 Well the fun they have, I'll just do the best I can, but I can't find a way to break. That is class, that is Oshine and his song RK. Stay tuned tomorrow at 9 till noon show and remember to help us tell you'll hear Oshine perform that live in studio. First of all the very best. If we get time between 9 and 10 we'll play you the Midnight Preachers who will be here on Thursday and Boy M5 who will be performing live on Wednesday. But we welcome to our next guest and he's an independent singer-songwriter from Germany. For the past couple of years he's been enjoying an increasing amount of airplay on both Irish and UK radio stations and he's been featured with a good friend Fetna O'Brainen on RT and he's been playing his music on his Let Dead shows. And his latest single is called Down to the Sea where he's worked with the Ilham Pipe, Blacky O'Connell from Ennis. I declare one of the driving forces behind the Ennis Tradfest and a true Rory Gallher on the pipes as was written here in front of me. Good evening. Nice to see you and welcome. You're a travelling troubadour, am I right in saying? Yeah, absolutely. So for people that don't know you, you travel everywhere? Well I travel everywhere my car would take me. But for the past couple of years it's mostly been Germany, the Benelux and Denmark, Sweden and of course the UK and Scotland and Ireland now for the first time with the car since last year. Is this your first time in Ireland? No, no, no. I have a long lasting love affair with this country and I've been coming here for more than 26 years. Excellent. What part of Germany are you from? I am from the town called Essen which is in the Ruhr area which is a big industrial area in the west. It's about on our north of Cologne and about on our east from the Dutch border but towns like Essen, Dortmund, you know the football Dortmund, people know that. Are you doing that up near Düsseldorf? Neimegen. Neimegen is about to the northeast about 100 kilometres. Düsseldorf, Born and Cologne. Yeah, that's kind of Düsseldorf, Born and Cologne and then kind of northeast of that. I worked there, I worked in Born, I worked in Cologne. Right. Many years ago, 1979. And then I moved up into the north up into this little island off the coast called Borkum. Right. I stayed there myself. I loved it, absolutely loved it. Yeah, well that's a lovely part of the country. I stayed there for six months and myself and my wife way back 40 years ago loved it. Wow. She should have stayed probably. But anyway, your music, you do a lot of songwriting yourself, it's always original songs. It's all original songs, yes. I usually have a cover on the record if it has been travelling with me and if it is meaningful to me. Which I mean a lot of songs are meaningful to me but not all of them I can play. I understand. Who's your musical influence? Oh, wow. A lot of the American songwriters of course grew up with Jackson Brown, James Taylor, but a lot of Tom Petty probably my biggest influence on my songwriting. Steve Earl would have changed my life with his guitar town album in 1986. Yeah. We're going to go into a song right away. I want to talk more about your travelling and your journey and where you hope to be and where you'd like to be. The first song you're going to do is Martin. It's a song called Out of this Town. And this is in reference to you. In reference, it is basically a song about, about, what is it about? I don't really, it's about... Alright. I can't think about what it's about. I'll tell you what to do. I'll just play it and I'll tell you afterwards. We'll work it over ourselves. Thank you very much indeed. If people are looking to, you're fairly active on the social media aren't you? Yeah. You're on Facebook or Twitter? Well Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, yes that's the... That's the three I do. If people want to get in touch with you and Sonda, what? Martin Pretorius Music is it? Martin Pretorius Music for most of them, yes. On Facebook, on Instagram. Twitter wouldn't allow me all those letters. So it's Marty Pretorius from Twitter. They wouldn't allow you to know. No, I don't know if they do know, but when I signed up about 11, 12 years ago. Ah, right. There was a limit to the amount of characters. It's probably different now, but you're used to that now, aren't you? I will, yeah. Tell me this now, you're playing in Cork this weekend. I was playing in Cork last weekend. Last weekend? Yes. I was doing a show at a fellow songwriter's house. He built this beautiful little venue right beside his house, and it sees about 35 people. Excellent. And it has a little stage and a little PA, and it's very tiny and very intimate, and it's absolutely... We were talking about that with our last guest who's on Tanya. Right. And she was saying that that's the thing that's only increasing at the moment, these intimate gigs. Yeah. And they're good for the audience, but they're equally as good for the artist because you're getting a better listening audience. Yeah. Would you agree to that? Absolutely, absolutely. And the closeness is something the audience usually doesn't get. Yeah. And what the artist usually doesn't get is being invited to somebody else's house, you know, meeting the friends and family and being a part of a community. Of course, yeah. Which is absolutely wonderful, you know. Absolutely. Very... Well, I made friendships, you know, on these concerts. That's good. That's good. And where do you perform now? When the next gig or what? What does work? What will you do? Well, I'm basically here in Ireland since last April, and I'm just trying to get into the scene. I'm working with different musicians, you know, and getting to know them, and we'll see where that leads to. You were releasing music, and then you've gone well. Yeah. I have been releasing six singles actually from the forthcoming album. Uh-huh. That's going to be out in a couple of weeks, hopefully. And I have been releasing two albums before that under my name. And I have one from back in the 90s when I was with a band. Who... What was the band called? The band was called Scooter and the Street Heart. Scooter was my nickname back then. Right. And we came to a little bit of fame when we were touring in support of Joe Grosjecki and the House Rockers from Pittsburgh. Oh, yeah. And their album back then was