Billie Marten’s Songwriting Survival Kit

Billie Marten on her songwriting survival kit: “I only get inspiration from the exterior world, unless there are pressing matters to talk about.”

Curious to know more about the singer-songwriter’s process, we asked her to reveal those items she just can’t write without

From cover songs uploaded to YouTube through two EPs and a further pair of albums (2016’s Writing Of Blues And Yellows and 2019’s Feeding Seahorses By Hand), the music of singer-songwriter Billie Marten is acoustic folk which drew strength from its serenity. Single Garden Of Eden, the first to be dropped from the album Flora Fauna, pulses with a throbbing bass, suggesting her trademark sound has been beefed up somewhat without losing any of her trademark bucolic charm. Curious to know more about Marten’s process, we asked her to reveal those items she just can’t write without.

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I’m quite the newbie when it comes to having my own studio. In fact, this is the first time I’ve had my own space 24/7, so my process is bound to change with all the new trinkets to experiment with, but for starters I use…

1. MY NOTEBOOK

I’m always noting things down – anything that stimulates me then and there. It could be something someone said once, something I saw in nature, colours, sounds, smells, feelings… Sometimes it’s quite a painful sentiment but that’s okay as it allows me to get it out and move on, and I can pick things up again whenever. There’s a real mishmash of things on here, for instance, my last notes were: ‘Music is a lot like Mariokart’, ‘Rolling pastures, does the sun shine on your jacket?’ and things Uber drivers have said to me… Me: “I miss the sun.” Him: “I know the rain has eaten it.”

I’m incredibly private about my writing because it’s not for anyone else yet, so I’m comforted by that and it lets me let out whatever I want.

2. MY ’58 GIBSON OR MY CLASSICAL

I don’t have a favourite guitar, they all play different roles for me, so if I need to write I’ll pick up whatever is closest, and that tends to be my trusty Gibson, which sounds like you dipped your ears in the 70s, or my classical that I got from a very bizarre witchcraft shop in Haworth. I find making songs on a classical forces me to focus on the guitar part itself, melodies and harmonies sing out more on a nylon string. It also allows me to make very fiddly parts that I know I can overdub on something later.

Saying that, my most recent record has for the majority been written on my Mustang bass (a drunk purchase that I then had to utilise), on which I have no experience whatsoever, so that was an equally enlightening process. All in all, whatever’s there is bound to get played.

Billie Marten’s Songwriting Survival Kit in Songwriting Magazine Spring 2021

3. TIME AWAY

I know this isn’t really the point of this piece but aside from all the gear set up and fairy lights and cups of tea, it’s then up to you to start creating, and I find that within studio culture there’s actually a heck of a lot of distraction and sometimes little substance. People love to talk about gear and never actually use it or, equally, people might keep adding to their plethora of things and never be ready to create.

I am an incredibly sporadic writer and I can’t do anything close to a 9-5, so I compensate for that by making sure all my outside experiences are worthwhile. I only get inspiration from the exterior world, unless there are pressing matters to talk about. But, usually, I need to feel something from the earth before I can get going. So, the walking time to and from the studio and the resting time around it, the life experiences that we’re all craving right now, they are actually as important as the button pushing, if not much more.

4. LISTENING/WATCHING

The mother of all inspiration – copying. Let it be known that no one has had an original musical thought, it’s all been done, which is no bad thing. I love to get caught up in a new or old album and just immerse myself in someone else’s vocabulary for a while. I love to hear how they found their bass sound or what sort of effects are on their vocal and how they’re delivering it. It’s so refreshing to hear how other people do it, especially when you’re rehearsing and you’re struggling and you need to watch someone else. I quite often search female-fronted bands or solo artists to see how they do things, how they interact with the crowd or use their mouth or hold their body. It’s so important to make the music you can envisage yourself playing in front of others, although I’m only just discovering how integral that is to feeling confident in your writing. In a previous life, with nowhere to write except my room, I’d always be whispering into myself, almost inaudible, which makes it incredibly difficult to share later down the line.

5. BOOKS

Whenever I’m reading, which is hopefully most of the time, I always have a pen with me to underline things (sorry Dad). They’re words that’ll spring out for me. I get frustrated if I’m not reading because I know I will have spent too much time looking at a screen and not enough on paper. It trains your eyes in a different way and keeps them equally as stimulated, without that guilt afterwards. Distraction is key to writing, you have to creep up on it so you don’t scare her.

Flora Fauna is out now via Fiction Records and can be found at billiemarten.com

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