Country singer Tony Martinez talks his upcoming album Everywhere West, his miraculous journey as an artist and his youth in bar rooms and country bands
By Katharina Moser
It is a melody that stays stuck in your head for days, that makes you hum in the streets or in the subway or at work. It is the impeccable instrumentation that makes you wish you´d be able to hear a live version, right now, at best, please. And it is the rugged but angelic voice that makes you feel right at home in the sound of the song. That is, the song “Crazy” by the US singer Tony Martinez, who has released the piece as the first single off his upcoming album Everywhere West.
Martinez is a remarkable artist, indeed – one whose story of coming up as a musician might as well be told in a movie epos like “Searching for Sugarman”. “The album is done, and I am excited for it”, says Martinez, and grins. “It has been a long time coming. We started with the tracks around two years ago. I signed a deal and was able to take my time. I didn’t have to rush anything. We got to a point where we are really happy with it. I want the tracks to sound exactly like I imagined them in my head.” Everywhere West, as Martinez says, is a genre-bending album. The title track was written by his father, who is a musician too. “It pays homage to my father, my first real hero that I saw on stage, my first real inspiration till today. He had a family, he had us, and he couldn’t fully live his dream as a musician. I think his dreams have been given over to me”, Martinez ponders. Fittingly, the title song “Everywhere West”, singing about the trains which made the cowboys obsolete, is a song about progress. “There are also heartbreak songs, there are songs about how I grew up, watching people drink and being in bars. The album touches on all aspects of life. It’s just a group of songs that can make you feel.”
The album Everywhere West is the culmination of a lifetime of writing and making music, of singing and performing on stage. “I have always been singing. I could sing since I was born. I never had vocal lessons or anybody teaching me, I could just do it. I could hear harmonies”, Martinez recalls. “One time I was driving with my dad in his old chevy truck, and he was singing, and I started singing the harmonies. He was shocked. I was four years old at that time.” Martinez remembers being at his father´s shows and watching his band on stage. “And at four years old, I asked myself, how can four different people with four different instruments come together and create one sound? I was really fascinated by that. And at four years old, I remember putting my finger in the air and saying, that’s what I´m going to do for the rest of my life”, Martinez says and laughs.
Since then, Martinez has kept practicing, trained his voice and learned multiple instruments – the guitar, the piano, the banjo and many more. “My dad told me, if you learn to do everything and anything, you’ll never be out of a job”, Martinez laughs. “I was always the new kid at school as we were moving from town to town, but at every school I went, I tried to form a band. In middle school, I formed a band and we used to play all those little school dances.” By the time Martinez was 16 years old, he formed a quite successful band that played punk rock and rockabilly sounds. Shortly after that, he formed a cowboy bluegrass band with his father and toured Europe. Coming back from overseas, Martinez kept recording music. “I have been doing music my whole life non-stop. When I turned 19, I started really honing my craft. I was playing bars all around Phoenix, had a country band. I got my dad playing the bass and sing harmonies with me, because there is nobody who can sing harmonies with me better than my dad.” His father, Martinez says, now is a really proud dad, seeing his son succeed in the music industry. “I´ve had this dream my whole live, and at 38 years old, finally killing the past, that feels really good.” Now Martinez has a production deal with Slumerican Records, he got the rapper Yelawolf on his song and the video of “Crazy”, and an album in the pipeline that, his Slumerican team and friends are sure, will blow up.
“There is no plan B for me. There is no way for me that if I don’t give up that I won’t succeed. Because I know that I was given a gift from a young age.”
Tony Martinez
This success feels all the sweeter, considering that there is nothing else that Martinez would wish to do with his life other than music. “I was lucky to be brought up around a lot of musicians, all self-taught, all by ear and memorization. I was always hustling and booking shows”, Martinez says. “There is no plan B for me. There is no way for me that if I don’t give up that I won’t succeed. All the trials and tribulations that come along, things getting tough, I never once waivered on this path. Because I know that I was given a gift from a young age. There is just no other option. As Yelawolf says, you have to be willing to live, breath and die for your art.”
And that is what Martinez, too, has done for his entire life, quite literally. One important source of inspiration is his childhood and youth, always on the move, always circling around music, always a journey of overcoming obstacles and chasing opportunities. “I´ve moved so much in my life, as my daddy was chasing his dream as a musician from one town to the next. I was always the new kid, and I had to fight it with humor. I was always funny. I would be the clown in class”, Martinez recalls. “I remember this one time, when I got to a new school, the principal was walking me around while the kids were having recess. They were playing soccer, and during my introduction to all the kids on the field, the ball just comes out of nowhere and whacks me right in the face.” Martinez laughs full-heartedly. “And I made a show out of it, made everybody laugh immediately”, Martinez says with a grin.
