Mae Martin has spoken to NME about their upcoming debut album ‘I’m A TV’, being inspired by love of Elliott Smith, and what to expect from new Netflix series Wayward.
The brains behind Netflix hit Feel Good, winner of Taskmaster’s 15th season, and acclaimed stand-up, Martin recently announced their debut album ‘I’m A TV’ – sharing the intimate ‘Good Dream’ and the dreamier ‘Stowaway’ as singles last month.
“Music feels like a fun thing to do right now,” they told NME. “With stand-up, you have to be really clear about the point you’re making, and there’s something so liberating about being able to write in a more metaphorical, lyrical way. Things are not that clear in life, and it’s great to write in a more nebulous way and use poetry to say things that can only be said in that way.”
Martin’s musical talent might surprise those who are more acquainted with their stand-up, but music has been a life-long hobby for the Canadian. From singing Elliott Smith covers in their bedroom to casually jamming with friends, music even became an unexpected lifeline when filming Feel Good with co-star Charlotte Ritchie during the pandemic.
“We were isolated when we were filming, so we really only saw each other every night after filming,” Martin explained. “All we really had was our instruments; she played the piano, I played the guitar, and we had such earnest fun playing Half Moon Run and Paul Simon.”
After becoming an established name in London’s comedy circuit, Martin made the decision to move to LA around 2023. Aided with a guitar, Martin began to write songs for the first time – and though they claim in our conversation that the songs are “fine”, the album is something that Martin was “proud of.
“The other people who put their hard work into the album, I wanted them to be acknowledged and I wanted to go on tour, so it felt like the right thing to do,” they admit. Check out our full interview below.
NME: Hello Mae Martin. This album coincides with your move to LA. How did you start writing it?
Mae Martin: “From the outside it seems like such a rogue pivot, but I’ve always written music since I was a teenager; it’s always been a private emo hobby in my bedroom playing Elliott Smith covers. I was moving to LA, had time for the first time in years to be by myself, and hadn’t really found my social niche in LA yet – which was nice, because it meant I got to be reflective.
“Unlike London, where all my friends were comedians, in LA, I weirdly found a lot of my friends were musicians from Canada who I hadn’t seen in years. My friend Jason [of The Darcys] – who I went to summer camp with when I was 13 – was in town, so it came together. Also, I’d just had top surgery before I moved to LA and I was super happy, so maybe it gave me the confidence to be more earnest and not have to look for a punchline. I felt more embodied than I had for a while. That maybe helped me be braver about sharing music with people.”
How did working with The Darcys shape the record?
“What was great was working with those guys and having a pre-existing relationship with them. When you’re making a TV show, there are so many voices to contend with – the network, the producers. There’s something really immediate and intimate with music. I really liked that level of control and working with people I felt super comfortable around, who were so supportive and empowered me to have opinions about it.
“I think that actually started with me doing the soundtrack to Feel Good; the composer Charles Watson, who’s part of Slow Club and who’s a friend of mine, I loved what he did. Because I knew him, I got to sit in the studio a lot. He was so kind to me and allowed me to have opinions about the music even when I didn’t necessarily know the terminology, because it is super new for me.
“I just need to stress – I’m not trying to do a self-deprecating bit, I genuinely am like: these [songs] are fine [laughs]! Like, I hope people like them, that it feels like an authentic extension of my work and not like I’m trying to be a rock star. I hope that people who like my comedy or TV feel like they’re seeing another side of me that’s more vulnerable and that they can relate to.”
Can you remember the first song you ever wrote?
“Of course! When I was 11, I had a band called Divided with my friend Stephanie, and we wrote a song called ‘Two Seconds Too Late’. It was so dark, and it was about a death by suicide by drowning. It was like… ‘Two seconds too late left to the ocean \ Two seconds too late left to the waves \ Two seconds too late, no one can find me \ Two seconds too late in this watery grave’. Like, what the hell?
