Mary and Martin

(All Songs/Lyrics copyright protected 2007)

Here we have Mary and Martin married songwriting troubadours

Mary, a former PhD academic, Martin spent 10 years travelling the globe. They met, married and set off travelling Europe looking for a new niche in life; finding work along the way. Then one rainy day in an English middle town, Martin pulled Mary into a guitar shop and in a small booth picked a guitar up and sang her a song he’d written. She was floored, and she bought a guitar there and then with the cash they had.

And so began a prolific tidal wave of songwriting.

Mary, what is your background in music?

Well I was born in Birmingham to parents from Jamaica, and was influenced by their collection of music, which included Bob Marley and Mahalia Jackson. As a child I joined the children’s choir and at school took violin lessons. My teenage years were spent singing in the Merrybells Gospel Choir. After a few years and two children, I decided to follow an academic career spending 10 years pursuing a BA (Hons), PGCE, MA and a PhD.

A Doctor of Philosophy? That sounds interesting

The idea behind the PhD was to help to change the prejudicial way people act towards each other. My research assessed the effect ethnicity has on work stress. After three years and attending several conferences and getting published in a medical journal and research handbook, I realised that it wouldn’t happen through academia, so I handed the PhD research to my supervisors and left academia behind.

I’ve always felt I had no 'voice' when trying to express myself. I’ve been known as ‘the quiet one’ for most of my life. But when I sing everyone listens. When I sing our songs I feel I’m singing truth without ego. The songs are like a catharsis about the the current life event I’m experiencing at that time; like growing pains. There’s usually lots of tears and conflict until the song is finished, then I know I’ve survived it ... again... until the next song!

'Same Life' seems to have a religious tone to it. Are you religious?

The simple answer is no, we are not religious. Although I spent 2-3 years singing in a gospel choir in my teens, I left dogma behind when I was 18. Same Life, Heaven On Earth, Ever Present Now and a couple of other songs out of 40+ mention either or all of Christ, Buddha or Krishna; Love and reincarnation, but not in the context of religion, fanaticism or politics. People tend to project their personal emotional qualities onto life and think God is a person and then kill others who don't think this way.

We believe the foundation for our lives is Love and Wisdom and this becomes the inspiration for our songs. However, our songs do seem to have quite a reactionary effect on people.

Martin, what's your background in music?

I left school at 16, went into a small local studio and became the sound engineer recording punk, blues, ska, reggae and dub. I moved to London and became a tape-op at Sarm Studios working with Trevor Horn, Steve Lipson and various bands such as, Sade, Simple Minds, and the Pogues, making lots of tea.

After a few years I went off travelling around the world 3 times, sailing the Pacific and Atlantic. During this time I studied Buddhism and helped in Tibetan monasteries for 10 years travelling between Nepal, India and the USA. Then life took another change and I came back to the UK, finding general work in kitchens and construction; but more importantly picking up a guitar again after more than 10 years.

How did your musical adventures begin?

Mary walked into my life and 3 weeks later we packed a car and drove off together. I taught Mary to play guitar, and within weeks she had written ‘Remember’, then the other songs came flooding through. Our travels have taken us across Europe singing our songs on the City streets and venues of London, Paris, Geneva, Nijmegen, Amsterdam, Brussels, Birmingham, Exeter and many more...Taking it directly to people and singing it out loud. Recording on our laptop, playing all the instruments ourselves. (Drums on 'Mary' and 'Heaven on Earth' by Nick Mcleod)

One year on, and you have an album now called 'Love Peace'; and are planning a UK Tour with AMG Management. How is that taking shape?

Actually we have three albums worth of material. 'Love Peace' is our first album and that's been received really well. 'Love Everlasting' has been licensed by Larry Holden (Batman Dark Knight, Memento); and 'Same Life' is number 1 in the Radio Free Southwest charts (online radio station). We want to record our other songs preferably in a solar-powered studio on a 16-track, similar to Jack Johnson - in fact the Brushfire studio in Hawaii is where we want to do the album, we end up using whatever we can get our hands on.

We have started performing with Igor Klescht and Mick Whieldon who play drum and bass. Our first rehearsal with them was awesome and surprised us with the ease of ge