Scott Zartman, singer-songwriter, born and raised in Hanover, PA. He’s actually been writing music for some 40 years now. His first recollections of loving music were at age 4 when hearing the Beatles on the car radio. It must have been their harmony and melody that stuck in his head. In his opinion, “Hey Jude,” was an instant classic and that chorus at the end was amazingly catchy. A young Scott would use his mother’s fake silver candle holders as microphones to sing to an imaginary audience. Smitten by his favorite group KISS at age 14, he taught himself how to play guitar. About six months later he realized he could sing and play at the same time and wrote his very first song. Scott still has all of his earlier compositions sealed away in a time capsule. His mother gave him her old record collection introducing him to Motown, Elvis and other 60’s greats. For many years it was just Scott and his acoustic guitar. He developed a folk like sound for that reason. But he realized in the late 70s that the only way he could make it as a musical artist was to either go to LA or NYC and live out of his car taking any job he could find as well as play every place that would allow him to in order to get noticed. But that wasn’t something he wanted to pursue right out of high school.
In the meantime, he worked on his singing developing his vibrato. He felt very sure of his voice and if a show such as American Idol had been available in the early 90s, Scott would have definitely auditioned for it. He recorded many songs on his tape recorder until about 2000. Technology eventually gave Scott a chance to make music like the pros first with a 4-track recorder and then by way of the computer in his bedroom home studio. He tends to write songs from the heart defined by feeling and the relationships in between. And yet very few are autobiographical. In 2015 Scott had been contemplating semi-retiring from music. He had stopped performing at his local church feeling as if his heart was no longer in it. His father had passed away and his natural singing voice started to deteriorate somewhat. Scott was losing confidence in what he could do creatively. And yet Scott decided not to give up and continued on with the project until it was finished.
His first digital album released was ‘Open to Suggestion’ from 2017 followed up with his sophomore effort, ‘Making Up for Lost Time’ in 2018. The new record, ‘Make Your Move,” came out in May of 2021. One of his trademark signatures in the home studio is recording chorus vocals twice. To him it seems to make the song stand out more. Scott can play acoustic, electric and bass guitars as well as a little piano and keyboard. The only instrument he doesn’t play is the drums and for a singer-songwriter, drum loops are perfect for keeping the beat. He hasn’t changed his sound after all these years but strangely enough some folks may consider him a little bit country now. Currently Scott is not performing. His philosophy on music is quite simple… try to have the listener hum along with the songs so that they want to hear them again and again. Being memorable was the greatest attribute he took away from the Beatles.
OFFICIAL LINKS:
https://scottzartman.hearnow.com/
https://open.spotify.com/album/3awgnzcimP5KUwy1PKtdUq
https://store.tidal.com/us/album/179868945
https://music.apple.com/us/album/make-your-move/1562953164
