Meagre Martin

Meagre Martin put a polished spin on the chic sounds of shoegaze and dream pop. Singer Sarah Martin cut her teeth in Boston, before moving to Berlin in 2017. On the band’s latest single, 'Amerika', they ponder the values of American life in a tongue-in-cheek tone. “Praise the Lord in America / Protect your own in America / Work to the bone in America / Then we soldier on in America,” Martin sings over dreamy guitars and a warm, surfy groove on the chorus. “Amerika” arrives ahead of the album Gut Punch, out this Friday via Mansions & Millions.

On the track Meagre Martin offer: “Amerika is a song that expresses our experience living in the US, and outlines some of the reasons we now live in Berlin. We really wrestled with this song, trying to capture the correct feeling while also navigating the context of our debut album."

The project was founded in the summer of 2021 by the African-American musician and songwriter Sarah Martin (guitar, she/her), who was quickly joined by Federico ‘Freddy’ Corazzini (drums, he/him) and Max Hirtz-Wolf (bass, he/him).

All hailing from the United States, it was music that brought each of them to Berlin at some point or the other. “My boyfriend and I were priced out of New York," Sarah explains, Federico ended up in Germany after a stint of living in Spain as a musician, and Max returned to Berlin after his degree in Psychology and Music, having spent a year outside of the city volunteering in his late teens.

After meeting at Sebastian Maschat and Daniel Nentwig’s legendary Butterama studios in Neukölln where Freddy works and starting to share a rehearsal space, Max and Freddy, both with backgrounds in jazz, joined Sarah when a gig opportunity arose in early 2022. “I didn’t even know Max that well, but I knew he was the guy when he jammed and there were no instruments left except for a broken guitar that was completely out of tune – and he picked it and started to play something amazing with it," Freddy remembers, “he had this ability to blend in with whatever we played. That’s rare.” The show never happened – but more and more offers came in. And it quickly became certain that Meagre Martin would become a trio, a true band of three.

On Gut Punch, Meagre Martin create a sound inspired by shoegaze, 90’s indie, or 'faux country,' as the band calls it, and juxtaposes these beautifully light soundscapes with lyrics that belie the sweetness of the sound with their vulnerability and depth. Sonically evoking images of California deserts and Berlin basements, of long thoughtful conversations in the twilight, days turning into nights in the park and nights turning into day again at a studio, Meagre Martin have created eleven tracks – starting with the dreamy, ethereal ‘Intro’ and closing with the utterly different, yet equally vaporous ‘Outro’ – that beautifully flow into each other.

"We approached the album in a really old way of making music," Corazzini explains, "it felt like soul-searching as a band, the three of us together." Having had access to the legendary Butterrama studios in Berlin through Corazzini’s job as a studio engineer, the band had the chance to take their time to develop a unique sound that is equally contemporary and yet shimmers with a tinge of golden nostalgia. Recording almost everything live together and making use of analogue equipment and techniques that the studio offers, the trio created songs that feel remarkably lived-in, in the best way possible. It comes as no surprise that the young band (they only became a trio in February 2022 and immediately went to the studio the following summer) counts artists and bands such as Big Thief, Snail Mail, Cate Le Bon, and, of course, Fleetwood Mac and the mystique, as their inspiration.

With Gut Punch, Meagre Martin releases a remarkable debut that feels familiar like a good old friend and fresh at the same time. The lushness of the sound builds the ideal foundation for the stories Sarah Martin, Federico Corazzini, and Max Hirtz-Wolf want to tell. Bridging indie sentimentalities and contemporary topics, Gut Punch is a record that manages to be both of its time and timeless, and introduces Meagre Martin as one of the most thoughtful, humane, and exciting bands of the contemporary indie sphere.