Craig Martinson and the Heartbeats

Martinson spent four years, his entire mid-20s, in a house north of Boston. He rarely left. He played a half-dozen shows that left him completely unsatisfied. More than once he recorded an entire album, listened to it, destroyed the files, quit music and then started all over again.
The impetus for his four-year hibernation came when Martinson broke up with his girlfriend and spent a summer contemplating life or death while holed up in a friend’s garage in suburban Massachusetts. He decided he could either die or write songs. Out of the pits of despair came the music that forms his album, Heartbeat, a life-affirming ascent out of his own personal hell.
The influences are clear---the kid has spent his time wisely, drawing from the 60s chamber pop of the Beach Boys, the guile of the Kinks and the energy of the Stones. With only a smattering of songs unofficially released on the internet, record labels have already expressed interest.
Martinson’s record is being brought to life by a live band that features bassist Andy Doherty and guitarist David Tanklefsky (of longtime Boston-based band Grimis who have also been sought after sidemen in bands like Quiet Life, Oceanographer, Aunt Martha, and Emil & Friends), drummer Alex Baron (Ursula Starship, Post Panda) and keyboardist Nicholas Thomas-Low (Alex Winston, Alexa Rae Joel).