Martin Porter (musician)

Martin Porter
Birth name	Martijn Hubertus Johannes Terporten
Born	October 13, 1983 (1983-10-13) (age 28) Maasbree, Netherlands
Genres	Alternative Rock Pop Pop Rock Hard Rock
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, Musician
Instruments	Vocals, Guitar, Piano
Years active	1983–present
Labels	Jive Records, Sony BMG, Zomba Records, Retone Records
Associated acts	Axport, Van Gunn, K-otic, 7 Days' Wonder
Website	www.martinporter.net, www.axportmusic.com

Martin Porter (born Martijn Hubertus Johannes Terporten on October 13, 1983) is an artist and songwriter who was the lead vocalist in Van Gunn (2004–2008), 7 Days' Wonder (2009) and primarily known as a singer in K-otic (2001–2003) and currently active in Axport.

Career

Porter grew up in Maasbree, The Netherlands ^[1][2]

Growing up with music such as the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Tom Petty and Thin Lizzy mainly caused by his parents' influence, and later, on the verge of the crossover from 80's Glamrock and 90's Grunge, getting a taste of those both worlds mainly through (according to his own biography) sneaking his way to his sisters' record shelf. Since all this music was in English at a young age he had developed an interest in lyrics and through reading lyrics at the same time learned his English. The singing has always been there for as long as he can remember but it was not until he decided to give a shot at writing his own songs when he actually started to use his voice extensively. And so together with his two best friends (brothers Boy and Ward Axe) who shared the same music interests he started his first band when he was at the age of 12.

In 2001 Martin was picked to join a TV show called Starmaker in the Netherlands which was a pioneer of reality talent shows, through the TV show he ended up in a pop group called K-otic.^[3] However since Martin has always listened to rock and hard rock, Martin has stated that being in this group felt unnatural for him and thus taking the first possible ticket out which because of contracts wasn't until their last performance on January 26, 2003.^[2][4][5]

In the meanwhile Martin always kept close ties with his original band Van Gunn, and they decided to move to Los Angeles to get more experience and to get on the road. In 2006 Van Gunn signed with Retone Records and recorded an album in Los Angeles^[6] which was to be their take off, however the band broke up due to differences in taste and how to move forward.

In 2008 Martin moved to Rotterdam to start a study at a University for Music but this wasn't really what he was looking for, according to Martin it did not feel right to go back to a textbook version of the music industry after years of experience of being in it.^[1] While studying at the University Martin formed a band called 7 Days' Wonder with whom he recorded a 5 song EP and toured in Japan and the Netherlands, in its short existence 7 Days' Wonder did not achieve any commercial success.

During this period in time Martin also decided to "simplify" his original Dutch name to stagename Martin Porter^{[citation needed]}.

On the side Martin is said to have decided to also do his solo project in which he's aiming it to be a big mix of styles he's been involved in^{[citation needed]}.

In September 2010 Martin moved back to Los Angeles and got back in touch with Boy Axe (Van Gunn's Bass player) to work together again. Currently Martin is writing and recording in Los Angeles with Boy Axe for the upcoming record expected to be released early 2011. Mid October he announced the name of the new band Axport, which is a combination of Axe and Porter but the main reason for choosing this name is the coincidence that they happen to be an export product to the United States.

Discography

• Van Gunn - Van Gunn (Retone Records 2007) Digital Only
• 7 Days' Wonder - Phenomena (Evil Distortion Records 2009) Digital Only

K-otic

Album (s ) with Charts in the Dutch Album Top 20/50/75/100	Date of appear	Date of entry	Highest  position	Number of  weeks	Comments
Bulletproof	2001	02-06-2001	1(7wk)	32	Platina
Live and more	2001	11-08-2001	39	4	Live album / CD & DVD
Indestructible	2002	21-09-2002	2	16	Goud

References

1. ^ ^{a b} http://www.martinporter.net
2. ^ ^{a b} http://rtlnl.web-log.nl/rtlnl/2004/07/van_tieneridool.html
3. ^ http://www.artinbase.com/artist/27249/Starmaker/
4. ^ http://www.ad.nl/ad/nl/1401/ad/integration/nmc/frameset/varia/kobala_article.dhtml?artid=1424518
5. ^ http://krant.telegraaf.nl/crazylife/teksten/crazylife.otic.band.you.woonden.html
6. ^ http://www.last.fm/music/Van+Gunn/+wiki

External links

• Official Website
• Martin Porter's Facebook Page
• IMDB
• World Music Database
• K-otic Wikipedia (Dutch)
• K-otic Music Encyclopedia (Dutch)
• Discography K-otic

Persondata
Name	Porter, Martin
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	October 13, 1983
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death