Australian singer/songwriter Martine Locke has never worked a 9 to 5 job. She has never worn a skirt to work. She has never had straight hair. She has never played the tuba.
She has had only one dream her entire life. To play music.
Martine spent the first part of her life on the run from the police. Her father, wanted by the Sydney police, became the living, breathing embodiment of Australian convict history when he gathered up his family and evaded jail time by hiding in the Australian outback. Some would say that it was this formative experience that prepared Martine for the life of an itinerant musician. Traveling the world in search of stories and tales to tell, expressing them through her songs and indeed through her stories. Music, performance and creativity is all Martine has ever known and she passionately lives, breathes and tackles all of life’s concerns through the heart of a creative soul.
Self-releasing 6 solo CDs (Fly, On The Verge, Undone, LIVE, Live At The Irving and Deconstructed) and 4 CDs with her Australian duo, The Velvet Janes (Live, Opus No.3, Venus Calling & THE Ep), has shown Martine to be an astute and capable business woman in an industry that traditionally lacks integrity. Passionate about her independence, Martine has continued to book/manage/promote/produce and perform over every show she does. She has toured as opening artist for acts such as Ani DiFranco, The Cowboy Junkies, Tommy Emmanuel, Arlo Guthrie, and Australian favourites Weddings, Parties, Anything and The Waifs, and has managed to realize her desire to develop more house concerts all across the US & Australia.
In January 2013, Martine recorded and released her 6th independent cd, ‘Deconstructed’. She literally sat in a darkened recording studio for 10 hours and sang…taking it right back to where it started 20 years ago in her hometown of Adelaide, South Australia. The first recording she ever made started as a suggestion of a friend and ended up wtih 4 songs that were played on the radio that very same night and were the beginning of her 20 year career.
“If there’s anyone who knows a good story and how to express it, it’s Locke” Mike Bauman, Toledo Free Press, Toledo Ohio. 2011 sees them taking it out on the road, across the US and Australia, doing what they love.
Performing at festivals, schools and house concerts across the country, Locke moves from one side of the US to the other and proves that the independent spirit is alive, well and thriving in an economy that would otherwise seek to discourage them.
Martine Locke brings a rambunctious, spirited, dynamic performance each time she performs and as columnist Lucky Clark wisely wrote once ‘…she will aim for your heart, as well as your feet’