“Getting to know so many people and learning the psychology of people in a natural way – that shaped how I´m able to just walk into a room full of strangers and just be me and come out fine. Being on stage is just a bigger version of that same thing.”
Tony Martinez
“All this time, my father was always hustling to take care of the family, but also trying to live his dream, too. So he was working at day, playing music at night. He did like to drink and honky-tonk around. He came home late”, Martinez recalls. “I remember often getting in the car with my mom and having to go find my dad because his truck is hidden behind some bar and we can’t see it. And then I´m being sent in by my mom to go get my dad, so he doesn’t blow up. And he ends up introducing me to anybody in the bar and gets me something to drink. And when I told him, mom is waiting in the car, he always used to say, just one more.” Martinez smiles. “I was accustomed to bars by an early age. We lived in a lot of trailers and trailer parks with my two sisters. Getting to know so many people and learning the psychology of people in a natural way – that shaped how I´m able to just walk into a room full of strangers and just be me and come out fine. Being on stage is just a bigger version of that same thing”, Martinez ponders. “I grew up on country and rock’n’roll. Music has always been the dominant force in my life. I just always try to write stuff, let things happen naturally and be real and genuine. Growing up humble, living in a trailer and having to work for everything I ever had, has made this point in my life now so rewarding.”
Till today, music is the one thing that keeps making Martinez infinitely happy. “I love the whole things, writing music and performing it. Taking a song out of thin air, writing it, and then performing it on stage and see the people’s reactions, their faces… I was born to be on stage. I was born for this whole process. The stage is a second home. There is this invisible bond between your band and you. And when the crowd gives that energy, the screams, the yells – that gives you the energy to give back in turn. It’s a symbiotic thing. That’s better than any high I’ve ever had.”
Martinez has been living around Nashville since 2012 – although, he admits with a grin, he does miss the Mexican food that was so easily available in Arizona. Does he actually have Mexican ancestors? “My dad´s grandmothers and aunts say they are not Mexican but Spanish. Well, I did some digging and they look very Mexican to me. I have a picture of a great granddad. And he looks straight up indigenous Mexican.” Martinez laughs. “Whatever I am, there has got to be Mexican in there. My dad’s mother was Irish. I always had a big black mustache. My mom’s side is Scandinavian. I’m like 6 foot 4 tall, I have big shoulders and a beard. People call me the Big White Mexican.” He grins.
“I tell my story. I’m from a lot of different places. I speak on the human experience, and what we go through emotionally, and who we are on the inside.”
Tony Martinez
Stylistically, people like to tag Martinez as stone-cold country. “I don’t like to pinpoint myself on one genre of music because I was influenced by so much good music. On my album there is country instrumentation, but I take it from everywhere. Soul, RnB, bluegrass, even some punk voices. Just whatever comes out of me. I just like to let things flow naturally.”
Over the history of time, country music has always been a genre to particularly speak to some kind of American heartland, that is centered around the figure of the rugged, self-reliant American, that voices various ideas of what it means to be American and reflects the realities of the people in the US. Who are the people that Martinez speaks to, whose stories does he tell? “I tell my story. I’m from a lot of different places. I’m cultured. I don’t think that any of my songs necessarily have a border”, Martinez makes clear. “I speak more on the human experience, and what we go through emotionally, and who we are on the inside. That to me is more important. I don’t like songs that mention pick-up trucks too much. That’s not me. I care more about the emotional side of people, to bring them together for a good experience, to portray that genuinely through me.” That might be what makes his music relatable for anybody, no matter the background. “I like to write vague enough, nothing too literal, to leave things to interpretation for the listener.”
With his songs that do not only offer impeccable musicality, but also speak to the heart and emotions of anybody willing to listen, Martinez and his team are sure he will make it far. Where does he see himself in the future? “I want to be touring, headlining my own tours, with a fleet of buses and trucks with my name on them”, Martinez smiles. “I want to bring my dog, bring my girl, my child, and tour the world with my family, playing music. Just having that fulfillment is my biggest dream. I also want to live comfortably financially and be able to take care of the people that took care of me on the way up”, Martinez says. “Just to give back and help people through my music, with what I write. Let them know that they are not alone. Music is very powerful that way.”
The Wrapper 