“But then there’s also a song on the album called ‘Good Dream’, and I wrote that chorus when I was 16, so that’s been an earworm in my head for a long time. The chorus is: ‘I took it all off like a bad dream’. I think I was probably in love with someone, and even then I thought a lot about the way people leave a mark on you and the risk you take when you love somebody. I’ve always been interested in the idea of: who would we be if we’d never met another person?”
It must have felt really nice to get that out of your system and put it into an actual song.
“Oh my god, yes, completely. It makes me excited to do another album because then it’s a blank slate. I felt that way with the second season of Feel Good, because I had thought about season one for so long and it was so personal. We wrote it for years, and then we had about a third of the time to write the second season. There’s something about ripping the bandaid off and going in: not knowing where we wanted these characters to end up that was really liberating. So I wonder if this second album will be like that.”
You’ll be playing live as well – is this your first time touring?
“Yeah, it’s a totally new skill set. I do a monthly show [at Largo] in LA where I do have a musical guest, and I often do a duet with them on an Elliot Smith cover because that venue has a deep connection to him (Elliot Smith used to play at that venue and his piano is there). So I started doing that, but other than that, I haven’t really played music live. I’m excited! I wanna tell some stories as well – I just have to make sure I reign it in and I don’t start doing full stand-up.”
How do you think performing music will differ from what you do as a stand-up comedian?
“I think it is a different energetic exchange that I’m excited to explore. I did notice at those monthly Largo shows that every time the musical guest would go out, it was like you could hear a pin drop. Music is like train tracks right into people’s emotions. I’m excited to have that experience or try to capture that energy, because with stand-up, you really do have to fill every silence.”
From watching your stand-up and your performance on Taskmaster, you come across as a very logical person. How does it feel to access a different kind of Mae in music?
“That’s a great question. I hadn’t thought about that, but maybe that’s part of why I’m really enjoying it right now – it gets me out of my head. I feel the same way about improv, you can’t try to be cool or smart, it’s just silliness, and you’re channelling some energetic wave.
“I’ve also always had friends that I’ve jammed with, and there’s no better feeling than a bunch of friends finding some… everything I say sounds so embarrassing to me, but I was going to say finding a groove. But that’s what I mean.”
We also wanted to ask about Wayward, your upcoming Netflix show with Toni Colette which you were also filming around the time of writing ‘I’m A TV’. You spent six months filming in Toronto: when was the last time you spent a lengthy period of time in Canada?
“I think that was the longest I’ve been there in an extended chunk since I was 20, it was really nice and grounding. Every street corner has a thousand memories attached to it, and I’m a very nostalgic person too.”
Netflix released the first clip quite recently. Could you tell us anything about what to expect from Wayward?
“Yeah, we’re still in post-production finishing the edit, and I’m just so excited. It’s very strange and creepy and hopefully funny and scary.
“When I was a teenager, my best friend got sent to one of those troubled teen institutes in the States and was gone for a long time. When she came back, she had these stories about the school that sounded so crazy and sort of theatrical. That school was later shut down for abuse and negligence. I’ve always been interested in the troubled teen industry, which is a billion dollar industry and very unregulated and complex. So that was the foundation for this story. It has evolved into this genre thriller that is pretty wild and crazy, but it’s something again, very different for me. I dyed my hair darker so people would take me seriously as an actor.”
And finally, what do you hope people take away from ‘I’m A TV’?
“I just hope even if one person plays it on a road trip and feels like they’re in a movie, then I’ll be thrilled. I just hope that people have favourite songs. All the music I love, I’m just projecting my own life into it as I listen to it and making it about me. So I hope people make it about themselves.”
‘I’m A TV’ will be released on February 27. Visit here to pre-order and pre-save the record. Martin will also be heading out on tour at the end of the month through March. Visit here for tickets and more information, and check below for a full list of new tour dates.
Mae Martin’s ‘I’m A TV’ tour dates are:
FEBRUARY
26 – Los Angeles, CA: The Regent Theater
MARCH
1 – Toronto, ON: The Danforth Music Hall
4 – New York, NY: Gramercy Theatre
9 – London, UK: O2 Forum Kentish Town