Speaker 2 (00:00.44)
Hi, I'm Maria, host of the My Local Marketer podcast. In this episode, I'm speaking with Martin Butler, who alongside his day job at the Royal Box Charity is an avid singer. In this episode, we discuss how Martin finds time for his passion and his advice for developing your passion alongside other responsibilities. Please do share this episode with someone who you think may be interested. Now, without further ado, let's jump in. Hello, Martin, and welcome to the My Local Marketer podcast. How are you?

Good morning and thank you very much for inviting me.

you're very welcome. Well, obviously we've worked together a lot recently on the video, which we'll mention soon. But for our listeners who don't know you, could you please just introduce yourself?

Hi there, my name is Martin Butler. I work for the Royal Barks charity at the Royal Barks Hospital in Reading and I'm the Community and Events Fundraising Manager.

met through the music video, which like I said, we'll discuss in a few minutes, but because of the music video that shows that you are a singer, aren't you? So you do singing in your spare time.

Speaker 1 (01:02.06)
I sing a lot, whether it's in a choir or as a soloist, yeah, I like my singing.

you've been based in Reading for, you've been based in Reading for many many years.

haven't you? I've lived in Reading all my life, apart from a short spell where when I first got married I moved to Wokingham but I soon came back to Reading again. So yeah, Reading all my life.

It's a lot of million miles away.

Speaker 2 (01:25.211)
what do you like about reading that? love asking people this question.

Reading is Reading and if you don't come from Reading you don't get it. It's a unique place with its own style of what it does. Reading is Reading. There's lots to do in Reading as well whether it's music, whether it's pleasure. You know we're lucky we've got the river that goes through and we might not be a seaside town but you know we've got great things in the town that offers people things to see and visit.

There is so much to do, I think the trick with reading though is you've got to go looking for it. Once you start getting into the different groups and finding people, it's amazing, but you've got to actually put the effort in to go and look.

for it. Not only the groups, even in your own time you can look around them. It's such a big town, there's people who say, I know Caversham but don't venture anywhere else, or yeah, no Talas, but don't go anywhere else. There's loads of places in Reading's and on the outskirts as well, even historical, there's lots of historical things within Reading as well. It's a great place to be and I won't be anywhere else.

Let's get into your singing then, because obviously you're here to discuss your singing. Like we said before, you work for Royal Barks and you have a family, So first question for you, how do you find time for your singing?

Speaker 1 (02:46.83)
I think in life you have to have an even balance between work, home and hobbies. My hobby is music. I guess I'm probably lucky that my family are now grown-up family, so looking back at my musical history let's say, I started off as a choir boy at Christchurch which is at the top of Kendrick Road.

and I remained in the choir even from man to boy and joined the tenor section and right up until after I got married once you start having a family that's where it then starts affecting what you can do in and around your work and family. So for me I got married that's when I moved away to Wokingham and that's when I left the choir because I had a growing family. My work was I was a retail manager

I managed Woolworths in Reading and Woolworths was one of the very first shops, guess the pioneer, of Sunday Trading. Now Sunday Trading meant as a manager I had to work, which meant I couldn't then go to church and be in the choir because it was a working day for me and that was all new in the retail world. So then I had my children and my wife worked evenings.

I worked day time so we worked opposite each other so we had a balanced life as a family and work but back in those days you know money was always tight and you couldn't always afford a babysitter so I didn't sing for many years I didn't sing and it wasn't until my children were old enough to be at home on their own in the evenings and all grown up that I then

went back and started singing again and that was probably about 12 to 15 years ago I started singing again so I had a break from singing. So it's now that I have that time in my life that I can balance it easier between family life and work which gives me some time and that doesn't only mean like singing choirs and singing in concerts in Reading

Speaker 1 (05:11.574)
I have been abroad with some of these choirs, I've been to festivals singing with other choirs, so I get the opportunity to do different things, but it always has to balance in with both work and home.

I think that's a nice lesson because sometimes we go through seasons. So sometimes in life when works are focused or families are focused, you have to pull back on other things. And then other times in life, you can focus more on your hobbies.

