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Thursday, June 12, 2025
Isaac Martinez chooses 28th birthday to drop new EP by True Fiction. See three “Reality vs. AI”-themed videos from “Play Me” now!
“Releasing today is like
a symbolic ‘stepping out of the 27 club’ trappings of dangerous musician pitfalls, addictions, and lifestyles,” Martinez says.
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True Fiction (L-R): Young Zen, Isaac Martinez, Stephen
Patrick. Photo credit: Zoe Frank.
Scroll down to read about and watch
videos for all three songs on the new “Play Me” EP by True Fiction!
“The new True
Fiction‘Play Me’ EP is as
prescient as it is pretentious,” Isaac
Martinez half-jokes. “Just kidding, but I do feel like we are showing the
future while also leaning into some Millennial / Gen-Z art pretentiousness in
order to play against the grungy poppiness that is True Fiction. The videos for the songs on the EP are intended to be
modern art gallery-style ‘explorations’ of the relationship between Real Life
vs. Real Life Through The AI Lens, captured on film.
“These videos were conceptualized by me and actualized
by my sister Tara Martinez Fernandez.
‘Do You Trust Me?’ and ‘Falling Backwards’ were shot by Johnny Singels and ‘Acacia’ was filmed by True
Fiction, just passing the camera around.”
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True Fiction is: Stephen
Edwards (stage name Stephen Patrick),
Logan Snowden (stage name Young Zen), Isaac Martinez, Mack Turner
(stage name Michael Hologram), Arturo Urrutia (stage name Lil Escalade), Daniel Gibb (stage name Skinnyboat).
Potentially more people. But it is also only just Stephen, Logan, and Isaac, and formerly Mike Boyer (unless he wants to be in it
again.)
“‘Do You Trust
Me?’ was written by Stephen in
high school and I think it has scared him ever since,” Martinez explains. “The whole idea of ‘Do you trust me? That’s a
mistake’ ringing as something he fears about his life. Despite this, it’s been
one that really resonates with a lot of people including myself.
“The video is a combination of real footage of me, Stephen, and AI interpretations of me
and Stephen, a real and fake view of
the same subjects. Everything about this video is a duality. The song title and
its reveal of ‘that’s a mistake,’ the band name, me and Stephen’s races and the
dualities of our mixed racial makeups, the multifaceted duality of a glass
rose, the duality of performing for the camera and being caught candid.”
“The video for the True Fiction version of ‘Falling
Backwards’ is a real video run through an AI filter, like a reality
interpreted through a fantasy,” Martinez
says of the “Falling Backwards”
clip.
“This version of the song (which was previously
released in a different version under Isaac Martinez’s own name) was born from
sessions that took place in Colorado Springs and resulted in the True Fiction album Shuteye. Stephen (Edwards, stage name Stephen
Patrick) and I were paying for a little studio that we built out with all
of our recording equipment and a couch that we would take turns crashing on,” Martinez continues.
“We would get together with Logan (Snowden, stage
name Young Zen although he also goes
by bitsutra) every night and work on
music, and one of our favorite demos was the recording Logan and I made of ‘Falling
Backwards.’
“Logan’s vocals
on his verse are his original recordings done for the demo. We worked with this
demo a ton until I brought it into the studio, hoping to kickstart True Fiction again, which now we have.”
“This one is a juxtaposition of the real and the
artificial,” says Martinez. “AI
footage of AI people hanging out doing nothing next to real footage of real
people hanging out collectively trying to accomplish their life goals. The song
does the same thing. It is Logan and Stephen describing their dreams and
fantasies alongside expressing nostalgia for a time in their life where their
freedom actually allowed them to live out some of those fantasies.
“The AI characters don’t have thoughts but you feel
like they do when you’re looking at them. The real people are driven, blank
slates in work mode, but their voices are expressing their actual innermost
thoughts. ‘Acacia’ is a Logan original featuring verses from Logan and Stephen (and Arturo.)”
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More About |
Isaac Martinez
“Deeply personal.” — Glide
“Like the son of Beck.”
— Colorado Public Radio
“Hazy slice of rootsy alt-pop.” — The Big Takeover
“Captivating… Graceful.” — Tonic Grain
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After years of operating under aliases,
Denver-based musician Isaac Martinez has finally released the work he is
most proud of. 10 Country Songs is the first record that Martinez
feels worthy of being dropped everywhere under what he refers to as his “government”
name.
Start with the warm
atmosphere of the album’s “Time Passes”single. Its
heavenly piano touches, combined with Martinez’s close-miked vocal,
underpinned by an insistent snare propelling his overdubbed harmonies, is
absolutely haunting.
The
full-length album 10 Country Songs by Isaac Martinez is out now. The album was produced by Martinez
alongside the A-list assistance of engineers Andy Flebbe (Green Day)
and Grammy®-winner Jerry
Ordonez (Bon Iver, Waxahatchee).
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