Martina Edoff is back with her new album ‘Unity’ and on this one she has enlisted the help of H.E.A.T.’s keyboards player Jona Tee. Over to Martina for some questions about the album, her favourite three albums of all time and more…
What have you got planned for the next few months?
First we are looking forward to go to Argentina the 14th of November as a support act to Tarja Turrunen. A venue that takes about 7 000 is going to be really exciting!! Next we´re working on to get a European tour in 2016 and we also have other plans of places to go that isn’t scheduled yet. We´ve just arrived back home from a succesful North American tour.
Could you please take us through the songs on the new album ‘Unity’? (e.g. song writing process, stories behind the songs etc.)
Yes, some of the songs I had already written and brought with me when I met Jona Tee for the first time. We sat down and jammed to get the feeling of where we wanted to go. With an acoustic guitar and my voice we also found some new tunes to work with that later became some of the songs on the album.
We started to build up the songs in Jona Tees studio and his skills with sounds amazed me! He sent me a short demo the day after of what we had created and I said: Yes!! We have the sound Im looking for!! Jona knew exactly what I was looking for and everything went on smoothly in the process.
I had some songs sent to me from other songwriters and I rewrote the lyrics to one of them to make it sound more me. When the work was done with the demos we went down to the studio in Gothenburg to see the producer Tobias Lindell.
How did you hook-up with Jona Tee? The rest of H.E.A.T. are involved on the album (bar the vocalist of course). Did this help give the album a more band feel?
When I decided to make a new album I contacted Tobias Lindell who had been working with Europe, Hardcore Superstar, H.E.A.T. among others, I asked him to hook me up with a songwriter that would understand the sound I was looking for. Since he is a good friend of Jona he suggested that we would make a very good team.
The musicians in the band H.E.A.T. are extremely tight and passionate about what they´re doing and they offered their skills to play on my album. I hadn’t been listening to their music that much before so I didn’t exactly know at that time what they had to offer, but I was definitely knocked down when I heard them play for the first time in the studio. I was amazed and happy!!
Bohus Studios is a wonderful place to be to record an album. In an old fashion way the studio have plenty of room for all of us to record everything live at the same time. It gives the music another level when it´s recorded live, I think!
As soon as the musicians were done with their job I started recording my vocals. Both Jona and I did all the backing vocals. We stayed in Gothenburg for about a month until everything was finished!
With any plans to tour would you try and use the H.E.A.T. guys as your tour band? Or could a tour with H.E.A.T. be a future possibility?
Since the guys in H.E.A.T. have their own career and are successful on their own they won’t be touring with me. There is one exception though in Argentina when they will go with me as my band and that is going to be very exciting!
I have my own band with me on tour and they are hand picked just for me. I am very proud of them and we have that special bond that is required for a band to be successful.
How important is it for you to have videos on YouTube and do they gain genuine interest in your music?
I think that a video shows the people a bit more about the music. It´s a good thing to go out with in the beginning and I know that we have gained a lot of fans through the videos. There are tons of good bands and artists out there so to reach out to the audience a video could be helpful. And I also enjoy to be in the process of making a video as well, it´s fun!!
What have been your main musical influences and can you recommend three ‘must have’ albums for music lovers based on your musical tastes?
My musical influences comes from the 80´s era. When there were happy and easy to sing along melodies but still heavy sounds I enjoyed it the most. I would pick these three albums: Heart self titled album in 1985, Whitesnake 1987 and Guns & Roses Appetite of Destruction.
Does Spotify and fellow streaming websites give artists like yourself a decent income for your songs when they are played?
No not at all, but since the music industry works the way it does with streaming today we have to go with it. The good side of it is that we reach more people and hopefully gain more fans. My goal is to reach a wider audience who wish to see us play live.
Outside of music what do you enjoy doing?
I enjoy to spend time with my loved ones. To take my dogs for a walk in the nature for example just to experience the contrasts to what the music and touring gives me.
Message for you fans…
I am really looking forward to come and play in your city and I really hope you will enjoy my album!!!
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