Burberry’s Creative Director, Christopher Bailey, really is the Jools Holland of the fashion industry. His next prodige and musical introduction is the spellbinding 14 year old Billie Marten.
Having caught the attention of Bailey, Billie was last week chosen to shoot a Burberry Acoustic session. A stripped down version of lead track ‘Ribbon’ performed with Hutch at Kenwood House (also remembered as the famous location from hit 90’s film Notting Hill).
Marten’s debut EP Ribbon – produced by Pete ‘Hutch’ Hutchings – and due for release on 23 June on Spilt Milk.
Fusing delicate vocals alongside stunning acoustic arrangements, fourteen-year-old Billie Marten is certainly one to keep your eye on this year. Billie Marten squirms at the mention of songs of hers posted online when she was 12. She says they were awful, that it was years ago and tries to move swiftly on. But the songs, originals hauntingly performed on acoustic guitar, were viewed hundreds of thousands of times and lavished with complimentary comments. Ditto a handful of stripped down covers she recorded for music video channel Ont Sofa at the same age.
That those songs are years old is correct, but only just. Billie is now 14. Her writing has evolved at an astonishing pace, she sings with more assurance and, on her debut EP, Ribbon, she is accompanied by other musicians, including a string quartet. Her voice, however, was as bewitching back then as it is now.
