The Rocky Valentines’ Royal Bloodline
Sorting through new releases can be exhausting. The CCM Magazine inbox fills up daily with press releases and pitches. But if it says Velvet Blue Music, I stop and listen. I trust the label. They know how to deliver the full package. Music that matters, and a reason to actually own it.
“It’s just really real to me. It came together at the right time when I needed something to go right.” Charles Martin knows how to write a song. It’s in his blood.
His dad is Jason Martin of Starflyer 59. His uncle? Ronnie Martin of Joy Electric. Together, those two helped define what “Christian indie rock” even was. A rebellion in the 90s of making sacred music that didn’t sound like church. Charles grew up around that legacy—but The Rocky Valentines doesn’t just feel like someone resting on a royal bloodline.
With their second album, Music on the Shelf, Charles steps further into his own sound: a jangly, sunburnt mix of post-punk, lo-fi pop, and subtle introspection. The project, once a solo endeavor, now functions as a proper trio with Levi Perelman on guitar and Luke Westrup on bass. Still, Charles plays drums, piano, guitar, and handles all vocals. It’s a band, but it’s still very much his voice.
“I wanted to have a little bit different vibe on this record, as opposed to the first one where I played everything,” he says. “It was fun to have some of my buddies being involved and playing on it.”
Sonically, the album lives somewhere between Weezer and The Cure, with flashes of Morrissey melancholy and Switchfoot sincerity. You could surf to it. Or sit on a train from Paddington to Cardiff and let it wash over you. It’s not explicitly Christian music, but it carries the DNA: thoughtful, reflective, maybe even hopeful.
Jason Martin, who recorded the album at his Room Studio, sees that creative tension firsthand.
“I see a lot of myself in him,” Jason says. “He loves writing songs and being in a band but doesn’t really love the idea of being the front man. Charlie is a great musician—drums, guitar, whatever. He’s very easy to record and produce.”
Ronnie Martin, looking back on the journey that led here, reflects on the family’s unlikely musical arc.
“Jason and I didn’t come from a family that had a deep musical legacy,” Ronnie says. “It really began with the two of us and an upright piano that I asked my parents to buy so that I could learn how to play like Keith Green. To look back on the last 35-plus years of collective work between two brothers that Charlie is now building upon is a very beautiful, satisfying, and humbling thing.”
The songs on Music on the Shelf moves at its own pace. The title track opens with bright, layered guitars. “The Nat Song” keeps that momentum, but the emotional weight builds from there. “Wannabe” kicks off with a school bell. “Graduation” digs in. The album closes with a sample from American Graffiti, where Cindy Williams tells Ron Howard, “We’re not kids anymore.” It’s a quiet gut punch. And paired with the final track title— “No Fear of Heights”—you start to see the picture: this is a coming-of-age record, but you may not realize that until the second or third listen.
Then there’s “Where the Grass Is Green,” a last-minute addition that surprised even Charles.
“I wrote it a few days before we started recording,” he says. “Didn’t spend much time on it like I usually do. But it ended up being one of my favorites. Go figure.”
The visuals hit just as hard. The artwork—by Jake Quintanar, who also designed the debut—is strange and striking.
“I was going for something kinda creepy but mysterious looking,” Charles says. “I think he nailed it.”
Released July 18 on Velvet Blue Music, the album is available on LP, CD, and cassette. For longtime collectors, that label means something. Velvet Blue still caters to the listener who wants to hold music in their hands—who values sleeve design, packaging, and physical formats.
Music on the Shelf may sound nostalgic, but it’s not stuck in the past.
