LI Sound: Melanie Martinez readying new album, movie

Melanie Martinez is gearing up to launch the next chapter of her career.

The Baldwin native erased earlier entries on her Twitter account and launched a new version of her website to promote her upcoming “K-12” project on Atlantic Records. In a new trailer for the project, Martinez arrives late for class and gets intimidating, creepy looks from her classmates and teacher.

“Been dying to give you all an Album/Movie update but wanted to wait until I was sure the film would be done in time,” Martinez wrote in a now-deleted Instagram post in February. “The album has been done for like 2 years  now I’ve just been waiting to finish up the movie.”

Anticipation for new music from Martinez has grown in intensity the longer she has stayed out of the spotlight. She hasn’t released any new music since her platinum debut album “Cry Baby” in 2015 and a handful of remix EPs, even though she has already racked up an impressive three platinum singles, including “Pity Party,” and five more gold singles.

However, the wait is all part of Martinez’s plan. “Some of you keep asking when singles are going to drop, and the answer is they’re not,” she wrote on Instagram. “I’m putting out a concept album and an hour and a half long movie.”

The indie-pop singer-songwriter showed that she could handle those responsibilities with her work on the videos for “Cry Baby.” Martinez released a video for every song from the album, one at a time over a period of two years, that all stand alone, but also fit into a larger story that has netted her more than one billion views on YouTube.

Martinez apparently plans to release “K-12” all at once – the same way Beyonce’s “Lemonade” arrived – and she has had complete control of the project, writing, directing and styling the entire movie. It’s not clear what it’s about, though Martinez told Newsday in 2014 that she struggled her senior year at Baldwin High School, after she was placed sixth on the third season of “The Voice.”

Martinez has said on Instagram that it is finished, though it still has to go through a few months of postproduction, with a release date expected at the end of the summer.

“Sending love,” she wrote on Instagram. “Can’t wait till you all can see/hear what I’ve been workin’ real hard on for the past 3 years!”

Contact The Long Island Sound at glenn.gamboa@newsday.com or follow @ndmusic on Twitter.