Walter Martin

Wheels Off with Rhett Miller

Rhett Miller

Music, Performing Arts, Arts

4.9 • 609 Ratings

🗓️ 26 April 2022

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Walter Martin is a multi-award-winning songwriter first known for his work with New York rock 'n' roll bands The Walkmen and Jonathan Fire*Eater. In this episode, Walt joins Rhett to talk about his prolific and varied songwriting career, the importance of separating art and commerce, and the creative freedom he enjoys as an independent artist. In 2014 Martin launched a solo career and has subsequently released five studio albums: two Parents’ Choice award winning family albums (2014's We're All Young Together and 2017's My Kinda Music) and three critically acclaimed albums for adults (2016's Arts & Leisure, 2018's Reminisce Bar & Grill and 2020’s The World at Night. In March 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world, Martin released two collections of unreleased songs (Common Prayers; Green Beans & Tangerines). A much anticipated new album, The Bear, was released on March 25, 2022. Wheels Off is brought to you by Osiris Media. Hosted and produced by Rhett Miller. Co-produced by Kirsten Cluthe in partnership with Nick Ruffini (Revoice Media). Editing by Matt Dwyer. Production Assistance by Matt Bavuso. Music by OLD 97’s. Episode artwork by Katherine Boils. Show logo by Tim Skirven. This podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also ask Alexa to play it. Please leave us a rating or review on iTunes. Revisit previous episodes of Wheels Off with Rosanne Cash, Rob Thomas, Will Forte, Lydia Loveless, Allison Moorer, Ted Leo, Paul F. Tompkins, Jen Kirkman, and more. Visit SunsetlakeCBD.com and use the promo code WHEELSOFF for 20% off premium CBD products. Visit GradysColdBrew.com and use the promo code WHEELSOFF for 20% off your first purchase of New Orleans-style coffee & cold brew. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	O'SIMIS
0:02.0	Welcome to Wheels Off, a show about the messy reality of the creative life. I'm Rhett Miller.
0:10.0	That's when it got wheels off. We started on me ain't gonna stop. Oh, she made me feel like a good car. That's when it got wheels off. The creative life The creative life of Walter Martin is a fascinating ride.
0:28.9	He has gone from celebrated indie rocker,
0:34.7	Jonathan Fire Eater, The Walkman, to kids' music creator, kids love him, to what he's doing now,
0:45.2	where he makes these solo records that are really brilliant artistic pieces of work,
0:50.3	and then subsidizing those by doing, you know, music for film and commercials and TV.
0:56.9	And he's just constantly living a creative life.
1:02.5	And it doesn't seem or sound like he is too worried about what the world thinks about it.
1:11.0	He's going to go and do it.
1:12.6	And it just so happens that the world, you know, loves it.
1:16.0	And he's able to make a living doing this stuff.
1:19.6	And I think that he's such a really cool guy.
1:23.7	I did not know him going into this conversation that you're about to hear, but Walter
1:29.2	Martin is not what I expected. You know, I thought New York, I thought, you know, indie rock. I thought
1:38.8	that he would be, I thought he would be perhaps like the living embodiment of Pitchfork magazine, like
1:46.5	too cool for school and look down his nose at the world.
1:50.3	Guess what?
1:51.2	That is my own insecurity talking.
1:54.0	That is not Walter Martin.
1:56.0	This is a man who lives to make music and lives to make art and is really cool and nice and sweet.
2:04.6	And I'm so glad I got to meet him and speak with him for this episode of Wheels Off.
	...

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