Saying ‘hello’

POP STAR POP-IN: Martina Sorbara, seen here with Dragonette band members Dan Kurtz (left) and Joel Stouffer drops in on her parents from time to time.

Globe-trotting singing star never far from family and her Maple roots

By TRISTAN CARTER

Dragonette lead singer Martina Sorbara was in town for a week in August.

But she just came to say hello.

Martina and her band have been touring the world lately off the success of the electropop hit “Hello”. The single off French DJ Martin Solveig’s album Smash charted as high as 46 on the Billboard Top 100.

“I miss Canada, but I’m there a lot,” the 29-year-old Maple native said from her place in London, England. “I’m so used to not feeling like I have a home that I don’t really miss places — I miss people.”

After performing at Toronto’s Beerfest on Aug. 5 and then again in Edmonton, she was back in London before jetting off later in the month to the Hamptons, Miami and then Puerto Rico.

While in the GTA spent the week at home with her parents: Vaughan MPP Greg Sorbara and his wife Katie.

“She’s a big rock and roll star now,” her father said happily. “We’re very proud of the success she’s had.

“There’s just one qualification: we are desperate for her to move back to Canada so we can see her more.”

She and her husband Dan Kurtz formed Dragonette after recording together in their basement studio just for fun. They moved to London in 2005 after signing with the British label Mercury Records.

“We both were doing separate musical things and then we just decided to join forces so that we don’t have to spend so much time apart,” Martina said in a telephone interview. “Actually, it started as just kind of a fun experiment.”

The band, which also features Toronto-born drummer Joel Stouffer, has since released two EPs and two albums. A third album is in the works but, due to the popularity of “Hello”, the project is taking a back seat to their touring at the moment.

“We can’t just ignore the fact that it’s kind of rocking it around the world and stay at home and write our record and pretend it’s not happening,” she said in explaining the decision.

Martina is no diva. In a very modest and down-to-earth way, she explained that she never envisioned “Hello” gaining worldwide attention.

“I thought it was a cute little song,” she said. “I guess in retrospect it’s a lyric that, it doesn’t matter what language you speak, you can sing along to.”

While the constant travelling can get tiresome, Dragonette still is enjoying the perks of popularity, she said.

“If the money’s not that great and we don’t even know if the show will be good, if it’s a crazy place we’re like ‘Yeah, let’s go,’ it’s almost like we want to have that place under our belts, just because it doesn’t last forever,” she said. “You’ll not always have a reason to be paid to go to Dubai or Manila.”

Martina is one of six children born to Greg and Katie Sorbara. Nicholas, one of her two brothers, works in the film industry. One sister, Ginger, is a photographer and another, Noelle, started the POP Montreal International Music Festival.

“I’m the only one in the family without talent,” remarked the elder Sorbara, tongue planted firmly in cheek. “My kids are just all really great.”

According to Martina, at least part of the credit for her success goes to the Toronto Waldorf School in Thornhill. She built three guitars from scratch while she was a student there.

“It’s very focused on creativity and just making sure you’re developing at all different aspect of your capabilities,” she said. “But as a result I just focused on all the creative stuff and never paid attention to math and science.”

In fact, Martina says, she doesn’t know what she would do for a living if she couldn’t sing.

“I don’t think anybody is going to buy my knitted dolls for enough money that I could sustain myself,” she joked. “So probably music will have to do in some capacity for as long as possible.”