Meet Andrew Martinez | Singer/Songwriter/Co-Founder of Embrace The Escape

We had the good fortune of connecting with Andrew Martinez and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Andrew, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
I believe risk is comparable to gambling. It’s concept that revolves around the probability of a win/lose scenario. I’ve never been much of a gambler, but calculating and taking risk is an essential part of life and is something everyone experiences. In my humble opinion, the reward must be greater than the risk for it to even be considered, but I’ve learned from experience that taking risks requires a bit more than just calculating probability. Risk requires faith.

I’ve recently experienced taking a life changing risk, in that, I made a hard decision. In one hand, I had the safety and security of a great paying career with the comfortability to afford nice things. In the other, I had my passion, my reason for being, and the one reason I get out of bed everyday. I reached a point in my life where I could no longer hold onto both, my career and my music. I always knew I would face this “fork in the road”, but I never expected it to present itself so soon, and at such a comfortable time of my life. Ultimately, I chose what I felt was right, and followed my heart instead of listening to logic. I resigned from my cushy job and chose the road less traveled.

In hindsight, the logical choice would’ve been to keep my career and allow my love and passion for creating music to slowly become more of a hobby than my entire life force. It’s the easy choice. Realistically, most people have to give up on their dreams and face reality at some point in their lives, but creating music has just become a part of who I am. It’s not something I’m capable of giving up. Believe me, I’ve tried before.

In the time since my resignation, I’ve lost and/or sacrificed everything. My ex=girlfriend left me when finding a new job first began to prove more difficult than I had expected. I’ve had to sell off all of the nice and/or expensive things I had just to make rent or pay bills, and until very recently, I was facing the possibility of homelessness and hitting absolute rock bottom. Throughout the past year, I’ve struggled more than I ever imagined, both externally and internally, but in that time I held on to faith when probability was no longer in my favor.

I went from having it all, to having nothing left, all the while, the music I was creating with a good friend of mine was starting to soar. No matter how dark things got, I never stopped working on myself, and improving as musician and songwriter. Even though my entire life was falling apart, I had never been more proud of myself or happy with my accomplishments in my entire life. Creating music had become the only thing that kept me going and it was an experience I’d never truly had before.

Now, things are turning around and by the grace of god, I never had to experience being truly homeless and having absolutely nothing. I always maintained at least some shred of faith that everything would work out because in my mind “it just had to”. I’ve also learned that there’s a whole lot of truth to being “careful what you wish for” because I ultimately, while I got what I wanted and had a year off working to focus entirely on my music, the trade off was devastating.

After everything I’ve been through this past year, I regret nothing. I don’t mind suffering for my art, so long as I’m the only who has to suffer for it, but I still believe the reward will be greater than the risk and that my personal sacrifices weren’t for nothing. I’m looking forward to day that the reward is realized, and I can finally look back on this risk as the defining point of my life.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My art consists of mostly expressing myself and telling my story through song; in hopes that doing so will resonate with others who’ve had similar experiences, and to provide them with the same comfort I received from music during my darkest days. I feel a sense of responsibility to pay that forward. If it’s within my ability to do so, I’d say it’s actually more of an obligation. Although, it can be very difficult to expose myself so openly. It makes me feel so vulnerable, even uncomfortable to express such deeply personal thoughts and feelings, but I feel like that’s even more of a reason to do it. I’ve grown to instinctively express myself by writing songs. If I feel strongly about something, I have to write a song about it. That’s just the way I am. I could even be complacent with just writing music for the rest of my life that nobody ever hears, but I’ve decided that if there’s even the slightest chance that putting myself on display and sharing my music could help others, then I have to do it.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
To be perfectly honest, these are all things I’m hoping to find out for myself in the near future. I’ve spent the majority of my adult life alone, tucked away in an apartment, like a little hermit crab. As long as I can remember, I’ve been struggling, and fighting tooth and nail for every inch of my life. Whether it was battling anxiety and existentialism, or countless hours and sleepless nights working on music, I’m always at home. To be perfectly honest, I’ve always told myself I had to earn my life and worked myself relentlessly. Once day, I wouldn’t have to work so hard and I could go out and experience life and it would all be worth it. I’m almost embarrassed to say that I lived in Houston my entire life, and I’ve barely left home. I don’t really know any good bars, restaurants, places to hang out, or even fun things to do, but I know that those days are coming. In the mean time, I will continue to work on myself and my music. I know I can’t hide from the world forever. I just want to be ready when I step back into it.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Oh man, where to begin? I’ve had so much help along the way, and I’m not even sure I always deserved it, but I”m grateful for it all the same.

