Brooks John Martin Lets the Waves In on "Ocean Breathes Salty"

There are some songs that seem to contain their own weather. "Ocean Breathes Salty" has always had that quality, even in its original form by Modest Mouse, but Brooks John Martin’s new interpretation slows the whole thing down and lets the atmosphere rise to the surface.

This is a melancholy, spacious piece of music that feels less like a conventional cover and more like someone has taken an existing photograph, changed the light and suddenly revealed something that was hiding in the background.

Martin came to the song through Mark Kozelek’s interpretation with Sun Kil Moon, an arrangement he has admired for years. But instead of simply reproducing it, however, he began listening to the guitar arpeggios differently. To Martin, they sounded like waves. From there, an entire visual world emerged: a beach, the sea, the strange solemnity of an ash spreading ceremony and the feeling of standing somewhere beautiful while contemplating the inevitability of loss.

It is an idea that makes perfect sense once the song begins.

The guitar has a gentle, cyclical quality, moving like water coming in and retreating again while Martin’s deep baritone gives the track a sense of gravity without weighing it down. He adds drums, bass and strings, expanding Kozelek’s spare blueprint into something warmer. There is still plenty of empty space, though, and that is crucial. Martin understands that a song about mortality does not need to shout its conclusions at you.

Then Lilly Hiatt arrives, and the whole thing changes again.

Lilly's voice brings a different emotional colour to the recording, providing exactly the female counterpoint Martin imagined when he first began thinking about his version. There is something wonderfully natural about the pairing. His voice has the depth and wear of someone narrating from a distance, while Hiatt brings a more immediate quality to the duet. Together, they make the song feel like a conversation, although perhaps one taking place between two people who know there are things neither of them can quite put into words.

That sense of space continues into the accompanying video, filmed on Oak Island in North Carolina. Martin and director Scotty Felix considered California before choosing North Carolina, partly because of the quieter setting and partly because of the dunes. It turns out to have been an inspired decision. The beach provides the perfect physical counterpart to the music.

There is something particularly appealing about the journey this song has taken. Modest Mouse wrote it. Kozelek heard something else inside it and reshaped it with Sun Kil Moon. Martin heard Kozelek’s guitar and imagined waves, then heard those waves as the soundtrack to a beachside farewell. By the time Lilly Hiatt joins him on the North Carolina shore, the song has travelled a considerable distance from where it began.

For an artist whose forthcoming War All The Time promises to move freely between Americana, orchestral music, roots rock and more imaginative musical territory, it is an intriguing introduction.

Brooks John Martin has taken somebody else's song, listened carefully to what it was already telling him, and then followed the sound of the waves.

About Brooks John Martin

Brooks John Martin is an American singer-songwriter whose music blends baroque Americana, roots rock and orchestral pop. Drawing inspiration from the Laurel Canyon sound of the 1970s, alongside classical composers such as Bach, Beethoven and Mozart, he creates richly arranged songs built around vivid storytelling, melodic detail and his expressive baritone.

A lifelong musician, Martin began piano at the age of eight and guitar at fourteen, developing an extensive understanding of music theory and composition. He writes and arranges the instrumental and orchestral parts for his recordings, bringing together acoustic guitars, pedal steel, strings and a distinctly cinematic sensibility.

Having released six albums under various names, including Toast, The Blue Danes and Frank Hansen, Martin experienced an unexpected resurgence following the success of his previous album under his own name, which accumulated more than 400,000 streams. A subsequent creative breakthrough resulted in two albums and around 50 songs.

His forthcoming album, War All The Time, is the first to emerge from this prolific period. Recorded at the legendary Catamount Recording Studios with producer and engineer Travis Huisman, it features two radically reimagined covers and collaborations with Nashville singer-songwriters Lilly Hiatt and Amy Speace.

Latest single ‘Ocean Breathes Salty’, featuring Hiatt, sees Martin bring his own distinctive perspective to the Modest Mouse classic.

Find out more on his Website