Michael Martinez has come a long way since his days of street busking on the streets of Bend, Oregon. More than a decade into his career you can find him in the studio writing and recording with heavy hitters in Los Angeles, producing custom music for brands like LG, Samsung and Facebook, as well as running his own film production company where he directs projects for Marvel and Disney. And on top of all that, he still finds the time to make impeccably written and flawlessly produced Americana records under his artist moniker Meekoh.
This week he released “From The River”, the lead single from his upcoming EP “The Sun”. The song was written as a tribute to the love of his life, whose tragic struggle with cystic fibrosis necessitated their retreat back to his home state of Oregon in the leadup to the pandemic lockdown in Los Angeles.
“We packed up our bags and traveled over 12 hours to the small gold mining town of Jacksonville, Oregon where we found safety in the isolation of a quaint little cottage. I spent the next several months disconnecting from my old fast paced LA life and started to plant my feet deeply into the beauty and flow of nature. Everything started to speak to me and I was finally able to listen. The tree’s all whispered in the wind, and the river spoke to me with power and grace. I found peace and fortitude in the midst of all the chaos that was going on in the world just by being able to focus on what really matters most.
It was during this time that I was able to finish writing this song which I had previously started writing over a year before the pandemic even hit. It all just clicked and I immediately started recording all my vocals in my small makeshift studio with a 6 month old puppy and the love of my life by my side.”
The first song entirely written and self-produced by Meekoh, “From The River” features soaring layered harmonies, and a gorgeous string arrangement performed by the famed Vitamin String Quartet.
