GuilFest 2006. The 3 Day Guildford Music Festival on 14th, 15th and 16th July 2006

About the bands
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Artist: Martin Grech
Genre: Hard Rock
Performing: 17th July 2005 /The ROCKSOUND CAVE Stage
Website Address: [http://www.martingrech.co.uk]
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“Some people will think I’m being self indulgent, but would you call a painter self indulgent because he isn’t allowing other people to work on his painting as well?”
Martin Grech, May 2004

‘Vision’: a difficult word to reconcile within the context of rock ‘n’ roll. Especially where most music currently coming out of the genre is democratically-produced chart fodder. Few push rock music into the realms of the personally-conceived art form. Few apart from a breathtakingly beautiful 22 year old from Aylesbury with chipped black nail varnish and a careening falsetto.

Grech’s music is a dark, disorientating landscape, as informed by surrealist artists H.R. Giger and Joel Peter Witkin as Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead. And in his second album he’s finally satisfied that he’s matched his output to the music in his head. ‘UNHOLY’ pushes rock music into new challenging shapes, at times unremittingly hard, at others ambient in texture. But easy listening this isn’t.

His personal odyssey of self-expression started when Martin was 12, when he discovered Radiohead's 'The Bends'. The casually interested music fan was converted.

Although by no means immediately confident of his voice he at least had the re-assurance that there was music in the family. His mother had been a professional singer performing popular covers, and now the household piano that he'd played around on as a kid loomed much larger. Tentatively Martin began writing songs. An early band was put together from local friends and gradually the songs which comprise the debut album started to form. Then the real leap forward occurred when Martin was introduced to producer Andy Ross and, aged 15 while still at school, started heading up to the latter's London studio to work on demos.

“We just clicked instantly in terms of musically and just our personalities as well, it was a hundred percent mirror image," says Martin. The happy circumstance of teaming up with Ross allowed Martin to explore and develop in a conducive environment.

Three years of working together culminated in ‘Open Heart Zoo’, an album which bears the hallmarks of a boy developing his own understanding of music and experimenting with different forms through his formative years. It flits effortlessly from Coldplay-esque melodies through NiN skronk rock to classical. “I think some percentage of fans were put off by the confusion of what kind of album it was,” admits Grech.

The period after the release of ‘Open Heart Zoo’ was beset by legal issues, delaying the recording of the second album. In the mean time he continued to write music furiously and tour the UK, both with his full band and alone acoustically. He supported Muse at Wembley Arena and took part in Jeff Buckley tribute events. Martin’s careening live act continued to illicit obsession amongst a growing number of teens.

In August 2003, Martin’s fans finally got a taster of his new material in ‘I am Chromosome’, a free download internet only release. The song features twisted vocals, manic instrumentation, and a hurtling, screamed finale. As a pointer for the new album, ‘Chromosome’ suggested it wouldn’t be for the feint hearted.

With the legal issues finally resolved, Martin walked back into Andy Ross’s studio in February 2004 to start the follow up to ‘Open Heart Zoo’. Bringing with him a collection of songs constructed over the previous two years, they were confident of getting a new album nailed. However, once in the studio, they were unable to get these songs into any complete state.

“We tried to bring the tracks together but it was like pulling teeth. I have to capture a song in its prime. My tracks die if they aren’t put down straight away. Some bands can do that, but not me. I can’t work without being inspired. I can’t grind away in the studio – it doesn’t flow.” This “annoying idiosyncrasy” (Martin’s words) meant that the old songs were ditched and Martin started composing an entirely new selection, there in the studio.

Martin realised that this new pocket of songs seemed to be converging on three specific emotions, which he named ‘Holy’, ‘Sensual’ and ‘Debauched’. So he made these his focus, not just for the album - but for his whole life. The words loomed large on the studio walls, and outside the studio Martin would pour over the dark biomechanical images of the graphic artist H.R. Giger and the disturbing body part photography of Joel Peter Witkin for inspiration.

The result is as forward thinking and unconventional as current rock trends are retro and ‘fashionable’. “I’m doing it because it’s what I want to do – it’s from the heart. All musicians are interested in these days is being cool. Celebrities do that, you don’t need musicians to do that as well. Music is amazing and has real value. The only place you have revolutions are in art and politics and everyone seems to be wasting the opportunity.”

The album will be an eye opener for many. By giving himself over completely to the darkest recesses of his imagination, Grech has pushed his music a million miles from ‘Open Heart Zoo’. Epic, electrifying and matchless, it stretches across dark seething metal, cinematic vistas, pagan folk music and mood pieces.

There are no easy options.
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MARTIN GRECH returns with his new album UNHOLY released 13th June 2005 and new single GUILTLESS released 18th July May 2005 and through Island Records.

Press contact: Lisa Southern, Southern PR.
Mob: 07786 856 793
Email: lisa@southernpr.co.uk