produced by Bruce Springsteen. So... Very good. So, well... There's a connection there. There is, somehow. That's good. And as I said to you earlier, you talked about your album coming out in the next couple of weeks. And where did you record that album, or where was that done? The idea to actually put all these songs that I had written in the past couple of years on an album came to me in the first lockdown, really. Yeah. So, basically, I got the people... We never met in the studio. They were all... Everything on this album was recorded remotely. Wow. So what I did was I recorded my guitar and my vocals to a click-tack and send it to the drummer. And he recorded that in the studio which was amazing because he didn't really know where I was going. So he basically anticipated the whole album. It's a big gamble for you as a songwriter because of your songs? No. No? It's absolutely not because I know the people and I've worked with them before. Oh, you've worked with them before? Oh, yeah. And I trust them completely. Yes, absolutely. I thought it was just a case of you sent it to them and... I know the people. It's a different thing. How many tracks are on the album? I don't know yet. 12, 13. I don't... I'm not sure about the sequence yet. That has to be found. I recorded 14 songs there and so maybe it's going to be 11. I don't know yet. Something around that. Are you one of these songwriters that has a load of songs written or do you just... write them again? I do write frequently but I am two persons because on the one hand I'm the singer-songwriter on the other hand I'm the producer because I mix this album myself, unfortunately. And so basically when I'm producing and recording stuff I'm not writing. And once that process is over I go back to writing. You know, that's... So the plans for the rest of the years, I think you can tell us anything happening that you're excited about, apart from the album launch? There are no dates in the calendar at this moment. But I'm working on a lot of things but it's just too early to spill anything. So I'm here and like I say I'm collaborating with different musicians and trying to book the tour for the album. I wish you well with that. If people want to get in touch it's through your social media. Social media and there's a website too. That's martinpertorios.net and a newsletter if you want. Brilliant. Well we wish you well. I think the album will be... It's nice to get a body of work out there as an artist isn't it? It is, absolutely. And I was hoping I would be much faster this time but we started recording in June 21 and so basically yeah, almost two years but it usually takes me that I know. The COVID effect you as a performer it shut everything down didn't it? As a performer it affected me massively but I was lucky because I was hunkered down in the north of Germany with a family who were doing house concerts themselves and they have a barn which has a stage so I started streaming life every week and I've done 100 live streams during the pandemic so basically I did it for two years and I missed four in those two years because of holidays or something Christmas. That's a lot of live streams. That was a stream every week. How did you find that? Every Wednesday. I found that first of all it was awkward because you're playing to a camera and you don't know if anybody's there and people started coming into the bubble as I call it. It's my dear bubble. Did you notice a wide variety of people watching from different countries? Yeah. A couple of times I had someone from New Delhi even watching it was amazing. It's amazing what the internet is. Absolutely. There was a positive side to that too because maybe you reach an audience that you might never have reached before. We're going to take a quick outbreak. We're going to come back with another song. This one is going to be called what? It's going to be called House with Yellow Windows. Right. After this break, don't go away. The perfect Mother's Day gift to see the one and only Tom Jones in Belfast. Join us as Highland Radio head the road to see the timeless legend at the headlines Belfast and your standing ticket to the outdoor event. Contact us today on 074 9125,000 to see Tom Jones at Ormo Park Belfast Friday 16th of June. You can rely on a gig a home. You can gig a stream or gig a weekend. You can feel gig as safe as your kids hop online to have gig a fun and you can gig a boogie in your gig a basement. Vodafone gig a home combines super Wi-Fi always connected and secure net. For a broadband connection you can always rely on so get on the gig a train search Vodafone gig a home to find out more Vodafone together we can subject location and availability gig a home is subject to subscription cancel any time eligibility limitations in terms of apply see Vodafone dot IE achieve your fitness goals this year with the latest arrivals at Michael Murphy Sports and Ledger beat your personal best with new trainers from Assix Brooks and new balance or gear up for the gym with active wear and online now with free next day delivery on orders over 85 euro at Michael Murphy Sports Dot IE We at Highland Radio love Irish music and we want to show our support throughout Irish Music Month this March in partnership with hot press magazine we're asking you to support the Irish musicians artists and bands who make every party every drive home and every day magic that's right to celebrate Irish Music Month on Highland Radio we're asking you to support Irish artists and musicians by buying Irish albums Irish tickets Irish t-shirts and Irish Music Merch Irish musicians have shown that they are right up there with the best in the world so let's support them by buying Irish proudly supported by Highland Radio Hot Press IBI and the BAI sound and vision of the Irish Music Month Sleek, smooth, safe, modern oh you want to hear more do you want to drive the most modern car in Johnny Gall there's a reason why it's our county's favourite car the brand new diesel Kia Sportage the multi award winning SUV is available at iMotors now our team will take care of all of your needs visit iMotors.ie or call into us today because how you feel when you drive is important to us lovely song, lovely bit of guitar playing there thank you very good self-taught in the guitar self-taught, yes I think I had two lessons