Billie Marten released her new album Drop Cherries via IMPERIAL Music. To coincide with the release, Billie has also shared Drop Cherries: The Film, directed by Joe Wheatley. Performed live in one take in a gorgeous mid-century home in rural Nottinghamshire alongside musicians from the album recording, the film only amplifies the stunning intimacies of the project. Drop Cherries: The Film premiered last Thursday at Close-Up Cinema in London, alongside a Q&A with Marten and Wheatley. Billie Marten is also embarking on a headline North American tour this June, with dates and tickets available here.
Listen / Share: Drop Cherries
Watch: Drop Cherries: The Film
Recorded entirely on tape in Somerset and Wales late last summer, Drop Cherries marks the very first time that Billie Marten has both written and co-produced (with Dom Monks) one of her records. The project has already received praise from outlets like The Independent, Stereogum, CLASH, BrooklynVegan, DIY, Dork, The Line Of Best Fit, Gigwise, and beyond, and follows critically-lauded 2021 album Flora Fauna, as well as previous releases Feeding Seahorses by Hand (2019) and Writing of Blues and Yellows (2016).
With her fourth record now out in the world, Billie Marten has at last learned to stop thinking about what others want to hear and has finally started to trust her own instincts. “When I’m trying to write, the creative door is closed most of the time,” she says. “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 realizing more with each album. And that’s why I know that ‘Drop Cherries’ is a collection of songs expressing genuine intuitive feeling.”
The title is taken from a tale she heard from a friend just before she was starting to create songs for the album, and the title track came soon after. It’s a metaphor where the gift of cherries stands for offering someone your love; doing anything you can to make them happy. “Dropping cherries,” she begins, “is such a strong, visceral image that I tried to channel throughout recording in Somerset and Wales, to capture the vibrancy, unpredictability, and occasional chaos one experiences within a relationship. Imagine stamping blood-red cherries onto a clean, cream carpet and tell me that’s not how love feels.”
Drop Cherries is a series of vignettes highlighting different pieces of a relationship, while trying to fit them together. From celebrating moments of the mundane (“Just Us”), through deep existential questioning (“Devil Swim,” “Acid Tooth,” and “Arrows”), to the final resolve which is the pure simplicity of sharing a moment with someone you love (“Drop Cherries,” “I Bend To Him”). It’s often the case that each record has to be a new ‘statement’ for the artist, a re-branding, a progression. But Billie Marten’s statement is always the same: “I’m simply searching for clarity. I’m re-examining the same feelings I had when I first started writing: I feel different to others, so I’ll write about what that’s like and see if I can work out why that is. If I ever do, maybe I’ll stop writing.”
Billie Marten Live Dates:
June 6 Los Angeles, CA @ The Roxy Theatre
June 7 San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
June 9 Seattle, WA @ Madame Lou’s
June 11 Portland, OR @ McMenamins Mission Theater
June 13 Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
June 14 Denver, CO @ Globe Hall
June 16 Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St Entry
June 17 Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
June 20 Toronto, ON @ TD Music Hall
June 22 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
June 23 Boston, MA @ The Sinclair
June 24 Washington, DC @ Union Stage
Drop Cherries Tracklist:
1. New Idea
2. God Above
3. Just Us
4. I Can’t Get My Head Around You
5. Willow
6. Acid Tooth
7. Devil Swim
8. I Bend To Him
9. Nothing But Mine
10. Arrows
11. Tongue
12. This Is How We Move
13. Drop Cherries
