BILLIE MARTEN

In her latest record, Billie Marten pours herself into a loose, free-flowing body of work that confidently outlines her growing artistic exploration.

Billie Marten is undeniably on the fast track as a breakout British artist, but, right now, the acclaimed writer is gracefully slipping into a softer pace of creativity. “It was beautifully serendipitous and accidental,” Marten says, reflecting on her rise to fame. “I'm not a natural extroverted performer, I find it really hard, so when I was seven or eight, I was kind of oblivious to it all.” Marten, now 22-years-old, blossomed into the music world as a teen and has released three records, including her first independent work titled album Flora Fauna; an intelligent collection of tracks couched in bold, thoughtful experimentalism. Now with a new album to her name, the singer has been bidding her time as she overcomes “a horrible” runin with COVID-19, and has spent the last few weeks mulling over future premonitions and past events. Marten, who rose to fame online, found a connection with music through her family, who took her to her first gigs, including P!nk who she describes as “fucking great”. Since then, the artist has become a tour de force cultivating emotionally tactical songs adorned with sweet nods to nature. As a blooming musical figure, Marten is self-aware of the responsibilities and sacrifices of a writer. “We are writers. We have our own narrative and we publish that publicly and that's our lives, so we really are just sharing bits of our brain every day,” she says, gazing away from the frame of the Zoom call. “To us, it can seem so unbelievably unstable and it's really hard to continue each day on the same level, but if we did do that we wouldn't be human and we wouldn't do the jobs that we did.” That feeling of being “human” is neatly threaded throughout much of Marten’s work. The singer weaves in the complexities of oneself with inexplicable ease — the reason, the artist later reveals, is an affinity with nature: “The natural world is one thing I can most empathise with. I can do that much better than I can people,” she admits. “I've realised that that's my method.”

Marten’s musical portraits may capture vivid sceneries or sun-drenched yellow visions, but the artist’s wellfitting attachment to a nature-led aesthetic has left her occasionally feeling cramped by the assumptions that followed. “Lots of pictures have been painted about my upbringing that isn’t necessarily true,” she says mildly frustrated. “I'm definitely not a small prairie girl who wanders the wheat fields every morning and gets buckets of water from the well and shit like that. I'm from the second smallest city in England, but we were dotted around villages outside of a town that's technically a city.” As Marten continued to grow, the singer, much like fellow alternative artists Aurora and Birdy, saw themselves unforgivingly bound to aesthetic associations that have trailed their flourishing careers. “There are certain elements coming into play here. If I was male, I don’t think would get this much focus on being this nymph character. I don't want people to assume that I'm naive and that I don't know how the world works. I'm very ensconced in that way of modern living. I love nature and I will always talk about it.”

And talk about it we do, but as Flora Fauna digs its roots in the conversation, we ask Marten what movie she would liken her impressive album to. “I thought of the running scene in Forrest Gump,” she laughs lightly. “Both running scenes. First when he takes his braces leg braces off and he's sort of this free boy that's part of humanity again. Then, also, the miles across each state with one goal. Imagery and cinematography wise, that is not what I would put the album with. I don't know, hard question.” Difficult questions aren’t an easy feat, but that doesn’t stop Marten from “dwelling on the past and future” as she admits to entertaining her own speculative thoughts. “I do wonder how much would be different if I waited another four or five years to do music?” she muses. “Sonically, what would be different? How my personality would have changed? But, to be honest, I'm really glad that it happened when it did. It showed me what I was comfortable with and what I wasn't and what I needed to learn. I was in the industry from being a mid-teen and now I'm at the point where I'm more knowledgeable and

"I'M DEFINITELY NOT A SMALL PRAIRIE GIRL WHO WANDERS THE WHEAT FIELDS EVERY MORNING AND GETS BUCKETS OF WATER FROM THE WELL AND SHIT LIKE THAT."

I can look after myself better. I'm glad I'm doing that now and not in 10 years.”

After snagging a record deal with Sony aged 16, Marten’s path as an artist continued to unfold with two standout albums. But, as the dynamic shifted, the singer opted to leave the big label in 2019 after her second release, Feeding Seahorses by Hand. “There were a lot of cooks the first time around,” Marten recalls. “I still very much got the album I wanted to make, and there was kind of no way that wouldn't happen. But, as you grow older and do this for a longer amount of time then people tend to leave you alone a bit more.” When it comes to music she likes to create and humanly experience, Marten leans towards “honest” music. “I like unassuming songs that are really beautiful. I used to say sad songs were the best, but that's not true,” she explains over the Zoom call. “It's that feeling you get when you hear something in a film or on the street and it makes you have that human connection and that's what speaks to me. I become really obsessed with that feeling. It's like a drug. Some people don't have that human connection to music, Sincere music is exactly what Martin pulls off. In Flora Fauna, we witness the singer self-reflecting on tranquil moments: I'm in the kitchen / I am free, pouring / No destination / Liquid love under my skin”, which are soon juxtaposed with grittier realisations as she edges closer to darker feelings. “Got a war with my body / Never win, never lose / Evidence in the feeling” she candidly sings to the springy beats of ‘Ruin’. In hindsight of her mature musical mosaic, the singer has opted to steer away from labelling its creative process as “healing” one. “The whole catharsis label has been pummeled to death,” she says. For Marten, the creation and concept of the album were instinctive. “It has just a natural response. It's like brushing your teeth or getting changed into your clothes. It feels like that. I get the sudden urge to write and that formulates into an album and that's sort of the nice part. After that, it’s months of repetition and toil.” No matter how seamless Marten’s work may seem, the artist still struggles with being front and centre and commercialising her work. “The performance element and the selling yourself part is another realm of difficulty,” she admits. “It's hard being so fickle so commercial and the whole thing.” Pausing, she adds: “No one ever asked Van Gough to repaint The Starry Night and sometimes I feel like that. Other times, I feel like this is my job and this is what comes with it. One must get on with it, essentially. The healing comes from the very beginning part where you have some words and you need to say them.” Our conversation goes full circle as Marten ruminates on her next steps as she finds herself in her selfdescribed “dread zone”. “I’ve put an album out and I’ve done no gigs. I haven't met anyone yet and I had to cancel every gig last week,” she sighs, frustrated at the creative gridlock. “I'm trying to write as much as I can and I think I'm really leaning into my lifestyle, which I've made for myself, which I used to try and escape.” As industries slowly grind back into action, Marten has found a gentle rhythmic pace that works best for her. “Lockdown and COVID have taught me that I am quite at peace with taking everything very slowly,” she smiles, self-assured. “I will never do a 9-5 and I will never be tenacious with my work, and that's fine.” Unwavering and determined, Marten has journeyed a long way from YouTube to the fresh-faced success of her shimmering third record. Simply put, Flora Fauna sits as a homage to her new strength as a young musician, and we can’t wait to see what she does next.

"NO ONE EVER ASKED VAN GOUGH TO REPAINT THE STARRY NIGHT AND SOMETIMES I FEEL LIKE THAT. OTHER TIMES, I FEEL LIKE THIS IS MY JOB AND THIS IS WHAT COMES WITH IT."

The album "Flora Fauna" is out now via Fiction Records and Billie tours the UK this September and October.

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