County: Galway

Decades Active: 1990s, 2000s

About Martin Finke

Martin Finke is a writer of critically acclaimed, sensitive, poetic songs following in the indie folk tradition of the likes of Will Oldham. Although he was born in Germany, he considers himself Irish having grown up in Connemara since the age of four and lyrics about his 'native' Conemara features heavily in his songs. Martin Finke is a fully assimilated non-national with an Irish accent who knows the Portuguese for “go mad altogether” and the German for “schadenfreude”. Martin has moved his base around over the years doing stints in Dublin, London, Boston and San Francisco.

In Spain in 1995 Martin began to write songs about summers and winters in Clifden, where he had grown up listening to Van Morrison, My Bloody Valentine and The Wedding Present. Sometimes the songs were verse-chorus-verse, sometimes verse-verse-verse. You heard Mark Eitzel, John Martyn or Will Oldham, or you heard the rumble of a disco in Letterfrack. Connemara stayed in Martin’s songs after he left the burly west coast to rent a room in Boston. He bought a used four-track and started recording and playing shows furiously.

Between 2000 and 2002 Finke released four albums on the independent label Mango Music. After that he released 2 albums on Parallel Music in 2005 and 2009.

Since his appearance on the first series of RTE’s “Other Voices” Martin has done stints in Dublin and London, and San Francisco, where he recorded his final album Make Daylight, released in 2009.

Video

Martin Finke - Other Men (Other Voices)