At only twenty-three, Will Martin has already packed in a lifetime of paying dues. School musicals, playing piano in bars, waiting tables, corporate entertaining and singing in rock bands to singing the New Zealand National Anthem in front of a sold out All Blacks crowd – Will has done it all.
It has all been a lead up to this - “A New World.” His stunning debut album for Universal Classics and Jazz is an epic collection of classical crossover songs. Recorded with a full orchestra, this selection of songs simultaneously reflects Will’s origins and the scope of his unfaltering ambition.
“I am an entertainer; I sing, I can play the piano. I want to bring an entertainment factor to this kind of music because it has never really been done before.”
“I intend to rock out with a big orchestra behind me. I want to be real. I want to misbehave. I want to reach people. Dress me like a pop star and let me sing, and maybe some eighteen-year-old girl will go out and buy a classical album for the first time.”
These are strong words from this young New Zealander, born in Wellington on August 31st 1984 and brought up in Auckland by his father, a lawyer, and mother, a nurse. Musical tradition was not a part of early family life although with Maori blood (his mother is a quarter Maori), his musicality is not entirely surprising. “Maori tend to be very musical,” Will says. “I learned the language at school and it has similar sounds to Italian, which has proved to be very useful in more recent years.”
“Growing up, my parents listened to Van Morrison, Phil Collins and Tracey Chapman. Once I discovered my voice, I’d sing along to whatever was playing.”
Until his teenage years, Will was just another sports-mad Kiwi kid. However, at five foot ten, he was too slight for the national obsession of rugby. Instead, he excelled in representative tennis and football and had achieved a black belt in Kempo by the age of twelve.
“Music just overtook me,” he says about the transition in his teenage years. “It really was that dramatic. I just decided I’d give it my all and I didn’t have time for anything else. All I wanted was to make music. By the time I was sixteen, I had stopped playing sport, stopped doing my homework which, admittedly, didn’t make my Maths teacher very happy.”