A
lthough Billie Marten sometimes
sings of a need for boldness or
confidence, she always seems to do
so with articulacy that belies her
age. Still only 19, her sophomore record
is bursting with intricate guitar lines and
maturing lyrical topics. Here, the Ripon
native talks about her favourite guitar
excerpts from her second full-length LP....BOXES
“We really layered things up on this song.
Everything. I think there were two or three
electrics, acoustic, electric bass, overdubs,
along with all the synth-y thickness and
various drums to make a proper meaty
sound. For electric songs, I always use my
’83 Tele Elite, which is supposed to be for
people who are very good at mega solos –
but I find it works so smoothly for picking,
like at the end of this song for the coda part.
But when you crank it up, the chords still
sound thick as well.”THE PLAYLIST
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ALBUM SPOTLIGHT
BILLIE MARTEN FEEDING SEAHORSES BY HAND
INTERVIEW SAM ROBERTS
The critically acclaimed teenager takes us on a more introspective
and refined journey on Feeding Seahorses By Hand, recorded
at the home of acclaimed producer Ethan Johns...
BAD APPLE
“Because everything was recorded on four-
track tape, we did add a bit of reversing.
It’s a classic Beatles/T. Rex manoeuvre, but
I just love the sound. So the very start of
this one is actually me singing a small bit of
Radiohead’s Nude. Ethan went nuts on the
electric playing high up on the neck in rapid
lines which, reversed, sounds like a horde of
mice scuttling round or something! I loved
that texture, it doesn’t quite fit, but it’s not
grating or distracting.”
TOULOUSE
“Toulouse is mellow. It’s driven by this Moog
beat we created that’s quite gritty, so I
wanted the guitar sound to be smooth and
sweet – hence the acoustic this time. I guess
the song itself is rather basic, in that it uses
a classic structure and melody, so to make
it too modern would sound odd. We always
double-track and pan for the thickness and
to get that closeness in your headphones.
I did a little harmony line on a classical,
which sound great always. The best is the
£19.99 ‘my first classical’ type from Argos,
we used that all over the first album!”
BETSY
“I couldn’t even figure out for a while how
to play it on guitar all the way through by
myself. The main line of two notes sliding
runs until the end, as thicker chords come
in for the chorus. It’s done on co-producer
Rich Cooper’s Tele, through a little Vibro
Champ mic’d up at his place. We also added
that rhythmic acoustic which reminded me
of Empire Of The Sun a little.”
BLUE SEA, RED SEA
“A basis of acoustics piled on top of each
other, with that line in the choruses sliding
up and down. It wasn’t done with a slide,
though, we tuned it up and down very
quickly in time which was an unnecessary
effort, but enjoyable. It’s country-inspired,
I guess, without planning it to be.”
Feeding Seahorses By Hand by Billie Marten
is out now on Sony Music
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NEW MUSIC