The Spotlight Sessions Presents: Noah Gray, Martina Armour and D. Marin Perez

Blending confessional and often poetic lyricism with a genre-fluid sound and a melismatic vocal style, Noah Gray creates music that blurs the lines between fiction and reality. Noah released his first album in 2023, a self-written and self-produced alternative pop record titled ‘Fluorescent’. The album follows an anonymous character that experiences a myriad of emotions; recklessness (the dance-pop inspired “lost”), betrayal (the fiery “expensive” and the Pure Heroine coded “sober”), envy (the 1975-influenced “jealous”), and re-discovering love and peace. (told through a lo-fi lens on “darling, can we go to sleep?”)

In other areas, Noah has experimented with R&B (particularly on his latest cut, the witchy and smoldering “Disposable”), singer-songwriter (“Flowers”), avant-garde (“until spring” and “Celestia”). He has appeared on multiple hip-hop and EDM collaborations, throughout his career. Noah has also created buzz through his YouTube channel, particularly with his cover of “Okay” by Backhouse Mike; to date, it has amassed 19,000 views on YouTube and over 64,000 combined streams on major platforms. Noah has also worked with Grammy-nominated and Dove Award-winning producer Travis Wyrick (Dolly Parton, Pillar, P.O.D.) and opened for soul singer Mutlu.

 

Martina Armour is a singer/songwriter and recording artist based in Los Angeles, CA and Gothenburg Sweden. Armed with a captivating and heartfelt folk-pop sound that shines through melancholic lyrics with warm, clear vocals, Martina’s sound is a dynamic blend of some of her greatest inspirations. She weaves together the folk-pop sounds of Fleetwood Mac, the raw emotional depth of Brandi Carlile, and the heartfelt storytelling of James Bay.

Originally from Sweden, Martina followed her dreams to Los Angeles and in 2019, she made her first mark upon the music industry with the folk/pop single “Trouble”. Martina released the equally impressive follow-up singles of ‘Knife’ and “On the Run,” cementing her place in today’s music scene with two lavish and emotionally raw releases that captured the essence and scale of her artistic abilities.

Her debut EP “What It Feels Like” holds six songs total, including a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Storms” that Mick Fleetwood himself gave his approval of in a personal video message to her.

Martina Armour is a two-time semi-finalist in the International Songwriting Competition (worlds largest songwriting competition), with “Love to Gold” (produced by Ryan Corn, Nashville) an unreleased song last year, and this year with “Slowly Lifting” (produced by Martina) off her debut EP. Her passion for music has led her to collaborate with musicians both locally and internationally and write music for film and TV. Martina’s song “Everything” can be heard in the soundtrack of the feature film “Dylan & Zoey” on Starz and Hulu (Claudia Doumit, Blake Scott Lewis).

Additionally, Martina’s music has been recognized in her home country of Sweden. Martina was part of the top 100 in the Denniz Pop Awards 2022, an initiative to award new talents, unsung heroes, and big successes of the industry. The initiative aims to recognize individuals who are making an outstanding contribution to Sweden’s international pop music heritage and helping continue the legacy Denniz Pop once started.

Currently, Martina is in the process of recording her next EP, planned to be released next year. Martina is keeping busy playing live shows in Los Angeles, most recently two shows at the reputable venue The Hotel Cafe. Look out for Martina in the music scene as she is sure to continue to deliver music for the deep feelers.
Martina’s latest single “Run with the River” was featured in the new season finale of Love is Blind on Netflix.

D. Marin Perez grew up in a Cuban-American family on a steady diet of ’60s rock and Mormon hymns in a suburb of Fort Lauderdale, Florida — playing in groups, writing, and recording music. As teenage musical brooding gave way to the complexities of adulthood, songwriting became a place of real residence: to hide, to be found, and to integrate an ever-complexifying sense of family, belonging, religion, justice, politics, relationship, and loss. These themes continue to weather and mature in his songwriting as a former minister and community organizer.