When Martha sat down to write one of their trademark bruised-heart anthems for their next album, they wanted to think of a scene that’d illustrate their tale of “someone,” as drummer Nathan Stephens-Griffin puts it, “who’s going completely off the rails through heartbreak and has just gone off and is really losing themself and making enemies.” The solution? In the song’s second verse, the protagonist, drunk and “coping with the blues,” causes a scene at a wedding, knocking over an elderly woman after moshing to Huey Lewis and the News.
That song, which ended up serving as the title track to Martha’s thrilling third album, Love Keeps Kicking, is just one example of the type of quirky, endearingly specific songs that have made the Northern England band — comprising Stephens-Griffin, his sister, bassist Naomi Griffin, and guitarists Daniel Ellis and JC Cairns — one of the most singular voices in indie punk.
“The stuff we’re into is always idiosyncratic,” says Stephens-Griffin. “Even though I would love to think that we could write…what’s he called? Ginger lad?”
“Ed Sheeran? How do you not know that?” responds Naomi.
