Hucknall music engineer goes platinum with first big hit single 'Rain'

Kurt Martinez helped to record the song 'Rain' with Aitch and AJ Tracey, which was released in March 2020.

The track recently hit the milestone of 600,000 sales and went platinum, according to awarding body The British Phonographic Industry.

The 31-year-old grew up in the Butler’s Hill area of Hucknall and described a passion for music since he was a pupil at Holgate Academy.

He said: "Even in school I was in bands with my friends. We needed demos to get gigs but we couldn’t afford studios at age 14.

"So I learned software so we could record at home and that’s what really got me into that side of things.”

Kurt performed as a solo act at Rock City in his early 20s before deciding to embark on career behind the scenes in the music industry.

He said: "I didn’t intend to stop playing but in the end I started to prefer recording.

"When you play a gig it’s over quickly but with recording you’re sat creating something and it’s rewarding to have something you can listen to at the end of it.”

He landed his first industry job as a runner in a post-production studio designing sound for adverts after graduating with a DipHE in music technology.

Now his job is to record music for artists as they envisage it before it is sent onto a mixer in the next step of the process.

Kurt was in the studio with AJ Tracey and Aitch while they wrote and recorded their verses for 'Rain' back in January 2020.

He said: "I sat there with one either side of me while they put the song together.

"It was only a five or six hour session altogether so they were ridiculously quick.

"I remember the energy from those guys and how excited they were about it.

“I left around 2am and I remember thinking we might have recorded a hit. It was a nice feeling. It’s the first time I’ve really felt that.”

Kurt, who never knows who he is going to be working with next, is looking forward to the future.

He said: “It’s always a nice surprise to find out who I’m going to be working with. I’ve been mixing and mastering from home during Covid too so hopefully something comes from that.”