Macy Martin Is Finding Her Melody on New Album

[RoadWarrior]

2015 is shaping up to be a year to remember for Texas native Macy Martin.

"So many great things are happening, like my new album, Find My Melody," the songstress tells Billboard. "There's a lot of great radio material and I am so excited to see how the public reacts to it."

Martin is no stranger to positive reaction. The singer was named Ellis County's Outstanding Teen 2014. She takes great pride in her home, saying, "Ellis County is a little bit south of Dallas. There are a lot of great people there, and I am proud to be from there. My dad grew up in Arkansas and actually came to Texas for better job opportunities, because he owns his own business, and my mom went into the medical field but she also works with my father in the commercial construction field through becoming a realtor. She says that a Texas woman can dress up, turn back around and saddle up a horse."

Musically, the singer says she listened to a lot of Martina McBride and Alison Krauss growing up. She says the latter was a huge musical influence. "I had a very high soprano voice, so a lot of times people would tell me that I sounded a little bit like her. I also have listened to a lot of Carrie Underwood, who is so beautiful and has such a great presence about her no matter what she does. She's just amazing."

Martin says she knew the field she wanted to pursue at a rather early age. "I didn't know what I wanted to do specifically, but I knew it was a dream of mine. I also had times when I wanted to become a vet or an author. Suddenly, all these things kept coming, and we weren't really pursuing any of it. All of these opportunities were knocking on our door, and we took them. It's how God wanted it to be. At least, that's how I feel."

Later this month, Martin will be releasing her first single from Find My Melody called "Back to Reality." She has just completed a video for the single, which she is very excited about. "I've seen some of the clips, and it's pretty cool looking. It's a very visual song with a lot of different storylines in the way it can reach out to people in different age groups -- teen girls, especially. I can't wait to see how they respond."

The singer also takes a great deal of pride in her charity work, including an organization that she and her family helped to found themselves. "Macy's Toy Box is an organization that I started back in second grade. I'm an only child and had tons of toys -- I was completely spoiled. My parents would tell me, 'Macy, we've got to get some of these things out of here. They're taking over the house.' We were having a family garage sale, and I didn't want to sell them in that because they were like my friends. We have two local organizations in my hometown of Bryan/College Station: Scotty's House and Phoebe's Home. They act as safe homes for children and women. We donated directly to them, as well as the local fire and police department. It just grew from there. The city actually took up a day called Macy Mekenzie Martin Day in honor of all the work we had done. Ten years later, we're working across the state of Texas, as well as the Bridge Ministries here in Nashville and other organizations such as the Children's Miracle Network."

She encourages people to take part in public service, stressing that they will get more out of it than those they help. "Actually, when I gave up my title recently, in my farewell speech - I said 'As a title holder and someone who is involved in community service, you reach out and try to touch so many lives. But, you actually have your own live touched in more ways than you could ever imagine by helping others."

Martin can't wait to take her music to the people, as she is proud of how the album sounds sonically and the lyrical content -- which she had a large hand in. "I co-write all of my songs, which is a big thing to me. There's no other way I would ever want to go back to singing cover material. There's definitely a connection that you feel like no other when you are singing your own."