First, would have to be my older brother Jon-Vega. He’s the one who sent me on my journey into the world of music. It began with exposing me to music (Mainly hard rock and Heavy Metal) that I had never heard before and not just showing me cool songs, but explaining what about each song stood out to him. This was where I first began to learn how to analyze and interpret music from a composer’s perspective. As a singer/songwriter himself, he had already developed an ear for music and a had just a general knack for writing songs long before I ever even touched a guitar or wrote a single lyric. He was a natural talent at most things he attempted, and he’s who put a guitar in my hands when I was about 14-15. He introduced me to what would largely become who I am and what I live for. At a very early stage of my journey he said something to me that resonated. He said, “You can only get so far playing somebody else’s music”. This statement was what sparked my interest in writing because I’m the type of person who hates plateau-ing, so to speak. He gave me the wisdom I needed early on to avoid hitting a brick wall one day. While my journey may have started because I looked up to him and wanted be just like him, it grew into something more than I would ever imagine and for that I am eternally grateful. He gave me so much more than a passion, or hobby. He gave me something I never knew I would need. An emotional outlet. I’m honestly not sure I would be here today if I didn’t have the ability to channel all my thoughts, feelings and emotions into writing songs. The ability to turn pain, or trauma into something beautiful that I can actually begin to love is a super power I owe all to him. It’s not at all an exaggeration to say that he sorta saved my life before it needed saving by giving me the tools I would need to stay when all I wanted was to go.

Secondly, I had a mentor who helped me achieve my goal of starting a real career, and while I would eventually give up this path in favor of making music, it was a hugely positive impact on my life at the time. His name was Marcus, and he was just a manager I had when I worked at a retail store. This was a severely sensitive time in my life when so much was uncertain and all it would’ve taken was a slight nudge to fall back into a place of my life I had fought so hard to escape from. I don’t know what he saw in me, but for whatever reason, he chose not to give up on me and took me under his wing. Up until then, no one had ever really taken any interest, or put in any effort to make such a positive impact on my life. Nobody ever really cared. He had nothing to gain from mentoring me and helping me grow as both, a person and an employee, but I will never forget the time he told me “I will not let you fail{“. Those words have been burned into my heart because in a world full of so much pain and suffering, filled with people who only worry about themselves, I saw that there was genuinely good, kind-hearted people out there too. People who were capable of selflessness without any expectations in return. People who do the right thing because it’s the right thing, regardless of anything else. His help and mentorship led to the most prosperous time of my life thus far, but taught me so much more.

Finally, I’d have to give a little credit to the other musicians I’ve met along the way who actually took time to get to know me, work with me, and help me grow. I’ve faced a lot of rejection on my journey, and spent most of it alone, but my friend Darren found me in the darkest time of my life. A time when I didn’t want, or even know I needed to be found. He took the time to help me see music in a different way and helped me understand so much about myself I didn’t even know was there. He didn’t have to do anything for me. We barely even knew each other, but he saw something in me I didn’t see in myself and set me on a path towards growth, healing and happiness instead of a path of self destruction, pain and abuse. He not only showed me, that there was light at the end of the tunnel, but he helped me realize I was actually in a deep, dark tunnel and for that I’m grateful.

Along with Darren, I have to give credit to my friend Devin. Besides Darren, Devin has been the only other musician I have met thus far who has not only kept up with me, but put up with me. I can be extremely passionate when it comes to music and writing music and in past experiences, it drove people away. For the sake of an example, I text Devin damn near daily, and at all times of day or night and he has never once been upset about it. He always has a positive attitude about everything, and never treated me like a freak. He was also the missing link I needed to break through the barriers I had encountered writing music. When I met him, I was doing everything. I was recording guitars, bass, vocals, and even programming drums, but I could never get the drums exactly where I wanted them. Additionally, I have a horrible habit of overthinking when it comes to mixing. He was a solve for both of these issues. His drumming is exactly what I’d been searching for, and to be honest, some of my best work was due to his contributions on the drums. At this point, I can’t imagine anyone else providing drums for songs I write and on top of that, his ability to mix far surpasses that of my own. I generally know what I want or how I want it, but he knows to execute whereas I do not. Presently, we don’t even have to speak to much on it anymore. The majority of the time we’re already on same wavelength and it’s really great to have that kind of synchronicity. Outside of music, he keeps me grounded when I tend to overthink or get anxious, and I’m grateful for both his partnership and his insights. He’s a very accomplished drummer and I’m extremely proud of him, and beyond proud to work with him.

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