SoundClick artist: Michael Stuart Martel - I started piano lessons @ 6, and have been composing since my teens. This page is outdated, but as

(this section last updated Feb 15 2012)

I've been playing piano since I was 6. I progressed very quickly, especially in the early years, and wanted to grow up to be a concert pianist when I was very young. At some point, I abandoned that desire, seeing how much perfection and work that goes into what is really a quite limiting (and demanding) profession. My other main musical profession idea I had as a child was to grow up to compose music for video games, as I've always been a big fan of video games. That dream may perhaps yet remain to be seen, even if only in some small way, some day, but these days, I compose, record, and play by ear.

Most of the recordings here are original compositions of mine. And of course they're all performed and recorded by me.

I am a fairy bright young guy, but I have anxiety problems, agoraphobia, as well as something that may very well be Asperger Syndrome (or if not, something similar or PDD-NOS).

So the reason I say that is that, well, I very much hope to eventually make a living with my music. It's my one specialty (and I am quite good at it), but I haven't quite mustered the connections, ambition, or social skills yet to successfully get myself "out there" and all-that known quite yet (still, as of February 2012; it's sad, and very frustrating to me because I'm now 25, which I feel is far too old to start a musical career, especially considering I began to compose these pieces when I was 14 or 15).

To clarify: The point above is that not only do I lack any other marketable skills (which is not to say I don't have other skills; it's just the other ones aren't particularly marketable for the most part), and furthermore, music is my life. Even if I won the lottery, I'd be sad if hardly any of the world heard my music. Of course if I were rich (from something I didn't earn especially, like the lottery) I'd most likely just give my music away.

Thing is, for some reason a lot of people seem to assume that that's what I intend to do now - give it away for free. And I have done that here and there, but the idea (once I get the new Reminiscence album art done already, anyway) is to SELL my albums, hopefully.

Why not just give it away? Well I do need to eat. I'm male, 25, 5'9", and weigh about 110 to 120 pounds. In my current dwelling, the plumbing is broken (all of it except the shower), we have an oven and stove, but the sinks are too full of ugly stuff to wash anything (and no, of course we don't have a dishwasher), and we still haven't got around to getting a cheap microwave. These days I've been eating maybe 400-1000 calories a day.

Sorry for the above paragraph; I hope I don't sound too much like I'm trying to get pity - I'm not.
I'm just trying to make a point, and I'm almost done with that point, so read on:

I'm not famous, I do have some desirable piano recordings I've made, people I know want them - And they don't beat around the bush; they seem to not even think about it much, or maybe they think that piano is just a hobby of mine, but they just come up and say "Where can I download your album?" right off the bat.

So I just want people to know that music is my life, it's what I do and what I want to do, and it's the only thing I can do (other than things like bagging groceries, stocking shelves, or typing on a computer), and I do it quite well.

Furthermore, ever since I moved out of my original home at the age of 18, I have been dirt poor. I was once technically homeless for about 2 weeks, the first night of which I had to sleep in public.

I am currently being helped out in that regard by my wonderful fiançee (though she's not exactly rich herself), but it does feel a bit shameful. I've no choice but to look for a part-time entry level job in order to help out more with the rent, and I won't see any spending money (and haven't) except for birthdays and Christmas, for many years, I suspect. A job would also (and I know this from experience) hurt my ability to create music. Not only does it take up all too much of my time, it somewhat drains my will to live; oppositely to a lot of people. I think a lot of people get a sense of "purpose" from having a job. I don't.

My purpose is music and nothing else; and if I never make it with my music and end up living on the street - so be it.

Such is how serious I am about what I do.

Still, I'll most likely have to be getting a regular entry-level job soon. I pray that my best musical ideas won't hit me while I'm at work, far from a piano.

So if you like my music, I beseech you to support me (if you can) and to tell your friends and/or family.

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I have a lot of thoughts on Internet "piracy" which you can read in another section, but in a nutshell:

You do have my permission to download my music if you can't afford to buy it, or if you want to listen to it before you decide whether or not to make a purchase.

You also have my permission to share my music with your friends (through making unofficial copies/rips indeed) especially if you can't or don't want to afford to buy multiple other copies as gifts to your many friends - But ideally in that situation, I should be properly credited so they can find out about me; don't just give them a blank CD that says "track 01, track 02..." etc. saying "Hey some guy plays piano prettily here listen to this CD."

