Concert Review + Exclusive Interview with recording artist: Billie Marten
Venue: Schubas Tavern. 5.14.2022
By Anita Maree
As they say, sometimes timing is everything. For British singer-songwriter and musician Billie Marten, it all happened years back with the help of her lush voice, subtle guitar playing, and YouTube. Billie’s latest studio album called Fiora Fauna was released on IMPERIAL Music/Fiction Records and the video for “Garden of Eden” is already gaining huge popularity and the song has over 2.5 million Spotify plays. She is only 22 years old and her music is built on a folk/indie foundation with her sound that is extremely mature for her age.
Billie performed at Schubas Tavern in Chicago, and Unrated Magazine caught up with her backstage for an exclusive one on one interview. Billie told us that this was her first time in Chicago and she absolutely loves the city. We spoke about her upbringing, and how music was always around her growing up. Her dad taught her guitar when she was around 7 or 8 years old and she would perform small concerts in front of her family and friends. Her mom would then innocently post videos of her singing and playing guitar on YouTube and this is what started to create a buzz, drawing huge amounts of views. She then told me a few years later she performed on a British YouTube channel called Ont’ Sofa and that really took her career up another level, however being so young it was hard for her to understand what was actually happening. We looked at her musical influencers and she named artists like Cat Stevens, Kate Bush, and Damien Rich. Billie writes her own music and gets inspiration from documenting society, and also from love, laughs, and mental health. She blushed and was quite thrilled to find out her show in Chicago was sold-out and many of her fans drove from all over the Midwest to see her concert. Billie told me she was eternally grateful on the response she is receiving at all her shows.
She took the stage with Jason Odle, her drummer and tour manager. Her smile lit up the room as the crowd greeted her with cheers. She sat down with her guitar and kicked off the night with “Garden of Eden”. Her fans swayed and sang with many of her songs including “Creature of Mine”, “Mice”, “La Lune”, and “Willow”, “She Dances”, and many others. She thanked her fans and spoke to them like they were all old friends.
Billie is currently on tour in the US. From the sound of things, I think that walk in the Garden of Eden might be a long and successful one!
Check out her schedule, music, and more here:
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