Yeah definitely and you know times are difficult at the moment but for your own well-being we talk a lot about well-being these days and you can get so tied up with work and home and the stresses of things that are going on you need that release from that even if it's you know just a couple of hours one evening a week to go to choir and music is good it's good for your heart.

it's good for your soul. So do something that can get something out of it.

What kind of singing would you say you are in? What genre of singing? It's hard to place you. I know I've worked with you. It's not pop. It's not folk. It's more poppy, I think.

Speaker 1 (06:24.312)
So it is on the pop side and I do work with a record company, MCS Records, who I'm signed with and I have done some covers albums and if you're looking at the sort of covers I do they are very poppy, very traditional, know bit of Kylie, bit of Dusty Springfield, that type of music. But I now record solo music and it's music which I write and I'm actually classed as

country singer. Because the MCS records, they are based more on artists which are country. But I would say I'm probably a bit different to most of their artists in that, although I'm classed as country, it's the music which is put to my words, which makes it very country-fied. But I write in a different style than most, I would say.

Yeah, I'd say you're more pop, but if you're listening to this, I'll put a link to Martin's video on the landing page, go and decide for yourself. But whatever it is, it's definitely uplifting.

Yeah, I know which video you're talking about and that is The Robin. That was one of the very first songs I wrote about 18 months ago and Maria helped me do the video for that which is great so do take a look at that. A lot of people say it's a real earworm, it just gets in your head and you can't get it out of your head. Nothing to do with Kylie getting it out of my head. So for me, I write music.

and I can go through moments where I can't think of anything to write. I've just had a spell of about three to four months where I haven't written a single song. Then two weeks ago I wrote two songs in one evening and it's just as you think of things, you think of subjects and you think how you can develop that into a song. So not only thinking of

Speaker 1 (08:28.36)
I start with lyrics and once I get lyrics I then think of how does that sound musically and then I meet with Henry who is the music director and executive writers of MCS Records and he comes up with me with a backing track so we'll have a teams meeting and he'll know what I'm thinking

with la la la la la la la la la la how the tune goes what the words are and then he'll play some ideas and I'll go yeah I don't like that no I don't like that yeah I like that and then from there that's where he builds and that's where he's great with the music that he writes he can just pick out what would work so we did one song not long ago about three months ago which he said it needs something and I said I think it needs pan pipe

So when I say I write very different type songs, I do write them strangely. They don't always rhyme. I write a little bit out of the box.

I always enjoy hearing about people's processes because everyone approaches something in different ways and I think you've got to find whatever process works best for you. It's fine to know about other people's processes, but you have to try different things and find out what works best for you and different things may work at different times.

So I am new to music writing and in my mind I always thought that I'd need to hear a tune before I could write any lyrics to it. But actually I do the reverse of that now and it's definitely the lyrics come first, then how I think the tune will go and then we'll build the track from that.

Speaker 2 (10:14.668)
Now you mentioned the Robin video before that we did together. I believe that was your first music video experience. So how did you find it?

I enjoyed the process because I didn't quite know how the process would go. But I liked the fact that together we worked on a storyline of the premise of how that would look. So it worked from the initial idea and piecing everything together to be the end product. And it was an enjoyable process because

it had an end product. You could always think, well it could be this or it could be that. But by having the storyline to follow, we knew what we needed to achieve and the end goal. And when you watch the video, hopefully you'll enjoy it.

We knew exactly what we doing, we went and we did it. It was clean, it was quick.

So when you watch it you'll see it's a Christmas video and we obviously recorded it before Christmas. So yeah Christmas tree up in my house, was it August? I think we did it. And then we had to wait a while because we needed the leaves to be off the trees before we could do the end bit otherwise the context would be wrong if we'd videoed the whole thing in the middle of summer. The outdoor scenes as well.

