
In Conversation with Billie Marten (Interview by Dexter K.)
UK Singer-Songwriter Billie Marten joins WCBN’s Dexter Kaufmann ahead of her tour stop in Detroit on November 12th at St Andrew’s Hall. Billie gained popularity in the UK folk scene as a teenager and has spent the last decade evolving her sound. The culmination of this evolution is her latest album “Drop Cherries”, which features tender lyrics over slick production by Marten and the Grammy-nominated Dom Monks (Big Thief, Ray LaMontagne, Nick Cave). Listen to “Drop Cherries” and see her live with Canadian band Half Moon Run. Dexter Kaufmann: The act of making a setlist is difficult because you want to exhibit your original work, especially when you’re promoting a new album. But at the same time, there’s something so fun about playing or hearing a cover at a live show. Do you have any covers in your back pocket for this tour? Billie Marten: Well funny you should say that because last night I ended the set. I’ve been doing completely different set lists every night because it’s fun for me, and last night we were in Victoria, which is where Nelly Furtado is from, so we played “I’m Like A Bird” at the end. DK: You’ve mentioned Nick Drake and Joni Mitchell as some of your influences. Anyone who’s tried to learn their songs will notice the bizarre alternate guitar tunings. Do you also enjoy playing with alternate tunings? BM: I do. I do it quite often because I find that it helps me write new, different-sounding songs. A lot of the Drop Cherries album is in a low C sharp tuning which I think is a John Martyn tuning. But sometimes you just turn the tuning pegs and then it comes out into a completely different tuning shape that hasn’t been done before and then it kind of opens the gateway to another song. DK: I’m glad you brought up John Martyn because I know that you took your stage name from him. Do you think that your name Billie Marten is a stage name that’s separate from your personal life, or do you feel like at this point, you and Billie Marten are one and the same? BM: Funny question. I think it’s important to have a little bit of separation between performance you and artist you and personal home life you. But everybody knows me as Billie anyway, so I find that keeping them close in terms of character is also quite beneficial. I suppose you are acting in a way when you’re performing because I’m certainly not a natural performer but there are elements of that performance where you know that the things people want to see and hear are parts of you that are personal and hidden. So you have to reveal, kind of systematically, parts of yourself. It’s very calculated. DK: Do you enjoy that aspect of performing? Do you enjoy the act of making a character and sort of creating a movie and an aesthetic for an album, or do you