Martyrs – Interview – Thanks for Asking!
Written by Staff on January 27, 2025
Martyrs – Interview – Thanks for Asking! – by Liam Sweeny.
RRX: Music genres are difficult for some artists. Some strictly adhere; others not so much. What is your perspective on the genre you play, or the genres you hover around?
MH: I see Martyrs as genre tourists. We’re restless, and shift from one style to another very freely, often within a song. At the same time we work well within limits – if we can see that we’re going down the path of making a metal song, for instance, we’ll pursue that really faithfully but because of our personal tastes and quirks, it will still end up having a unique aspect to it. I tend not to write very traditional lyrics, as the topics I’m most interested in writing about aren’t necessarily what people talk about in rock music. Metal, electronica, folk music, it’s all interesting to us and I think it’s more fulfilling to be able to shift between those parameters while retaining our identity.
RRX: With services like Spotify, streaming revenue can be pretty dismal. Without spilling secrets, do you have a promotional mindset or philosophy?
MH: In the current climate it feels almost delusional to expect financial success from making music. We’re passionate about writing, recording and releasing songs. We do it all from home. We love the process. We’re very strictly independent and DIY, so whatever promotion we do, we do ourselves, because you are the only person you can really trust to express your work to a larger audience. In an industry based around exploitation and capitalism, I think it’s beneficial to be self-sufficient. It’s not like we’re out here making hardcore punk music but that early DIY ethos of someone like Ian MacKaye is where a large part of our ethos lies.
RRX: Our style comes from the extension of our influences. It’s like an evolution. We’re influenced, and it inspires us to influence. What can you say about your influences, and what you feel you’ve done with their influence as a musician or band? Have you extended their work?
MH: I think the music we make is best when it’s a clash of Jon and I’s influences. We have very different musical experience and tastes which sometimes coalesce. We’re able to mould that into something new and exciting to us. I love artists like Iron Maiden, Blood Incantation, Richard Thompson, Fugazi, Laurie Anderson but because Jon is there at the musical helm, I don’t indulge in too much copying or homage which is really healthy.
RRX: It’s a lot of fun living in the present, but we all collect memories and give birth to dreams. We’re talking dreams here. Where you see yourself next year? In the next five years?
MH: I hope we’ll be making music for a long time to come. I hope we improve, and that a few people enjoy the work, I’d like to say more politically through our songs. I hope we can write a chorus as huge as Maiden’s ‘Wasted Years’ and make a record as compelling and challenging as The Caretaker’s ‘An Empty Bliss Beyond This World’. We’re dreaming big artistically but certainly not commercially.
RRX: Let’s talk about your next project, your next few. Just not the ones you’re working on now. The ones you have your eyes on for the future. What’s coming to us?
MH: We’re currently on single number 2 of a series of 10. This one’s called ‘Pin Blue Sometime’ and comes out on February 4th. We have a few of these singles already recorded but we want to have the option to take things in whatever direction we fancy later in the series. There’ll be another metal song along soon enough I think. The next album will be very different to any of the singles, as we already have a concept in mind for that. I hope we can be even more experimental in our approach in the future. I want to tell more and more interesting stories.
RRX: Sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Or so they say. Whether you’re off the wagon, on it, or never been, there’s something you got a thirst for. What are some of your basically harmless vices?
MH: We’re definitively not very rock and roll in the usual sense. I think Jon has a leather jacket? Cold brew coffee, peanut butter cups and pro wrestling are our vices. I’m more inspired by Kenny Omega than I am by Johnny Rotten.