October 14 2025

PPIM Updates: Martin Returns from the UK

Events, PPIM Newsletter Abbey Road Institute, Best of Chicago, Dublin Castle, UK

What a trip to the UK. I forget: always too short, it seems, but it was so good to see family and friends and fans, alike.

I was over there to speak at Abbey Road Institute, to budding engineers and producers on Friday, and then a general one of my rambling events on Sunday afternoon at The Dublin Castle.

I’m in an interesting place in my life – having survived drum machines, punk, post-punk, industrial, a move to London, a move to NYC, a move to Chicago, a label, a studio, Spotify, and founding a museum… I love sharing whatever perspective I can that might help someone starting out, coming up, perhaps confused, and certainly anxious. I try and ring the reality bell with a healthy dose of optimism, too – I firmly believe after 25(?) years of teaching, that anyone CAN do anything, and I’m so happy to reinforce that message — a healthy dose of things that don’t make any sense, really, along with some things that should. Once you iron out all of the leaps of faith, the artistic experiments, the insanity – what do you actually have? When everything makes sense to the spreadsheet and the accountants, how much excitement does that create? I want things presented to me that don’t make sense. I love speaking with students and presented and chatted for over 3 hours.

Sunday at Dublin Castle was really special for me. They really are fine-tuning that place – with a new projector and screen, and a real can-do attitude. Setting up a nice drum kit and mic-ing it up for maximum pounding! So many wonderful people showed up and, in a way, this was a first pass at some of the slides I’ll be showing at the Extremities event in November at Reggie’s. I spent a couple of days going through so many great slides and photos — of course great ones of Geordie and Raven. I was surprised and humbled by this quote from Julie Hammill— author, broadcaster, MozArmy founder, and unapologetic force of culture — where music meets meaning. She said this about me, “probably the best story telling rock n rolling punk that ever lived – I just don’t think I’ve seen a more engaging speaker on the subject.”

I mean, holy shit, that sets the bar high, and really made me stop for a minute. I’ve had a lot of things said about my drumming and production, but it is so sweet to receive this kind of feedback about what is now a really important part of what I do – the storytelling. She carried on, “as I sat listening, I felt envious of the students in his class. Imagine studying music and that’s your teacher? Just fantastic, lucky sods!” Thank you to Julie and Tony at Dublin Castle, Darren at Abbey Rd Institute and everyone that came to hang! It was great to see Raymond Watts, Stuart and Carla, Antoni, Amita, Jordan Long and more!

I have some of the spectacular US:UK shirts designed by Austin Buchanan for the trip, linked below!

There’s so much going on this week: I’m back teaching at Millikin University, rehearsing with Mark Gemini Thwaite for the Extremities project, looking at some reduced pricing on our really well received Official Reverb Store! (I think a 10% reduction on the pricing!), and more content fueling the much loved Museum Patreon!

There is a tour Friday night, some more next week, and a second show has been added to Extremities in November! Check out all upcoming PPIM Events Here

Onwards and upwards !

2025 UK SHIRTS HERE

BEST OF CHICAGO:
Nominations Now Open!

It’s that time of year again – nominations for The Chicago Reader’s Best of Chicago are now open! If you have an extra couple moments and would be willing to, we’d greatly appreciate if you would nominate the Museum of Post Punk and Industrial Music for the category of Best Museum!