Billie Marten

Billie Marten’s delicate, lyrical style of indie folk matured when she was young; she made an impression with her first viral music video as a preteen. Her first full-length album, Writing of Blues & Yellows, drew comparisons to the sound of such influential singer/songwriters as Kate Bush and Nick Drake when it arrived in 2016. She continued to refine and transform her plaintive folk-pop on subsequent efforts Feeding Seahorses by Hand (2019), Flora Fauna (2021), and Drop Cherries (2023). An English singer/songwriter based out of North Yorkshire, Isabella Sophie Tweddle, better known by her stage name Billie Marten, first caught the public’s attention in 2011 (at the age of 12) with a YouTube performance that garnered the budding musician over 100,000 views. By 2014, she had released her first EP and began earning favorable comparisons to fellow English folkies like Laura Marling and Lucy Rose. The following year saw Marten ink a deal with Chess Club Records and release a second EP, and in November of that year, she was nominated for the prestigious BBC Sound of 2016 on the strength of the singles “Bird” and “Heavy Weather.” Her debut full-length, Writing of Blues & Yellows, followed in September of that year. The record received widespread acclaim, with Marten commended for her ability to craft intricate, woeful, and ethereal songs. Still exhibiting those traits, she returned in 2018 with the singles “Mice” and “Blue Sea, Red Sea,” the first results of her sophomore album. Marten had recorded the album to four-track with producer Ethan John at his home in Bath, U.K., with the release, Feeding Seahorses by Hand, issued in mid-2019. The effort was preceded by two more singles, “Cartoon People” and “Betsy.” 2021′s Flora Fauna saw Marten add elements of pop and Krautrock to her expansive sound, while continuing to look inward lyrically. The four-song Acoustic EP arrived later that November. In early 2023, Marten announced the arrival of her fourth long-player with the release of the lead single, “This Is How We Move.” Written and co-produced by Marten with Dom Monks in Somerset and Wales, Drop Cherries was released later that April. ~ James Christopher Monger