Martin ups the ante on singing career!

With his college life as a finance major winding down, Chris Martin is upping the ante on his singing career with an album for the Japanese market and a tour of Africa on the immediate horizon this summer.

The album is due later this month about the same time Martin will complete his tenure as a student at the University of Technology, as he makes the transition from full-time student to full-time singer/entertainer.

blessing in disguise

"This is a blessing in disguise, it just came out of nowhere," he said of the one-album deal with Japan's Rockers Island label. "They expressed an interest and it comes up in the middle of May."

He revealed that the album will be comprised mainly his pre-existing songs as well as a few new ones.

"They'll be roughly about six new songs, but mostly songs that made me popular," he said. The album will be released exclusively in Japan and the release will be followed by a tour to promote it. He leaves for that tour in August and the trip will include shows, meet-and-greet sessions, "everything to try to strengthen the album and break out into the market fully," he said.

The past four years have been challenging for the young singer, having to balance school and a burgeoning singing career, but he believes it was a worthwhile investment now that he is weeks away from graduating. "I can't wait. I am looking forward to it," he said. "I see school as a very big investment in my life. Barring that I don't fail anything, I am finished. It's something that I would encourage everybody to do because if I can do it anybody can."

Now that he is in the final stages of study, what is the most revealing thing he has learnt about finance? "It hard," he said, laughing. "Everything in finance is related, you can't swat because you have linking terms, so you have to use past knowledge, but the most fascinating thing is how you can make your money work for you."

That phase of his life virtually behind him, Martin is now focussed on making the money that he intends to make work for him.

"With school out of the way, hopefully, we have a lot more time on our hands now to just deal with the music, and I am looking forward to it," he said. "I think I have always been doing good music but what we want to do now is break into various markets, different markets; the Spanish market, the African market, breaking into Europe the real, real way, the Japanese market, which we are doing now."

"We're trying to make music for everyone," he continued. "Just trying to step outside the boundaries of just trying to be comfortable, be uncomfortable, explore."

Nairobi, Africa, comes up later this summer but, before that, Martin flies to Germany in June to shoot the music video for To the Top, the song he did with Gentleman, and which the latter is to release as a single soon. The song also features on Gentleman's album Diversity, which was released on April 9.

COURTESY OF THE JAMAICA STAR