“I’m working to become a better person for my wife and son. Music is the major side quest, you know?”
Denver-based musician Isaac Martinez is the man behind this candid remark. It is a compelling truth about the reality of life for any successful father who is also a songwriter seeking success.
Summing up Martinez’s ceaselessly creative and complicated career is nearly impossible. He began composing songs at the age of 11, appropriated the guitar his father had bought for his sister soon after, and was studying the instrument in a conservatory by high school.
Martinez is prolific to the point of confusion, and his tendency to obsessively work on material for years in a multitude of genres, then release it, and then mysteriously wipe it from the internet, is part of his artistic charm.
Regardless, some tunes are too important not to last.
For the first time, following years of operating under aliases, more than a dozen DIY releases since 2016 alone, and a detour to Los Angeles that spawned a Brockhampton and Beatles-inspired band that had just enough momentum after four years to justify an implosion, Martinez has finally released the work he is most proud of.
He should be.
10 Country Songs is the first record that Martinez feels worthy of being dropped everywhere under what he refers to as his “government” name. The album was produced by Martinez alongside the A-list assistance of engineers Andy Flebbe (Green Day) and Grammy®-winner Jerry Ordonez (Bon Iver, Waxahatchee).
True to Martinez’s eclectic nature, the album’s title is a tiny red herring as the record isn’t even necessarily ten country songs.
It is an amalgam of the unsorted and ubiquitous intellectual and emotional influences on Martinez (including those of his wife, son, and relationship with God) and his just-as-many musical ones. It represents what matters most to Martinez, i.e., not “side quests.”
Your eyes might glaze over while listening to Martinez gush about influences on his sound as disparate as Shoegaze, Garage Rock, IDM, Alternative, Americana, Math Rock, Hip-Hop, Pop, and, yes, Country. It’s a lot to take in. Better to have your eyes water while listening to Martinez’s music. It’s also a lot to take in but in the best way.
“How much can I tell you to show you I love you? Anything I could say! How much could I give to you to show you I meant it? Anything God could make!,” Martinez sings on one of the album’s stellar standout tracks “Infinite Water Glitch”.
Today, Glide is offering an exclusive premiere of the video for the standout track “Cedar Road,” an acoustic-laden work of folk-rock that feels deeply personal yet also carries themes that resonate. Martinez’s vocals are subdued and layered for powerful effect, lending themselves to the emotional power of the lyrics. With sparse but layered instrumentation, the song carries a sort of levity that makes it feel hopeful, which is fitting considering its focus on family.
I wrote ‘Cedar Road’ when I was 15. My therapist asked me to write about the pain of missing family, and it captures a specific moment of my youth. I tried to make the video like a tour of my family life. I don’t have as many pictures as I thought, but there were enough. I grew up as a rated chess player. This was my mom’s influence. She is a best-selling chess author, so chess was a big part of my childhood. But then music entered the picture, and you see me playing violin in the youth symphony, growing up, meeting my wife, Zoe, and childhood pictures of her and our son. My Dad said this video is too confusing, which is an odd thing to say since he knows everyone in the pictures!” – Isaac Martinez
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