AWOL ONE, born Tony Martin in East Los Angeles California, was born like any other human kid......from an zygote. His father, Portuguese, and his mother, Irish, grew up on the east coast and moved to L.A. where they met and conceived a little walrus. The walrus grew to love music and art, He knew that he would do it forever, now in his early 30's he feels that he has recorded his best album yet, the upcoming Fake Four release "Owl Hours".
Over his nearly 15 year career Awol One has built a strong and very loyal grassroots fan base from his albums and touring extensively throughout the U.S , Canada, Japan and Europe solo and as a member of the legendary Shape Shifters and Project Blowed crew The Massmen. AWOL's music has been featured in Movies, MTV, The Source Sound Lab, and countless skateboard and graffiti dvds , also magazines such as the cover of L.A. Record, URB, Spin, XLR8R, Slap, Thrasher, Vice, Life Sucks Die, Mean Street, Revolver, L.A. Weekly, O.C Weekly and was winner of the 2002 LA Weekly Music Award. He has collaborated on tracks with very high profile hip hop artists such as KRS One, Kool Keith, Evidence and Atmosphere just to name only a few. Awol and Factor even rocked to packed crowds of teenybopper indie rock fans when they toured with Montreal band, Islands, and stadiums of car fans Djing on the Lowrider Magazine Tour. He also creates custom art for other people, makes beats and helps run a hip hop skateboard company, Soundclash Inc. at the same time being a father. Through the years Awol continues to gain respect from artists and fans of all genres and never fails to keep his art and music completely real and original while giving respect to other artist and musicians.
While touring through Canada a few years ago with Busdriver and Circus, Awol met the Producer/DJ named Factor and began building a friendship and working relationship from there. Following the success of a single called "try" , the duo of Awol One and Factor released "Only Death Can Kill You", a mellow hip hop record full of Awol's perfectly simple yet clever self analyzing lyrics and characteristic gruff voice over Factor's melodic and precisely crafted production. Almost 3 years later they are releasing a completely different sounding album - Owl Hours - what some would perceive as Awol and Factor's album of mass and magnitude. Production moves from Electronic Pop to Folk Hop with a number live musicians contributing their talents. Topics range from celebrations, darkness, love and analysis to straight up drunken party anthems all told through the eccentric eyes of Walrus One. Guest vocalists on "Owl Hours" ( including Aesop Rock, Myka 9, Tha Alkaholiks, Sunspot Jonz of Living Legends, and executive producer Xzibit ) all seem inspired and come off strong as ever over Factor's catchy, hard hitting beats. Also included on the Owl Hours album is a Bonus Dj Fingaz remix feat. Xzibit and B Real of Cypress Hill. Fans of Awol's past work and former naysayers alike all agree that this is an extremely fresh, wize and enjoyable 35+ minutes of music.
To many, "Owl Hours" will be an Awol One highlight......and he's just a stupid human.
