Billie Marten - 'This is How We Move'
Billie Marten is both striking and sensitive on her new single ‘This Is How We Move’
Indie-folk artist Billie Marten is back with a lead single ‘This Is How We Move’ from her upcoming record Drop Cherries, and it’s a stunning, melodic track.
Born in North Yorkshire, Marten (real name Isabella Tweddle) released her first EP Ribbon in 2014, aged just fifteen, and a second one, As Long As, followed a year later. Her debut album Writings of Blues and Yellows arrived in 2016 to much acclaim, and since then she has put out two more incredibly successful records, her previous one Flora Fauna gaining a massive amount of praise all around. And if this new single is anything to go by, Drop Cherries will continue to cement her status as one of the best artists working in the folk music scene today.
Opening with a delicate acoustic guitar line, This Is How We Move pulls the listener in straight away, and when her voice comes in, it makes you feel like you’re floating amongst her beautiful words and the soothing production. Lyrically, the song is as strong as ever. Sparse, but every word feels carefully placed and necessary. “I wasn’t well before him/My bones were awful cold” she sings in her silk-like, crystalline voice. Of the writing process for the album, Billie said: “When I’m trying to write, the creative door is closed most of the time. When it briefly opens, I know I’ve stumbled across moments of true emotion and insight; they give no warning and are often unpredictable. I can’t force the process, something I’m realising more with each album. And that’s why Drop Cherries is a collection of songs expressing genuine and intuitive feeling.”
The guitar, paired with the strings that dip and peak perfectly with her vocals, feel so rhythmic that it actually feels like you’re moving with her, wherever she may be going. “This is how we move/You will be my muse” she delivers during the refrain. Whoever she is singing to should certainly feel lucky.
Drop Cherries is out on April 7.
Words by Lucy Skeet
