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Billie Marten

Isabella Sophie Tweddle (born 27 May 1999), better known under the stage name Billie Marten, is a British singer-songwriter and musician from Ripon in North Yorkshire. Her stage name came from her family's desire to keep her real name private because her music career started when she was a tween. She first came to prominence at the age of twelve when a video on YouTube of her singing garnered thousands of views. She released her first EP at the age of fifteen in 2014, and her second EP a year later. At the end of 2015, she was nominated for BBC's Sound of 2016 award. She has since released four full-length albums: Writing of Blues and Yellows, Feeding Seahorses by Hand, Flora Fauna, and Drop Cherries, all of which have received critical acclaim. Her style can be described as singer-songwriter and folk.

Early life

Isabella (or "Billie") Tweddle was born 27 May 1999 at a home in Risplith in North Yorkshire. She began playing guitar and singing when she was seven or eight, and started writing songs soon afterwards. By the age of nine she had her own YouTube channel on which she posted covers of pop songs, mostly for the benefit of her grandparents who live in France. When she was twelve she performed some music sessions for a local Yorkshire based YouTube channel called Ont' Sofa. Among the songs she performed was a cover version of Lucy Rose's "Middle of the Bed", which quickly received thousands of views. In a later interview Marten said "I didn't understand how quickly it could spread. I was super young and it was crazy." She was educated at Ripon Grammar School. She has a brother who is 10 years older than her. Her father is a copywriter and her mother is a teacher. With the money she received after signing a record deal with Sony at age 16, she purchased a Series One Land Rover Defender. Because she did not yet have a driving licence, her father drove the vehicle.

Music career

In May 2014, just before her fifteenth birthday, Billie Marten released the single "Ribbon" via Burberry's curation program. She wrote the single with Fiona Bevan the previous year. According to Marten, one theme of "Ribbon" is "the elusiveness of the city, and how quickly you can lose something amongst the people and tube stations." In June 2014 she released her debut EP Ribbon. In August 2014 Marten played the BBC Introducing stage at the Reading Festival. She described her music in December 2014 as "a mix between acoustic and quite folky and a little indie."

In January 2015 Billie Marten signed to Chess Club Records, a division of Sony Music and their RCA Records recording label. She released the single "Heavy Weather" in April 2015 which premiered on Huw Stephens' BBC Radio 1 show. A 7" vinyl version of "Heavy Weather" was released in May with her cover version of Royal Blood's "Out of the Black" on the B-side. She released the single "Bird" in September 2015. She wrote the song with Olivia Broadfield, and according to Marten, the song is about "how words can truly affect people, not always for the right reasons". She toured for the first time in October 2015 as the supporting act for Lucy Rose. Marten released her second EP As Long As in November 2015.

In November 2015 she was nominated for the BBC Sound of 2016. She released her first full-length album, Writing of Blues and Yellows, on 23 September 2016.

In 2018 Marten's "Blue Sea, Red Sea", which was released as a single for her second album, featured as Annie Mac's hottest record on Radio 1. Her second LP, Feeding Seahorses by Hand, was released 26 April 2019. In 2019; Sony's boutique label, Chess Club, which Marten had previously released two albums and several EPs under, dissolved, leading to her separation from Sony. She expressed frustration with the large amount of money that record labels earn from streaming music, leaving artists struggling financially, saying, "Most people I know that have a top 10 album right now are on Universal Credit,". She described being dropped by Sony as "the best day of my life...This was my saving grace." She later signed with Fiction Records in 2020 during mandatory lockdown orders in the United Kingdom.

In January 2021, Marten announced her third album titled Flora Fauna, which released 21 May 2021. In January 2023, she announced her fourth studio album titled Drop Cherries. Marten explained that the title alludes to dropping everything to express your love for a person. The album was released on 7 April 2023.

Musical Influences

She cites Damien Rice and Nick Drake among her musical inspirations. English singer songwriter, Lucy Rose was one of her influences during her adolescence.

Personal life

At aged 18, Marten was diagnosed with severe seasonal affective disorder (SAD), causing some depression and anxiety. After her first album and touring campaign concluded, Marten got a job working in a London pub for several months; this job served as inspiration for the song, "Toulouse" from her second album. The title refers to Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, a French illustrator. Her favorite book is The Stranger by Albert Camus.

Marten attended university for English Literature but decided to disenroll after six weeks. During the time she was enrolled, she continued pursuing her musical career by touring but also attended university twice a week - on Mondays and Fridays. She recalls losing sleep over reading Oliver Twist. However, Marten described this period, in a 2019 podcast with Kate McGill, as feeling discouraged by the lack of feedback on her work, and by classmates who came unprepared and didn't show interest in assignments.

Marten resides in London with her partner, Will Taylor of Flyte. During 2020, she briefly moved back to her parents' home in North Yorkshire for 6 months due to the mandatory COVID-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom. Her time spent in Yorkshire during lockdown served as inspiration for her third album.

Her single, "Ribbon", released from her debut EP of the same name, was inspired by her train journeys from Yorkshire to London to perform at concerts when she was a teenager. Her mother is Christian and her father is an atheist; Marten was raised with different views on religion and does not follow a particular religion. She cities Robin Hood's Bay, a small fishing village in Yorkshire, as one of her favorite places in the world. Marten is left-handed.