Speaker 1 (11:43.372)
Yeah, it was a long process by the fact the type of video it is. However, I say it's Christmas. It's getting just as much traction now as it did at Christmas. Because it's not like an over-the-top Christmas song. And when you listen to it, you'll hear that the Robin is around all year round. And we're just coming into spring. And the Robin will soon be out there singing. So...

doesn't matter what time of year the Robin will always be there. So for that reason the Robin is the first of my songs which on all the download sites that's what drives people to my music.

So you've got a lot of music experience now. What have been your most special moments, say?

I think every moment can be special. Obviously I'm in choirs. I'm in three choirs actually. One is called High Voltage, another one called Sing For Fun and the other one is Reading Male Voice Choir. And we all sing, all three choirs, is different type of music. So what's special to me is I'm not just stuck in one type of genre. All three choirs sing all three different types of music.

and I can adapt to whatever. We all do, we do concerts with all three of them. So each concert is a special event really. Quite new to me is singing as a soloist. So last year I was lucky enough to get to the final of Let's Sing Reading, where for the first time ever I sang as a soloist on the Hexagon stage. So that was a special event.

Speaker 1 (13:30.798)
And then actually the night after I sang at a Razor Roof event at Purple Turtle. I've been to Purple Turtle, I've never sung at Purple Turtle. So when you look at what's special, that was a special two nights for me that two places you can go to in Reading and watch people perform were two places that I actually performed one night after the other.

Like many of our listeners, I've been to Hexagon and Purple Turtle. What was it like to be on the other side, to be on the stage singing?

So I've been on the Hexagon stage before because I've been a winner of Let's Sing Reading before as a choir. That is completely different. You're there as a group of you and you're embracing what you're doing as a group. To suddenly to be introduced to come on stage and you've got to walk across that stage on your own and look out to the audience. It's...

quite scary and then suddenly the music starts and a lot goes through your mind and you think do I know these words? Can I remember these words? And they weren't my own songs. I was singing Jar of Hearts by Christina Perry which I know the song Inside Out and thankfully I got through alright.

Anticipation is always worse, so you've really got to try and find a way to push through the anticipation and then it's so much worth it once you get to the other side.

Speaker 1 (15:01.774)
Absolutely. And yeah, it is different, quiet, soloist. Yeah.

So what other venues are there to hear people singing and writing, would you say the best ones? You've mentioned Purple Turtle. Any others?

What I would say is, yeah you've got your Hexagons, you've got your Purple Turtle, another great venue if you ever see advertised at concert there would be the University Great Hall on London Road. But what I would say to people is, it's not necessarily about the venue, I think it's about the performers that you want to see. I can give an example, so you're probably all aware of What's On Reading,

They're great, they say what's coming up in the area and it could be some church anywhere in Reading or it could be a hall somewhere but you'll see these great choirs and great musical events that go on in Reading and it's very much would say underground. People that want to go to those sort of concerts will seek out those sort of concerts and we do have a great diversity of

music within Reading and certainly in the choir so there's male choirs, female choirs, mixed voice choirs. There's just so much and I would just say seek out what's going on and what's on Reading is the best place to find that because unfortunately you don't see so much in the newspapers anymore. You do often see things on social media i.e Facebook etc where this choir is performing here, there and there.

Speaker 1 (16:42.86)
there there and certainly I know from Reading Male Voice Choir always advertising their concerts and they do one a month somewhere in the Berkshire area. Don't be refined to just Reading because outside of Reading you know you've got your Wokinghams and your Bracknells and places like that. South Hill Park Centre over in Bracknell is another great place, quite a smallish theatre but they put musicals on.

from local theatre groups and things like that. So yeah, be prepared to travel a little bit out of Reading.

some wonderful advice there, Martin. Thank you. What would you like to leave our listeners with?

I would say never say never. If you put your mind to something it's always possible. So if you've got a burning desire to write music, record music, there are options out there. There are... you can buy gift days where you can have a day in the studio recording a track. Just open your mind to... I can do that because

You'll feel better.

Speaker 2 (17:55.618)
Thank you so much, Martin. I've thoroughly enjoyed our conversation.

Thank you very much.