About Marty Simpson
 
It’s safe to say Marty Simpson wasn’t your typical Australian Idol candidate. Despite that, the 21 year old from Forrester’s Beach on NSW’s Central Coast turned up to the auditions with a mop of shaggy sun bleached hair and his beloved guitar… and left the judges speechless. 

Dicko, the judge notorious for having the most scathing comments, was quick to dub him his “favourite”, adding that Marty had one of the most original voices he’d heard in a long while. And then the whole “non-typical” thing came into play. For several consecutive weeks, the judges openly told Marty on the Idol stage, in front of millions of Australians, that he shouldn’t be there, that he couldn’t conform to the Idol package, that he wasn’t worthy of being in the competition. 

The public didn’t agree – or maybe they did on some points. They didn’t want Marty to win, but they did want to see more of him. They kept voting, and they continuously bombed the show’s website with demands to let Marty play his guitar, or one of his original songs – of which he has close to 25. 

The Australian public wanted to see Marty perform right up until the final four, then they set him free to follow his true goals, doing what he’d never been ashamed of openly admitting – playing his originals and touring the Australian coast. “It gave me so many opportunities and unforgettable experiences,” Marty says of his time on the show. 

“It was one of the best learning experiences throughout my career.” Marty’s open and salt-of-the-earth attitude has the habit of winning people over immediately, and his love for music is obvious. He sings constantly, taps tabletops, strums his guitar and is prone to practising his tunes in stairwells and toilet cubicles – hey, apparently the acoustics are good there. 

Put simply - he’s music to the very core. He’s also been playing since he was nine years old. “I’ve always felt some kind of deep connection with music,” Marty claims. “I can get quite annoying playing around the house constantly, but I am always trying to find new ideas. 

“Sometimes you can spend days and even weeks trying to come up with something new and creative, and then all of a sudden you come up with something fresh and original, jot it down and make a song out of it,” he continues, adding that the environment, art, and “past, present and future” are his biggest inspirations. 

From the very beginning, Marty has been more than keen to load up the Tarago and get himself and his band on the road. “I’ve just always wanted to leave everything and home and travel Australia doing what I love,” he says frankly. Lofty goals of conquering the world are not on this authentic, straight-up, muso’s to-do list. 

“I just want to make a respectable living as an Australian musician,” Marty says. And he’s prepared to earn his keep the real way – touring, writing his own tunes and performing them to audiences who absolutely want him to be there

Influences Dave Matthews Band, the Police, Ben Harper, Incubus, Bob Marley, JBT, John Mayer, Rob Thomas, Nirvana, Lior, Jeff Buckley, David Gray, Sublime, the Beautiful Girls, Jack Johnson, Donavon Frankenreiter, Xavier Rudd, Dispatch, Artic Monkeys, Kings of Leon, Bloc Party, Trial Kennedy, Fat Freddy's Drop, Silverchair, Red hot chilli peppers, Victor Wooten, Eric Bibb, Cocapenny, One Jonathan, Benjalu, Slide, Amos Lee, Chris Koelma, Jessie Schadel, Benjalu

About Marty Simpson
Keen surfer and snowboarder Marty is possibly the most laid-back contestant in last year's competition, and brought his equally laid-back brand of acoustic surfer rock to the competition. 

Introduced to the guitar by his brother, Marty admits he was "pretty ordinary" when he first started, but has improved greatly since then.

The Australian Idol judges obviously agreed, immediately and unanimously sending him through to the Idol top 100 at his audition. "Marty Simpson, welcome to Australian Idol!" cheered judge Kyle Sandilands.

Despite following some stiff competition, he was named one of the Top 12. "It's a wild ride but it's unreal, so I'm gonna enjoy it for a minute," he said as he heard the news.

Marty lists his favourite movies as The Shawshank Redemption and Scarface, love eating seafood and says his favourite bands are The Dave Matthews Band and The Police — even sporting a tattoo inspired by The Police's Synchronicity album on his arm.