Feeling like an outcast in high school, Charlotte Martin finally found her place among like-minded musicians when she studied vocal performance at Eastern.

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in 1998, the Charleston native made an important decision.

She left her small hometown for Los Angeles.

At 7:30 p.m. Friday in the Black Box Theatre of the Doudna Fine Arts Center, Martin will return to promote her new album, scheduled for release early this year, in a sold-out performance.

Martin said she started writing songs halfway through her senior year at Eastern, which led her to the crossroads of her life.

Breaking her original plans of teaching music in graduate school, Martin moved to LA to seek opportunities to create her own music.

Although Martin’s college experience was positive, she said attending high school in “a little cornfield town where everybody knows everybody” felt suffocating.

“I did a quick trip to Nashville to see if I should go there because LA kind of scared me, and they didn’t know what to do with me so I moved here,” she said.

Martin, who signed to RCA in 2004, has recorded several albums and EPs spanning genres like alternative, pop and electronic.

“I hop around genres all the time,” she said. “I just can’t help it. My whole thing is—if it has keyboards on it and my voice, that’s enough to tie it together.”

Martin’s style has ranged from her first album, “On Your Shore,” an orchestral, mostly live recording to her electronic third album “Stromata” featuring mostly synthesized drums.

Her latest release, 2011’s “Dancing With Needles,” is a hybrid of those styles, she said.

“It’s really hard for artists who have been doing this as long as I have,” she said. “You get to a point where people start to criticize you because you’re doing kind of the same thing, but what else are you going to do?”

Martin said most of her creativity and experimenting involves using different approaches to songwriting, which ultimately sets each album apart.

Although Martin is known for her piano playing, she said only about two songs on the new record were written on piano while the majority were written on drums.

She said creating a familiar sound fans can grasp is important; the trick is to avoid sounding boring.

“I’m trying to push the boundaries on this record, but I’m not going to go ahead and learn to play banjo just so I can sound different,” she said.

Many of Martin’s lyrics are written in stream-of-consciousness style, usually inspired by something she read or saw in a movie.

“I don’t want to be cryptic,” she said. “I want to be artistic. I would like everybody to be able to grasp it on whatever level they’re at emotionally.”

Not until a few years ago did Martin truly become comfortable with singing and playing instruments together, which she attributes to built-up muscle memory in her hands and voice.

“I really have found this zone that I didn’t have in my 20s even though I was touring like crazy,” she said.

She said Jerry Daniels, who was her vocal coach at Eastern, told her that her voice would not mature until she was in her 30s, and she now realizes what he meant.

Daniels, who is now chairman of the music department, said learning to sing is a process both psychologically and physically.

“It takes some longer than others, and even those who can sing really well, the maturity factor is always evident,” Daniels said. “The longer you sing, the more you know exactly where things are.”

Daniels said he remembers Martin having the right combination of attributes for success.

“She was a vibrant personality,” he said. “She had a great voice; she had an exceptional ear, and she had a creative mind.”

He said while many go into the music business with only some of those traits, the key is having commitment and drive.

“It’s all about the work you put in,” he said. “You can’t sing occasionally; you have to make it your business and do it all of the time, and Charlotte’s done really well at that and it’s paid off.”

When Martin was going to Eastern, her father was chairman of the music department.

She said her dad influenced her interest in music, though he swayed her away from studying the woodwind instruments he played.

“I wanted to learn to play an oboe, and he started laughing,” she said. “He was like ‘do you want to get a job later? An oboe major may not open up a big array of possibility for that.’”

Martin said she also learned how to layer her vocals, a signature aspect of her sound today, while participating in a chamber choir at Eastern

This will be Martin’s first show in Charleston, and she said she is looking forward to seeing old friends and bringing her children to her hometown.

She said although she loves being a mom as much as she loves doing music, she avoids giving up music to go completely into “house-wife mode” because of the long journey she took for her career.

“I worked very hard to get here,” she said. “I lived in a van for years and did every little piece of press I could. I worked hard, and I don’t want to just put it on the shelf.”

Stephanie Markham can be reached at 581-2812 or DENverge@gmail.com.