Having become renowned on the Liverpool scene thanks to her captivating songwriting with The Hushtones, Martha Goddard has turned her attentions to her solo work, digging deeper into her thoughts and emotions than ever before to produce tracks that are just as sonically silky and moving yet, with an added lyrical poignancy. We spoke with Martha ahead of her show in Liverpool's famous Cavern Club to discuss her newly announced EP and the vulnerability of introspective songwriting.
Photo Credit: Marieke Macklon
Q. Can you talk us through the lyrical inspiration behind your latest single ‘Voices’?
A. “Voices is a song that I wrote a long time ago, it was one of the first songs I made using garage band when I didn't know how to use garage band before the lockdown. I learned how to use that then moved onto logic and stuff and started making my own tracks properly and that was one of the first ones where I got to layer up my vocals and hear the thing I've been hearing in my head actually played back to me and that was the best feeling ever.
It’s a song about the voices in your head that are always telling you that you're not good enough. I think I'm a bit of a perfectionist, especially when it comes to music and creativity, it's hard to give those things out to the world when you feel you could always do more. This song is about that feeling, and it's kind of about me releasing these songs and saying ‘no, I'm not gonna listen to those voices anymore! I'm just gonna do it because it's the thing that I love doing’. If it's the thing that you love doing the most you don't really need any other reason to do it”.
Q. Do you enjoy that process of building up your tracks and layering sounds?
A. “Yeah, definitely. I love the creative process. I love trying different ways as well. I don't ever have just one way of doing it. It's such an amazing place to really get into. When you're in the zone, you lose track of time and it's like the only place that that happens to me. I actually have to stop myself from doing it sometimes because if inspiration hits and it's like midnight, I'm gonna have to just leave it otherwise I won't sleep!”.
Q. Is this new track part of a bigger project at all?
A. “I've got an EP coming out that I'm gonna announce soon. The whole EP just encompassed my life for like a year and a half.
Q. Do you feel more vulnerable writing and releasing such personal tracks under your solo project compared to with your band Hushtones?
A. “Releasing my own stuff that's just purely me is more nerve wracking because it feels like if people don't like it then they don't like me, you know? Obviously that's not the case but it is so much more personal. I guess that’s why I didn't do it for years. I've always written songs since I was like a little kid but it took me a long time to actually release my own music because it is that nerve-wracking and you do feel quite vulnerable”.
Q. Have you found it therapeutic finally feeling confident enough to release these solo tracks?
A. “Yeah it's really therapeutic. I think songwriting as an art form is a form of therapy for me definitely. When I was a kid I was really shy and I was basically silent throughout the whole of school. Then when I first started writing proper songs, I was listening to Avril Lavigne and I wanted to be like her! I finally sat down and wrote a full, proper structured song and it was the best feeling ever. It was about the fact that I was so quiet and I couldn't get my words out. Putting that into words and having that summed up in a song was like the best kind of therapy.
Q. What inspired the lyrical ideas throughout the EP as a whole?
A. “I would say that a lot of my songs are a documentation of my personal existential crisis…which is ongoing. I always wonder about the universe; ‘I'm so small… what is my purpose?’etc. I think about when you're a little kid and you think about what you're going to be when you grow up. Maybe you want to be an astronaut or this or that but you can't imagine how you're going to feel when you’re older. I could never have imagined the way things have turned out. I definitely put a lot of that into my songs”.
Q. Does the EP’s title reflect these ideas too?
A. “Yes, it's called ‘It Comes In Waves’ which is like me summing up my existential look on the world and how you can feel incredibly low and you can also feel so high. These feelings come in waves and if you feel really low right now it's okay because it'll come back around. I like to use the symbol of the moon a lot because that is something that very much comes back around”.
Q. Is there a track on the EP that you're most excited to play live?
A. “Circles is going to be my next single and it's just fun to play. I play guitar on that one and I haven't played guitar live before. That's the one you kind of get into the groove. My music isn't Rocky but if you wanted to say one was the most rocky, it's probably that one”.
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Awesome song 👏