Guest Post: Marty Kearns, Musician & Producer of An Empty Room Series on Volume.com, Shares His Experience Working with Family

Martin “Marty” Kearns, a producer and audio engineer, along with his family, Production Manager Juli Maria McKenna Kearns and Director of Photography/ Editor Aaron Kearns, developed and produced the 6 episode livestream original series, An Empty Room, streaming exclusively on Volume.com. An Empty Room takes 6 influential artists of the Atlanta music scene and captures intimate performances and never-before heard stories from musicians with deep Atlanta roots during a time when neither producers nor touring musicians had a clear trajectory for creation.

An Empty Room was a family affair and Marty shares his experience working with Family on a project like during a pandemic. 

I was asked to write about what it’s like to produce a video series as a family. 

We’ve never had a typical lifestyle. Aaron, our son, was born towards the end of my touring career and he learned how to walk on a tour bus. He fell in love with making movies by 5 years of age when he started making simple Zoom animations which led to stop motion animations, live action documentaries and re-editing films by Dreyer, Murnau and Eisenstein. By his young teen years his movies were consistently being featured in film festivals. 

It took a few years but I was able to change the focus of my career from touring to mainly studio engineering and production and Aaron was a frequent helper at the studio applying his video editing skills to audio production.

Juli is a Playwright, Artist and Novelist.

We all have our own work we do. 

Coming together to work on An Empty Room was a natural progression, each of us settling into roles that suit us. Juli and Aaron set the look for each episode and are now the two main camera people. I handle the audio recording and editing and book the artists. Most importantly, Juli coordinates everything and keeps the artists entertained and comfortable during the “tech times.” Aaron does all the video editing.

I do believe that we could not get the intimate performances and the one on one feel that the shows have with a more traditional production approach. Keeping the crew small and making the tech as unobtrusive as possible is a key part of setting the mood for the performers. The goal of the series is to remove the wall between the performer and audience and a lot of our having achieved this has to do with the very relaxed and safe feeling atmosphere at the shoots. Juli, Aaron and I trust each other and that inspires trust in the featured artists.

The best thing personally about working as a family on An Empty Room is having the opportunity to watch Aaron and Juli do what they do so masterfully. Having Aaron realize I don’t only love him because he’s my son, I also respect and appreciate him for what he is and does as his own person.

An Empty Room features quality documentary-style storytelling where the up close viewer perspective serves as the sole audience member. Each shared their respective musical journeys and how Atlanta shaped their careers between musical performances of their greatest hits. 

The performances provide a glimpse at who these artists are and what makes them tick. Each artist that performed for An Empty Room back in 2020 created a space of musical intimacy between the artists and their fans, like a one-on-one experience. The series is structured with confessionals between a few songs that act as if you are having a conversation with the artist. Even though it’s live streamed, you feel like you are in the room with them. 

The stories they share really emphasize a sense of closeness. Michelle Malone talks about how she couldn’t take her attention away from the circus band when she went to see the circus as a kid, Shawn talks about how he was brought up on stage for his first ever performance and how the crowd demanded he sing a song on of his own rather than a cover, and Tomi and Trina of Three5Human explore how they met after seeing each other at Little 5 Points Pub in Atlanta. 

Season one featured Michelle Malone, Three5Human, Eliot Bronson, Tyrone Jackson, Shawn Mullins, and Grant Green Jr. All performances are available to watch on demand.