Martin Luke Brown – Explores Existential Yearning on ‘aching for everyone’

There’s life, there’s death, and then there’s everything in between. Martin Luke Brown turns his attention to the beautiful middle ground on his third solo studio album, life & death etc, set for release via Bright Antenna Records on September 18^th. On an album filled with moments of fleeting conversations, hazy nights, emotional collisions, and the small moments that ultimately make up a life, Martin today shares new single, ‘aching for everyone’.
 
With a loose slacker guitar groove soundtracking quietly poignant lyricism, the track explores Martin’s experience with yearning and mourning versions of an imagined life. The single follows the release of previous tracks ‘dream state’ and ‘back of my mind’ which serve as a perfect introduction to Martin’s re-vamped, hazy indie soul which blends retro charm with a fresh perspective.
 
“’aching for everyone’ is about existential, insatiable yearning; a sort of grief for what you’ll never experience again or at all,” Martin says. “I wrote this when I was in LA about to play my first headline show in US, which was obviously a big milestone, but it’s funny how even in those peak life moments there’s a tinge of yearning. I was missing my friends from back home and wishing my family or my nan would’ve been alive to see where I got to go with my music. There’s this ever-present weight to life, especially as you get older.”  

The new album signals a bold new chapter in Brown’s creative rebirth following his departure from the major label world. Once again, Martin returns to working with childhood best friends and longtime collaborator, Matt Zara (Teddy Swims, Niall Horan, Oliva Dean, Lola Young). Staying true to their partnership, the pair work together with instinct, chemistry and freedom, which is little more than “hanging out, playing music and whatever happens, happens.”
 
At its core, life & death etc is inspired by music made by people, for people. The songs are intended not simply to impress, but to resonate. “Its service orientated,” Martin says. “I want to make music that serves people in some way.” That emotional honesty pulses through every corner of the record.
 
The new music sees Martin expand on his signature indie-soul palette into richer and stronger territory, with janky yet tender soundscapes, subtle psych textures and cracked-out country, richly influenced by 60s and 70s classics.
 
Lyrically, the music lands somewhere between cosmic, hyper existential territory and the everyday mundane. The place where sad meets silly – the person cracking jokes at a funeral. “It feels innately human to seamlessly straddle the line between grief and joy”.
 
Along with the announcement of life & death etc, Martin will embark on a UK, Ireland & EU tour this autumn. Launching in Utrecht on November 11^th and culminating in a homecoming show at London’s Scala on December 2nd. Tickets on sale now here.

life & death etc Tracklist:
it’s all gonna be fine !
back of my mind
nonetheless
highest high
aching for everyone
nothing really dies
dream state
still my baby
fully alive
drugs
can i love you now ?
unlearning everything

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