About MarTinman

East L.A. roots.Brisbane soul.

I’m Martin Alderette. MarTinman is where the life I have lived becomes music—the family, friendships, places and moments that stayed long enough to become part of me.

Born
East L.A. County
Home
Brisbane, Australia
Songbook
61 songs
Center
Real stories / real people

The short version

I did not sit down to invent a musical persona. I finally gave the person I had become somewhere to speak.

How I got here

One life. Four strong currents.

Martin as a child in East Los Angeles

01 / Roots

East L.A. made me.

Family, Whittier Boulevard, barrio loyalty and the music coming from every car and house gave me my first language. Even when the genre changes, that rhythm is still underneath it.

Martin and Sharna on the night they met in 1997

02 / Home

Love moved me.

I told Sharna I would never leave L.A. Then her visa ended and she asked whether I wanted to come home with her. I chose her. Nearly half my life later, Brisbane is home—and the same vato is still inside.

Martin on the parade ground while serving with the Australian Defence Force in Baghdad

03 / Service

The world got bigger.

Serving in the Australian Defence Force took me from basic training to places where trust, discipline and the people beside you mattered more than talk. Those experiences became stories I could not leave unwritten.

Martin standing beside his hand-carved Tane Mahuta

04 / Songbook

The music brought it together.

I write the people, animals, places, mistakes, jokes and hard-earned lessons that made me. Funk, soul, hip-hop, disco, folk or marching brass—the vehicle changes, but the truth stays put.

The MarTinman rule

The sound can move. The truth stays put.

Some songs arrive in a Chevy Impala. Others show up in a Mustang, a classic T-Bird, an Army vehicle or the back of a ute. The ride changes because the story asks for a different sound.

What does not change is the center: chosen family, loyalty, resilience, wonder, love—and the people who keep showing up.

The story continues in the songs

Find the chapter that sounds like you.

Enter the Songbook