Daily Eastern News, 2nd / 3rd April 2001
An Eastern Success Story
The inspiration for one Eastern graduate to
become a musician
stemmed from her experiences early in life.
Charlotte Martin, a 1998 graduate and native Charleston
resident, who spoke to audience members and gave a musical
performance Monday in the alumni lounge of the Martin Luther
King Jr. University Union, said she wanted to become a musician
because of own natural abilities.
“I did it when I was little because I was good at it,”
she said.
Martin kept on playing, singing and composing
music as she
got older, and her efforts recently earned her a multi-album
deal with RCA records.
Martin has lived in Los Angeles for a year and a half.
She said New York and Los Angeles are the places
to go to jump
start a music career, and Los Angeles seemed, to her, the least
scary of the two.
Unlike how most people break into the music business,
Martin never made a demo tape. She said two well-placed
performances was all it took for her to get the ball rolling
for her in the business.
Martin’s musical performance consisted of four songs, one
of which proclaimed in the chorus, “I’m normal. Please date
me.”
She said she writes about simple things. She laughed as
she told the group she gets rejected a lot, and that rejection
feeds into her lyrics.
Her musical performance drifted from sad and serious to
light and humorous, giving variety to the listeners.
During a question and answer session following her
performance, Martin was asked why she attempted to make a
career out of music.
“There’s nothing else I can do,” she said.
Martin said she only will get 17 cents for every CD sold.
Plus, she has to pay back the $1.5 million dollars RCA is
giving her to get started. She joked that her manager refers to
her as his “meal ticket” and has begun to put the letters FVH
in e-mails to her, standing for future vacation home.
Besides making her own CDs, Martin also plans on being a
song writer.
In June, Martin will go on the road in an RV “with five
smelly men” for a House of Blues tour.
As for the distant future, Martin said she hopes to have a
10 year music career. She said she would be happy if she sold
enough records that her label doesn’t drop her and so she can
pay her bills.
She said the question of what music does for her was a
tough question. She quoted her producer when she said, “Music
is the soundtrack for life.”
She also said, “It associates you with certain parts of
your life.”