- - - - -

My current first and only album was recorded and finished in 2006, but the old album art is unacceptable because it's tacky looking, and bears my nickname "miku," which on the Internet seems to be ubiquitously associated with a Japanese vocaloid character (who isn't even a real person, but boy is she popular).

So right now, I need to create, or hire someone to create, proper album art for my CD, and this time I also want to go fully legit and purchase a UPC code from CD Baby or something like that. I wish to be as independent as possible, but unfortunately there's still lots of legal red tape I have to deal with.

Being an independent artist in the 21st century can be difficult (and somewhat costly).

- - - - -

Most of the content on this Soundclick page was uploaded long ago, but I am still using it, and updating it again as new material (or information / thoughts) rolls in, since this is such a good site for musicians.

If you've been to my Facebook artist page, you might have noticed that the music player there is the one here, embedded into Facebook. So they are one and the same.

However these text blurbs are separate, and they do say somewhat different things...

Most updates and new material will probably be most easily found if you "Like" or "Subscribe" to me on Facebook and/or Youtube. Here is good too of course, but you're already here, so here are the links to the other pages:

Facebook.com/MSM.Piano
Youtube.com/MSMartelPiano

I hope my music brings you happiness, or some kind of desirable experience. I work very hard on it, and I hope you like it. Thank you for checking me out on the Internet, by the way. =) I know I can be rambly (TL;DR - Too Long; Didn't Read, lol).

Anyway... All for love, and love for all!

- Michael Stuart Martel <3

Why this name?

It's my real, full, name.

I was middle-named after my paternal grandfather, Stuart.

Do you play live?

(this section last "lightly-tweaked" Feb 15 2012)

I haven't played live lately, but I have before.

Nothing too fancy... once I played a (small, hand-picked) orchestra-accompanied Mendelssohn piece (Rondo Brillante) at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara.
I have the VHS of it. Although it's low quality, it makes me wish I had some sort of video recorder expansion card for a computer, so that I could digitize it and upload it to Youtube and any other sites that accept videos.
Eventually if/when I attain said technology, I will put that on Youtube. Being permitted to perform at the Lobero Theatre was one of my crowning achievements in the classical music world.

Besides that, I played (for $$) at a few B'nai B'rith services when I was a tween or so, and once or twice (for $$) at an art gallery.

I also once set up a nice, full-sized keyboard at Farmer's Market and played for tips for a few hours. I think I made somewhere between $25-60, maybe. Kind of hard to keep the attention of passersby at Farmer's Market with a lot of the kind of music I write; it's not quick and catchy.

I am more than open to playing live more in the future. I've gone around to some of the seemingly unused pianos around Santa Barbara that are a bit less intimidating than the obvious ones like Nordstrom's and Soho. I'm talking places like Elsie's Bar. It's got a pool table and a little piano in it that's always locked.

I went there with some friends on my birthday, hoping, if it wasn't too crowded, that I might be able to play it a little, just for fun. I hadn't had access to a piano regularly in quite some time (due to poor living arrangements, due of course to being poor), and it was my birthday, and, little known to the people there, I'm a proper pianist.
A good friend of mine asked the bartender as it started to calm down somewhat a little later, saying "I have a friend who's amazing on the piano, and he doesn't have a piano right now and it's his birthday. Do you think maybe when it quiets down a little bit he might be able to play for just a minute or two later on?" (or something along those lines) and the bartender's immediate response was a gruffy "No."

Establishments: WHY BUY PIANOS, IF YOU'RE NOT GOING TO USE THEM?

It's just laughable. I wanted to do something - for free - that I'd normally (in the past) been -PAID- to do, just for a few minutes, because it was my birthday and I'd been so missing a piano to touch, and they were staunchly against it.

If I seem riled up here, it's because I am, for pianos! It's not just personal as much as it is out of respect for music, in this case specifically for pianos.

I feel that the pianos are being disrespected. A piano, even if not a grand piano, is NOT a piece of furniture. It's a magnificent musical instrument!

How, do you think, does the internet (or mp3) change the music industry?

(this section last updated Feb 15 2012)

I think it (MP3s) gives consumers a much wider and more satisfying variety of 'free sampling', so that when they make a purchase, they know they're getting something they want.

I don't think downloading an mp3 (or even a movie, for that matter) is the same thing as stealing.

