The Walkmen's Walter Martin Adds Melb & Bris Dates To Vivid LIVE Itinerary

Walter Martin — best known for his work as co-writer, bassist and organist for stalwart US indie crew The Walkmen — will play a pair of headline shows Down Under when he's in the country for this May and June's Vivid LIVE event in Sydney.

The veteran muso and fledgling solo artist will hit up The Gasometer Hotel, Melbourne, on Thursday 26 May, turning around and jetting to Brisbane to play The Junk Bar on Friday 27 May, leaving the door open for his Vivid LIVE performance on Sunday 29 May alongside Sally Seltmann and Holly Throsby at the kid-friendly Dress Up Attack show at the Opera House.

If you're surprised to hear Martin will be performing for children in Sydney, then you must have missed his excellent debut 2014 kids' album, We're All Young Together, which proved a point of sudden success for the musician several years after slogging it out in bands.

"I was about to apply for a job at Kinko's or something and then all these great things started happening with the kids' album," Martin explained in a statement.

It was his dalliance with children's compositions, too, that enabled Martin the freedom and confidence to fully pursue his own voice on newest (non-kids') record, Arts & Leisure.

"Through writing songs about rattlesnakes and chimpanzees, I figured out how to write lyrics that express my inner self in a voice that's indistinguishable from how I naturally talk and joke around," he continued. "Thankfully, I was able to translate it to non-animal subject matters."

It'll be the new record on proudest display at Martin's headline shows, both of which have tickets available now (Melbourne/Brisbane).

For more information about Vivid LIVE or Dress Up Attack, see the event's website.