If Abba, Stevie Nicks/Fleetwood Mac, Kate Bush and the likes of Celine Dion are your bag, then this haunting, brooding, slow-burner that builds into a string-soaked power ballad epic, is for you – from Canadian artist Christina Martin. One heck of a talent, as we have said before…
The singer and songwriter has released sultry lead single (and video) “Stay with Me”, from her incoming eighth studio album “Storm, slated for a late 2022 launch.
“The muse for this song came in a pre-pandemic dream. I saw a girl wander a cobblestone city-street, through thick fog and moonlit night, and heard a familiar melody and the line ‘stay with me’. Unlike in dreams where I sometimes feel trapped in terrifying scenarios, with this song I found a space to purge my fears and then coax myself to a better place.”
“Stay with Me” was one of the first songs recorded for the album, and had a heavy influence on the soundscape of those that followed. Originally rendered in a more upbeat pop/rock style, it went through a radical rework to end up at the more dreamy symphonic tone of the final piece.
This saw Christina co-producing with long-term collaborator Dale Murray, and writing the string parts alongside Karen Graves; a collaborative approach to orchestral arrangements, new territory for Ms. Martin.
“Stay with Me” is also accompanied by a music video, written and directed by Brendan Henry, which is suitably “dreamlike, dark and surreal.” Watch it, below….
Christina began writing and recording her own music while slogging it out on the Austin, Texas bar scene. Her work has been compared to, among others; the likes of Annie Lennox, Chrissie Hynde, Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen.
She has been relentlessly recording and touring in Canada, the UK and Europe, building connections online and in the old-fashioned way, at venues big and small, singing songs about loss, love and perseverance.
Her songs have been featured in films, on television, and she’s performed at some of the world’s top music festivals such as; Rolling Stone Weekender Festival, Belfast Nashville Songwriters Festival, International Folk Alliance, Reeperbahn Festival and Canadian Music Week.
Her music dances effortlessly through pop, rock, folk and Americana traditions – unchained by any one label. From her Austin-inflected 2002 debut, “Pretty Things”, to the sweeping cinematic dreamscape of 2018’s “Impossible To Hold”, the latter of which Music Republic Magazine was very keen on, Martin is an artist who is constantly evolving. And seemingly cannot be pigeon-holed.