then it's enough for me you were quick if you learnt two lessons oh no no no no no I know what you're saying tell us about your collaboration with Blackie O'Connell a pipe player yeah Blackie I only met Blackie during the last summer I spent a lot of time in Dublin and Blackie and Cyril, Donu and Owen they played together four nights a week in the pubs in Dublin I was told that I had to go see them and so I did and I was absolutely blown away by their sheer musicianship and so I it became a regular thing I tried to see them as often as I could and I had to which I'm not going to play tonight unfortunately oh you're okay yeah down to the sea there was something missing on it and I was thinking of an accordion but then I heard the pipes and I said that's exactly what I wanted there so I talked to Blackie and he said sure you know we can record so we did did you join in the sessions with them when you were down there no no I don't I'm not much of a track player I'm only looking into this and so no I wouldn't be that kind of guitar player no but the pipes worked on the wealthy and the song absolutely yes and have you decided to do any more collaborations yes we just talked about it yesterday and there's going to be at least one more song that's common it's not going to be on the record bud but I have a song that I definitely want to work on with him it's just probably just going to be ill in pipes and vocals what attraction do they reach music what is it about their music you like it is it must be a Celtic thing it is something that is completely missing in Germany is a folk music that is a life and that is rooted in the heart and soul of the people like it is here and it is coming from hundreds of years and it will go on another couple of hundred years you find that in Scotland as well that kind of link I'm sure you would but I haven't spent much time up there so I don't know much about the Scottish thing I know of course a few singers there and of course Eddie Rader I'm a total fan of hers but it's a place here fairly often he's coming on tour actually I've heard that yes but I'm for support well as far as I know the support is taken by by Dee Cullen alright he's going to be on tour with her so good luck to him I want to say thanks very much first of all for coming up to see us we really appreciate it and it's lovely to see you we enjoyed following your social media because you seem to be a busy man so long may that continue and people will travel of course and car and guitar yeah car is the most important thing absolutely but you know what we'd love we'd love if you could tell us about Ronan Lennard Ronan Lennard is my initial link to this country Ronan Lennard walked into a studio I was running in the hometown area in the mid 90s recording and he walked into the studio with a tape he had made in the Canaries and he asked me if I could make CDs of that tape and I said sure I can and he looked at me and we kind of you know we kind of liked each other straight away so he says would you like to listen to it and I said yeah why not you know I had a bit of time so we put the tape into the Dap machine you know and listened to all of the album of 12 songs and afterwards he said you know think of it and I was going like what am I going to do now am I going to tell him the truth but I actually looked at him and said listen I love the songs he's a great writer but I didn't like the production because it was all MIDI files and it sounded like plastic really it lacked the warmth and everything but he totally agreed and to make a long story short we recorded that whole album over again with my band at the time and released it and that was another one called Faraway Hills and a year later so he invited me to Ireland for Christmas so I came here on Stevens Day actually in 1996 and the rest is history good story very good indeed well listen as I say the pleasure's been ours we'd love to get another song if you don't mind this final song you're going to do for us is is a song that I kind of half wrote myself and the lyrics I picked out of thin air because they were coming to me when I was writing the song it was at the time I was I was running this recording studio and if you have your own recording studio you never have time to do your own music so late at night I was in there and this chord progression happened in my head all day and so had the melody and the first lyrics that came to my mind were of an Irish children's rhyme so I married the two and this is what I made we're looking forward to hearing this whoops I have to sorry online tuning we chill because we care take your time tell me ma why don't you go home the boys won't leave the girls alone on my hair and they still don't come that's alright till I get home she is handsome she is pretty she's the bell bellphile city she's a chord in one two three won't you tell me it says he loves her boys fighting for her thumbs on her fingers bells on her toes old John Murray says she'd die if she doesn't get the fella she is handsome she is pretty she's the bell bellphile city she's a chord in one two three traveling from the sky she's a snake she's apple pie she gets home does that look moony she is handsome she is pretty she's the bell bellphile city she's a chord in one two three won't you tell me who is she she is pretty I love what you've done with that works so well just like a lovely story I think it really puts a totally different aspect on the lyrics you know it makes them an adult story it actually does I love that very well have you recorded that? I have recorded that kind of like a radio release is your music available online if people want to get it? my music is available online but only on Bandcamp I'm not on Spotify or any of the streaming services I know it's it's a sharp edge you know I'm walking on because it probably relimits my reach but I don't know I actually kind of don't like the idea of having the the music library of the world actually display for 15 quite a month it doesn't work for the artist I agree with you but anyway listen to it this is your Martin Pretorius check him out on his social medias and a travelling troubadour and we wish you well on your travels and we hope you stay safe and maybe you'll come back and see us some more time I would love to thanks for having me Martin thank you very much