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BiTS INTERVIEW: Eddie Martin

According to The Times newspaper, Eddie Martin is ‘among the UK’s foremost blues
musicans’. Touring 35 countries with 15 acclaimed original albums and a string of National
and International Awards and Nominations (including Winner, Best Solo Artist category in
2018 European Blues Awards) he has become known as “The Ambassador of British Blues”.

Eddie’s new album “The Birdcage Sessions” has just been released. Ian McKenzie spoke to
him on the telephone.

BiTS: Eddie, first of all, tell me how you’ve been affected by COVID, first of all. Has it really
damaged your business?

EM: Yes, of course. Like all musicians who
rely on gigging for a large part of their

income, it’s been totally taken away for nearly
18 months and with gigs going, it means
you’ve got less opportunity to sell your
merchandise and sell your CDs. Face to face
guitar lessons have gone out the window.
Currently, they’ve picked up a bit by Zoom
lessons. If I hadn’t qualified for the

government grant, it would have been
absolutely dire. I’ve been a professional
musician since 1997, semi-pro for ten years
before then, and this was my livelihood, so it
was quite a shock.

BiTS: Are things gradually starting to creep

back?

EM: Because the rules keep changing, you get
used to the idea that you’re going to be
resuming the work that you had in the diary
and then as it gets closer, the rules change and
it gets put back another month and gigs get

cancelled, so it’s not really approaching
normality at all. We can’t really say that that’s
going to be happening for the foreseeable
future because with this new upsurge in the virus and the Delta Plus waiting in the wings later on
in the year, I’m pretty pessimistic, to be honest. Even if the indoor gigs happened again, it doesn’t

fill me with a sense of security, the idea of doing gigs indoors with lots of people having drinks,
getting drunk and being in a confined space with people with variants going on. I’m pretty
pessimistic.

BiTS: I don’t blame you for being pessimistic at all. It’s been pretty awful for anybody that’s been a
professional musician. I take it that you don’t have any other source of income at all?

EM: Well, I’m a professional musician and you develop income streams, so teaching, gigging,