Q&A: Billie Marten’s Worn, Underlined, & True Bearings on ‘Dog Eared’
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY CHLOE GONZALES ☆
Photo by Frances Carter
“Dog Eared is just a metaphorical way of feeling kind of worn — but in the way books are worn when they’ve been loved. I used to be precious with everything. Now I underline, fold corners, let it all get messy — and that feels more honest.” – Billie Marten has started a new era with her upcoming album, Dog Eared. Capturing her essence in late night studio sessions, Marten delves into animalistic verbiage and more to dissect themes of love.
“Dog Eared came from this idea that we’re taught to keep things pristine — but the things we love the most end up a little bent, a little marked, a little lived in. That felt true for the album, and for me.”
The Luna Collective had the pleasure to talk to Billie Marten about her upcoming album.
Photo by Frances Carter
LUNA: Are you a dog or cat person?
BILLIE: I have a cat, he’s over there! Here’s the thing: I’ve never had a dog, but I love dogs. It’s purely for practical reasons that I don’t have one, so therefore I’m technically a cat person, but the aim is to just have all of them.
LUNA: Like a little farm?
BILLIE: I want a farm. I want the horses, the pigs, the cows. I want hay. I want to get up every morning and collect eggs from my chickens. I want them all.
LUNA: I wanted to dive into Dog Eared. Love love love the album name and I got to read a little bit about it but wanted to hear from you: What inspired it and what made you settle on the album name? Were there any other contenders that almost made it?
BILLIE: I got the list [of album names]. Oh, I have the songs, but not the titles actually. But there’s a three-pronged approach [to the album name]. I wanted to dehumanize the album by adding an animal touch. There’s lots of animal references in there. There’s a lot of ways you can use animals to describe and I think they’re excellent tools that we have. Then there was a literary reference, when you fold over a page of a book, you’ve dog-eared it. I did it whilst making the album when I was reading. And I thought it’s so funny how we just automatically call that a dog ear and don’t question it. And I remember as a kid, I was told to never do that, and you had to use a bookmark, and that books were very precious things. And I feel that as we grow up, we’re seen as such precious kind of porcelain beings that can’t be exposed to real things, or if they do, they need to be cradled and for a lot of my life, I certainly was that. And now, of course, as an adult, I underline everything I like in books, and certainly dog ear them and they’re ruffled and have been in the sea – it’s just a metaphorical way of feeling kind of worn. There’s another meaning of the title. Also the original album cover was going to be a picture of my cat yawning, but it looked like he was singing/screaming, kind of like a screamo album. But therefore, the album title was a juxtaposition to that.
LUNA: That’s so lovely … especially the second meaning being different ways to show how to love something and just because it’s worn, you’re physically showing that it was loved at one point. Especially going into a used bookstore and there’s someone’s past within a book and sometimes you’ll even see when you open up a book, there’s a note to someone. It’s nice to see the history behind your book.
BILLIE: Secondhand all the way!
LUNA: What scenery would you say your album embodies?
BILLIE: Very difficult. It depends on who’s listening and where they’ve been in their lives. But because of my experience with this album, I am in the studio. It will be 10pm in the studio. We’ve finished for the day. Maybe go out for a drink and come back in. That kind of nighttime energy, very different to morning energy, which I don’t really have any of. This is very much the after, we’re coming into corporate. I said this before, that the only descriptive tool I can use for this album is calling it a lava lamp. So in that case, we’re in someone’s garage, basement, or like a rehearsal space. It feels quite DIY to me, but also very polished and proper. There’s a lot of contradictions on this album.
LUNA: I also wanted to know more about the album artwork. Who created it?
BILLIE: Daniel Borgonovi is a Brazilian artist living in rural Ireland. He brings a lot of vibrant colors and feelings and passion to this kind of very gray bleak Irish scene, which I enjoy. I only know about him because he sent me a message a few years ago saying I’ve accidentally painted you. And he showed me the painting and I thought it was really good. Loved his style, it felt really new and individual to me and it was just this blonde person in a blue pinafore holding a pig. I thought that was so fitting and that it was coming around to artwork time, so I dropped him a message and said, “Here’s the album. No pressure. Listen to it whilst you’re painting.” And I’m not going to say anything other than that, because I usually would give a fair amount of direction, but I’ve come to realize that the more you use and celebrate other people, it’s easier to celebrate the things that you’ve made, because it’s such a point of collaboration. I can finally say that I love the album cover, because it’s not a picture of my face, and is very much through the eyes of somebody else. And yeah, that was his first go at it.
Cover art by Daniel Borgonovi
LUNA: You also did this fun guerilla marketing by placing bookmarks into books at local bookstores to accompany Dog Eared. Does it inspire you to do more of that grassroots approach, connecting with fans? How was that experience?
BILLIE: I pretty much loathe and detest all standard music marketing. I find it completely insufferable, and ultimately I’m giving people an insufficient or kind of incorrect version of myself. So this was just the simplest thing in the world. I didn’t have to act, I didn’t have to look a certain way – it didn’t have to do anything with me other than the books. I like to read, which made me feel really close to people, because I was sharing something that was very true, and something that we could all do together. And I love exploring the city because on tour it is really hard because you see the venue and then the bus. No two bookstores were the same, even considering that we went to 18 in three weeks. I’m hoping that I can keep it going for all the shows this year.
LUNA: What emotions do you want to invoke from people for this particular album?
BILLIE: Sadness in joy. Joy in sadness. I think on this album, I’m thinking a little less and I’ve spent over 10 years now thinking so hard and no one’s made me do that. It’s just been a natural way that I have grown to learn, so there’s an emotion of freedom. I think I just would like people to also think a bit less and just follow me on that path instead.
LUNA: What love fates do you ascribe to? Like astrology or red string theory, all that jazz.
BILLIE: I do think there’s something pushing you towards a certain person or pulling you away from a certain person. For instance, you're trying to meet up with someone and two or three times something happens and you can’t. I would then take that as a sign. But I think it’s an ease. Things have to be easy sometimes but they also have to be incredibly inspiring and challenging. You just really have to like the person and you have to like who you are when you’re with them. Love is just fascinating and I didn’t know it was a thing, didn’t believe in it, until I felt it.
Photo by Frances Carter