If you weren't going to pay for it anyway, it's not stealing. Stealing implies taking away.

When I download something, either to try before buying, or because it's overpriced, or because I can't afford it, the owners of the product lose nothing.

They'll say, "We're losing potential profit."

But that presumes that the person would have otherwise purchased the CD containing the track they downloaded, had said track not been available online for download, and these people are not quite so large a percentage as record companies seem to think.

One other little side-note thing these companies don't seem to realize nor respect is that many of these "pirates" often purchase the material after trying it out. A large percentage of piracy is a prelude to purchasing the pirated material if it is deemed desirable enough, for the asking price.

And if they go to concerts, they buy tickets. There isn't much in the way of getting around that. If THAT were running rampant somehow, I'd likely get concerned, but it's not really happening, so, yeah.

And whether or not it's pretty from a business point of view, online piracy is the reality. There is no magic wand you can wave to undo all the various technologies that make piracy possible. Pandora's box has already been opened, so to speak.

So rather than attempting to take dictator-like control over the situation in a battle that no amount of money can win, I propose that we should instead do our BEST to ALLOW IT TO THRIVE in the best way possible for all parties:

If you're a musician, (well, if you get popular enough) people will eventually download your music. Facing that fact in a more positive light, why not offer a decent helping of those pieces streamed and/or downloaded straight from your home page?

The key word here is: Respect.

Instead of treating listeners like criminals, treat them with respect. They in turn may respect you back. Freeloaders will always exist even if not the result of being poor (like me), but even poor people will buy a CD of yours if they: A) thoroughly enjoy your work, B) can barely afford to buy the CD, and especially C), if you're an independently produced (or otherwise esoteric and/or just.. not wealthy or "big") artist, and they know it.

I have purchased what little I've been able to regarding bands like MONO (the Japanese post-rock band) simply because they amaze me and are a smaller act (compared to say, Beyoncé), and I want them to be able to continue making popular, successful, and enjoyable music for as long as they can.

Now remember, that's from the perspective of a poor musician / music fan. You can presumably bet your boots that plenty of people with higher wealth too, will help the artist(s) financially.

I think that the Internet, and its exchange of media files, as well as reviews and other sources of information, helps consumers understand better what they want to buy.

And as I said before, especially in this age of quickly spreading information and media, it can even help those consumers better understand not just what they want, but which among their favorite artists merit the most financial support.

It's a bit of a generous and hopeful aspect of human nature that even I've experienced despite my lack of wealth (as referred to in the above MONO example).

Anyway, this is already far too long, so I'll just wrap it up by saying:

Do artists/labels need to be at war with all the consumers and indeed the very fans of the artists?

No, and there's no need for that to be.

Obviously I would surely like my life's passion to become a financial success, to maybe live in a house once more instead of a little apartment where I can fit an upright (currently, I just have a full-range digital keyboard; still does the job for practice and composing at least) but not a grand piano, etc., but what music and indeed all art really comes down to is:

love.

"It's all for love." - Michael Joseph Jackson, 1958-2009

Would you sign a record contract with a major label?

Probably not. Good compositional ideas (ones I like anyway) come to me rarely, and I can only write pieces I genuinely like on rare occasions (as opposed to writing OK things often), and I'd rather be a bit less famous but with a larger percentage of any profits going directly to me, than to be made ridiculously famous by a large record label and making pennies per CD sold.

I also wrote my compositions, so those copyrights belong to me and nobody else, until 75 years after I die.

No, Sony, you can't have them. =P

Your influences?

Ottorino Respighi, Dmitri Shostakovich, Phish, Pink Floyd, Jerry Martin (composer of most of the music from The Sims, particularly the solo piano improvs that play during 'Build Mode'), Chopin, Philip Glass, George Winston, Koji Kondo, Yasunori Mitsuda, Kou Otani, Danny Elfman, MONO, Explosions in the Sky, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, etc.

Favorite spot?

At a piano, in sleep in bed, in front of a TV playing video games, or in my fiancée's arms.

Equipment used:

Steinway 1926 medium grand, two M-Audio Solaris condensor mics, 12-channel Alesis mixer, M-audio Delta soundcard, Sony Soundforge, FL Studio, Akai MPK49 MIDI keyboard, Privia PX-330 88-key weighted keyboard

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