Ripon singer on Lauren Laverne’s BBC Radio 6 Music show as new tour and album looms

Billie Marten, who had her own YouTube channel at the age of nine and was discovered by a Harrogate producer aged 12, is hitting the road in May after the release of her fourth album Drop Cherries on April 7 via Fiction Records.

Later in the year the incredibly talented musician will also be a support act in a huge concert at Crystal Palace Park alongside The Lumineers and Rag n Bone Man .

The first glimpse of the album has come in the form of single I Can’t Get My Head Around You, which received its radio debut on Lauren Laverne’s BBC Radio 6 Music show.

“The new track is one to really loud on the long drive out of town or back home," said Marten.

"The sentiment expresses a deep sense of homecoming, arrival at where you'd like to be, and also a slight implausibility of discovering a new era of gladness.

"I truly adore the band's playing on this, so sweet, so natural, so alive.”

Recorded entirely on tape in Somerset and Wales late last summer, Drop Cherries is an album about love and relationships and all the emotional complexities which comes with the territory.

The new album follows Feeding Seahorses by Hand (2019), Writing of Blues and Yellows (2016) and her critically-lauded 2021 album Flora Fauna.

The latter, in particular, was lavished with praise by the likes of CLASH (9/10), The Line Of Best Fit, Uncut and the NME, as well as The Sunday Times Culture section.

Drop Cherries is yet another musical progression for Marten and marks the very first time she has both written and co-produced - with Dom Monks - one of her own records.

Having grown up in public at an age when most youngsters still live at home – Billie moved to London as a teenager after being signed to a division of Sony Records – Marten remains a very authentic and natural songwriter.

But,she says, she is finally starting to trust her own instincts.

“When I’m trying to write, the creative door is closed most of the time,” Billie said.

"When it briefly opens, I know I’ve stumbled across moments of true emotion and insight. I can’t force the process.

"That’s why I know that Drop Cherries is a collection of songs expressing genuine intuitive feeling.”

The title of her new album is taken from a tale she heard from a friend just before she was starting to write new songs.

Creating music that sounds intimate and personal, Billie says the gift of cherries stands for offering someone your love; doing anything you can to make them happy.

“Dropping cherries,” she said, “is such a strong, visceral image that I tried to channel it throughout the recording sessions in Somerset and Wales.

"Imagine stamping blood-red cherries onto a clean, cream carpet and tell me that’s not how love feels.”

Billie Marten is often away from her native Yorkshire these days but will be returning shortly for two special occasions:

A record store show at Leeds Vinyl Whistle on April 13.A full headline show at Brudenell Social Club in Leeds on May 20.

For more information, visit www.billiemarten.com