I'm a TV is Mae Martin's self-described "earnest music album," and its forthright sincerity will doubtless come as a surprise for fans of the comedian. But, to hear Martin tell it, these folk songs aren't actually all that much of a departure from what they've always done.
"The music seems like an authentic extension of all of my work, just in a new medium," they say. "I think that I sound like myself, and that's important to me. I'm exploring the same themes that always interest me, with the same sort of lens."
Martin tells Exclaim! that they've "been writing music forever and playing and recording secretly at home," and moving to L.A. gave the Canadian-born comic opportunities to hang around with musicians (including fellow Toronto expats the Darcys), who encouraged them to take this private passion out in public. "If even one person listens to it on a road trip, feeling emo and cruising down a highway, then I'll be overjoyed," they say.
To mark the release of I'm a TV, Martin took the Exclaim! Questionnaire and told us all about musical imposter syndrome, the brilliance of Baroness von Sketch Show's Carlyn Taylor, and the Rob Thomas run-in that made real life feel like The Truman Show.
What are you up to?
At the moment I've weirdly dived into an unexpected era nobody asked for where I'm painting emotional woodland creatures in various situations. I find it very calming. But other than that, I'm in post-production for my new Netflix thriller series Wayward and so excited for people to see it, and of course getting ready to release my music album, I'm a TV, which feels like another unexpected era! Plus, I continue to love making my podcast Handsome Pod with Tig Notaro and Fortune Feimster.
What are your current fixations?
At the moment, I'm reading this book on intimacy — of course — by Osho, which I love and would recommend. I'm also rewatching '90s indie Tom Cruise movies while eating miso eggplant and dreaming of my next animal painting.
Why do you live where you do?
I asked myself this same question when the wildfires broke out in Los Angeles. But seeing the city's response to the fires and the community coming together answered my question for me. L.A. gets a bad rap for being vapid and shallow, but it's anything but.
What has been your most memorable or inspirational show and why?
Oh wow, I don't know where to start with inspirational shows I've seen. I saw Martha Wainwright play an intimate show at Hotel Cafe a few years ago; I went by myself and cried and felt like such a human being. I also am fuelled by nostalgia, so seeing Third Eye Blind play all the hits last year was huge. Bette Midler in Hello Dolly on Broadway was incredible.
In terms of shows I've played, my monthly show at Largo in Los Angeles, which is such an iconic venue. Those shows are consistently my favourites I've ever done. Surprise drop-in guests, an audience that's truly up for anything, freedom to experiment, and just the best backstage atmosphere of all time. I'm so lucky to get to play there.
What's been the greatest moment of your career so far?
One time, Rob Thomas from Matchbox 20 recognized me in an airport lounge and said he liked my show Feel Good, and I felt like I was in The Truman Show.
What's been the worst moment of your career so far?
There was a month at the Melbourne Comedy Festival when I was touring and had pneumonia the entire time, was going through a breakup, and had a coughing fit during a televised set. A few days later I cracked a rib. It became hilarious to me how near total collapse I was.
Which Canadian artist should be more famous?
Oh my god, where do I start? [Baroness von Sketch Show's] Carolyn Taylor is truly a visionary artist and performer who makes me laugh simply with a twitch of her eyebrow or the inflection of a word. Musically: Half Moon Run, Leif Vollebekk, Andy Shauf, Charlotte Cornfield, Bernice, the Darcys, Donovan Woods…
What was the first song you ever wrote?
Great question. When I was about 15 I wrote a song called "Took It Off," and I actually used the chorus of it in the single from my new album I'm a TV!
What do you think of when you think of Canada?
The first thing that came into my mind was the sound of Gord Downie's voice. Then I thought about Northern Ontario, the smell of diesel fuel on lakes in the hot sun... Now I'm thinking about wearing your winter boots to school and crunching through the salt on the sidewalk, then changing into your school shoes. Generally taking your shoes off indoors. Living away from Canada has definitely filled me with a yearning for it.
What's the meanest thing anyone has ever said about your art?
I think somebody described me as "smarmy" when I was a teenager just starting out. Also at the Edinburgh Fringe, a reviewer said I look like the bad guy in Toy Story, that kid Sid, so obviously I internalized that for my whole life.
What was the first album you ever bought with your own money?
I bought No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom on tape, and the first CD I bought was Now! 2.
What was your most memorable day job?
So many. I worked at a sketchy call centre that sold refilled printer cartridges to businesses. I got into a feud with a woman named Wanda who said I was a "rat" for talking to Rita, her other enemy, who worked on the floor below.
If you weren't in your current career path, what would you be doing instead?
I would want to work in rehabilitation and harm reduction for teens experiencing mental health problems and addiction.
How do you spoil yourself?
I like a Thai massage, and nights at home being a slug. And I have an addiction to buying jackets.
What's your best piece of songwriting advice for fellow musicians?
I still have such imposter syndrome about calling myself a musician, and am in no way the right person to give advice. I have so much to learn. It's like I'm learning a new language. But the songs I've written that I am most attached to are the ones where they flowed out of me and had something specific to say, or a specific feeling to capture.
Who would you want to play you in a biopic?
If they could really well-train a meerkat or a gopher, I think that's the kind of energy that would capture my essence.
If you won the lottery, what would you do with the money?
I would like to mount a production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and spend millions on casting my favourite people in it. I would play Rocky. But, realistically, I would probably just try to set up my family or donate a bunch or something or buy a million white T-shirts and pairs of jeans.
What has been your strangest celebrity encounter?
In one of my other day jobs, I worked as a charity fundraiser on the street, like those people you see with the binders who sign you up for monthly donations. One day, Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith walked by me and stopped to hear my pitch. Then Antonio shook my hand in his warm Antonio Banderas hands and I felt like I had been blessed by an angel.
Who would be your ideal dinner guest, living or dead, and what would you serve them?
These questions are so hard. I'm sweating. And electrified. I would like to have dinner with my grandfather, Tom Chatto, whom I never got to meet but was an actor in London with incredible bushy eyebrows. He would have some great stories and I think we'd have a laugh. I would serve him whiskey because he liked whiskey.
What is the greatest song of all time?
It's so subjective, so I can only say the greatest songs to me are "A Day in the Life" by the Beatles, "Bennie and the Jets" by Elton John, and "Time" by Pink Floyd. Or all of Dark Side of the Moon, really.