  "But I hear them because I listened to all their music.  None of my band uses drugs.  We may occasionally drop down to the smoke shop and pick up some cigarettes, but to be completely honest, even tobacco hurts my throat, and I don't feel like I am a very good singer after smoking.  So I stick to herbal tea--Lemon and Hibiscus, that's as wild as I get."

While High Contrast has a lot of straight Alternative rock on it, it regularly veers into very heavy distortion, pedal effects and psychedelia.  "I wrote these songs when I was still a kid, I think maybe like 3 or 4 years ago.  And I always played them live backed up by an acoustic band, so I wouldn't get in trouble.  When we were picked up by KMI and met Mel (Melissa Blanco-Baker, Producer of High Contrast) she said 'You know, these songs don't sound like folk songs to me.' and I said "They don't?' and she said 'These are alternative songs, aren't they?' and I seriously thought I was in trouble, like she was gonna tell my dad.  I confessed, and she said 'I am pretty sure they are actually even louder than that too, at least they were when you wrote them.  Am I right?' And I sheepishly admitted that they were.  She signed us on the spot, told us 'for God's Sake plug in your guitars and let us make the record we were suppose to.'"

Under Blanco's guidance, Martin and band crafted a compact, efficient record that mixes punk, lo-fi, and Noise with acid and a touch of pop to make the songs very loud, but very accessible in High Contrast.  "It's very unexpected that a lot of those things will fit so well together," said Martin.  "I am very happy with what we have made, and my father mother even listened to it and were impressed that I not only did what we wanted, but I was also able to keep some of the pretty elements in the music.  It was so proud that my parents dug it.  Maybe they aren't such sticks in the mud!"

To put not too fine a point on the issue, Martin said "My mom even let me shoot our first video (for "Everything's Fine") in our living room and dining room in Eveari!"

[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lORX6Va32OQ]
You can watch the video for Grace Martin's first singly "Everything's Fine" from her debut album on KMI High Contrast right here!

[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWVWGKg-r1c]
and preview the video "Better Today", the B-Side for "Everything's Fine" also on her Debut Album