Q & A with Billy

Q & A with Billy Martin

I received a lot of questions and I appreciate all the interest in the things I love doing. A lot of questions were similar so tried to cover multiple questions with some broad answers. Hope this gives you a little more insight about me and my thought process as an artist and a musician. 

Q: Are you still a vegetarian?

A: Yes, I am. Going on 13 years now and proud of it. I’m not an overly vocal activist because I think it’s a choice you’ve gotta make for yourself rather than because someone “guilted” you into it. Although if you wanna spread the word, all the better.

Q:What is your current gear setup, live and in your studio?

A: My live guitar setup consists of PRS guitars, and a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier through Rectifier cabinets for my distorted tone. A Fender twin combo for the clean tone. I use a “Ground Control” midi pedal board consisting of a Boss Delay, Reverb and Compressor/Sustainer, Phase 90 EVH, Zack Wylde Overdrive, Dunlop “Dimebag” Wah, and a Digitech Whammy pedal.  My keyboard is a Yamaha S-90 but I only use it as a weighted controller. All my sounds are triggered through Kontakt from a Macbook pro running Pro Tools which sends triggers of all the actual album sounds and samples. 

My home studio consists of a MacBook Pro running Ableton Live. I use a number of different software plug-ins, my favorites being NI Massive, FM8, WOW filter and Sylenth1. I use a Maschine controller for drum programming and an AKAI MPK keyboard. 

Q:When you were growing up did you always want to be in a band, or did you want to pursue another career?

A: I have always loved music, I remember as a kid always thinking I wanted to be a singer, because I loved Michael Jackson. As I got older I was drawn more to the musicianship and realized how many different sides there were to being a professional musician other than a singer. I also spent most of youth dreaming of working for Disney animation as well. I knew as long as I was making music or art I would be happy. 

Q:How did you come up with the idea for Vitriol?

A: Vitriol came from lots of traveling. Hours on planes and in hotel rooms. It’s hard to draw on a plane but easy to write. I started writing Vitriol as an idea for a video game, I came up with him, the city he lived in and some of his weapons. I knew he would deal with supernatural beings as well. After that I brought the idea to my good friend, Brent Allen (who I’ve co-written a few other stories with) and we developed it into a comic book series. We created other characters and a complex story line. He wrote the script and I’ve been illustrating it. 

Q:Does GC have any plans to tour (any city) this year?

A: The funny thing about touring is, contrary to lots of people’s beliefs, the band doesn’t get to pick where they play. A show has to be offered to the band by a local promoter. We love playing in all different places but we can’t just show up and say we want to play a concert. Right now we are spending some time with our families and working on some personal music but if the right show comes up and it makes sense we will certainly consider playing. So the answer is..it’s always possible.

Q: In your musical taste and influences, did you ever think about having a side project band in where you can explore different style of the music you love? would you like to experiment being a singer or just focus in write your own songs?

A: Being in a band is a lot of work. You have to give and take and develop a working relationship over time. I’ve spent a lot of time doing that with GC and I don’t really want to start over. I’d rather work on music by myself where I get to call all the shots and doing everything just how I envision it. That’s why I’m so drawn to electronic and hip-hop right now. I can program the drums, play the bass, the keys, guitar..etc and it’s all just how I hear it. 

Q:What happened to your children’s book “Damious McDreary: A Boy and his Bat”?

A: I finished that book years ago and even got a sculpt made for a toy of Damious. Unfortunately, the publishing company who was slated to print the book for me went under when the economy took a hit. At this point, I had already started developing Vitriol and pitching it to get a deal. I had to pick one project and move forward with it. I’ve learned so much working on Vitriol, that I think i could go back to ‘Damious” and make it even better, so hopefully it will see the light of day sometime in the future. But for now, no release plans. 

Q:Are you guys planning to tour Latin America in the near future?

A: This kind of goes with what I said before. Just wanted to say we see all the love GC gets from S. America and we would love to come back, just have to wait for the right show to come along! Hopefully soon!

Q:Whats your favorite album of all time?

A: Probably, Michael Jackson: Thriller

Q:When you color your comics out, are you editing/adding the colors in photoshop, illustrator, what program?

A: Vitriol is a team effort. As far as the art goes, I just pencil the pages. John “Waki” Wycough inks over my pencils and then Jeremy Treece digitally colors the pages. When I color my own work in the computer I use Photoshop with a Wacom tablet.

Q: When did you learn to play, like what age?. what inspired you?. & what/who is your biggest inspiration now?

A: I started playing guitar at age 15. I loved music but never thought about being able to play it. I didn’t have any musicians in my family and wasn’t really around any instruments. For a class project, a classmate brought his guitar to school and played a song he wrote. It had never dawned on me that anyone could play the guitar and I became obsessed. Got a cheap one for Christmas and played it like crazy. Now my biggest inspiration is my family. Getting married and having a kid gave me a different perspective on things. I used to play for myself, now I want to make great music so I can support my family. I didn’t go to college and I don’t know how to do anything else. So nowadays making music or art that makes my family proud is what makes me happy.

Q:Which books do you recommend to get better at action and dynamics in my poses, anatomy? Can you tell me how you learned to draw weapons?

A: I put these two together. My favorite reference books for learning anatomy are Figure Drawing: Design and Invention by Michael Hampton and Force:Dynamic Life Drawing For Animators by Michael Mattesi. For Weapons I have a great book the has photos of tons of guns at all different angles, Antarctic Press Photo Reference: Weapons File: Volume 1. I also recently picked up the “Art of District 9” which has some amazing futuristic weapon designs.

Q:Can you or would you be willing to draw me a tattoo?

A: I get this one A LOT, haha. I really don’t have the time to design tattoos. It’s going to be on your body forever and thats a lot of pressure. If you really love my art, take something I’ve already drawn and use that as a tattoo. I’ve already put the time into drawing it the best I can, and it’s always flattering to think someone would want my art on them forever.

Q: Will you respond to your fans online?

A: I’ve had to learn how to deal with this over the last 12 years of doing this job. Now with the internet connecting people, it’s a whole new challenge. I know fans are the reason I get to do what I do. They make the entertainment business go around, and I am eternally grateful for that! But I’ve learned that it’s impossible to please everyone and enough is never enough. If I write one person, then it becomes “you wrote my friend, why won’t you write me?” and so on..a continuous cycle. So I feel the best way is to use sites like Facebook and Twitter to share what I’m doing with my fans and read what they have to say, and to learn about how they feel about my art/music. Treat everyone equally and try to give them as much free content as possible. 

Thanks for the questions and all the support…lots of new art and music coming this year!

-Billy