“I have always struggled being a young person in an old industry’s world, and I’ve always been drawn to the antiquated, the classic, and things that are old,” said Billie Marten from her home in the Hackney district of East London, England.

It came as no surprise to hear Marten say that. There’s an old soul wisdom to her songwriting that was extended to the recording process; her new album was recorded on tape rather than digitally.

Marten, who celebrated her 24th birthday two weeks ago, released “Drop Cherries” on April 7 and kicked off her North American tour on June 9. She’ll be on this side of the pond through the end of the month. The last U.S. date is in Portland, then she performs at the prestigious multi-genre Montreal Jazz Festival.

Marten dug more into the intellectual conflict of her age versus how she actually feels and how that informed “Drop Cherries.”

“It’s incredibly important to me to make something that I know is timeless to me in terms of I’m not attaching myself to the period that I currently live in, because I don’t identify with my age and I don’t identify with this modern world,” she said. “That’s kind of what most of the songs are about, battling that problematic feeling of being stuck in the wrong time.”

“Drop Cherries” is the second time Marten has worked with producer Dom Monks, who always records on tape. “There’s just a certain aliveness, the same as vinyl, that sort of ignites the music,” said Marten, and she’s right. It’s as if someone raised the last few inches of a blind to let every last ray of morning sunshine in. Listening to the songs is like sitting in a candlelit living room, incense lit and the musicians spread around you on couches and chairs.

Marten referred to Monks as a “master of music.” So much so that she and her musician friends refer to something the producer does as the “Dom Pause.” She explained. “You’ll ask him any question or sort of engage with him in any way, and he will respond with the most perfect, profound, articulate answer, but it will take half an hour till he opens his mouth.” Those pauses bore riches, and Marten was wise to share production duties with Monks.

“Drop Cherries” opens with a demo track called “New Idea,” which is Marten humming over a layer of sparse, gentle instrumentation. She’s leading the listener down a path, and it’s as if she’s turning around every few seconds to beckon us further into the soundscape she’s created. With strings and a mystical feeling to it, it was a brilliant move to open with this tune.

The other primary theme of “Drop Cherries” is Marten looking at the relationship she’s in through several lenses and documenting the emotions eloquently and honestly. From elation to longing to the darkness that can sometimes slip in, Marten covers the full spectrum with songs like the dreamy “Just Us” and “I Can’t Get My Head Around You.”

Marten also slips into more complicated places with “The Devil Swim”:

I wish you’d open your mouth
And let the devil swim out
Nothing left to cry about

And then there’s “Willow” with a clarinet part and these passages:

Building a wall, tearing it down
Sending a message that I am yours now
Two weeping willows throwing an arm to the other

In fact, “Willow” is Marten’s favorite song to play live at the moment. She wrote it while on tour last year in Seattle while missing her significant other. “It’s all about being incredibly far away from your person and wanting time to disappear really quickly so you can get back there.”

Marten also released the 18-minute “Drop Cherries: The Film.” It’s a visually stunning and musically enthralling performance of four songs from the album and was shot in one take in a mid-century home in rural Nottinghamshire with the musicians on the album. During it, Marten makes her way through a house I definitely want to live in, picking up guitars along the way as she finds musicians waiting for her, including a string trio by a pool.

Marten’s “Drop Cherries” tour features her on vocals, keys and guitar, with Andrew McGuire on drums and backing vocals, and Olivia Kaplan on guitars and backing vocals. Kaplan also opens the show.

“Drop Cherries” is a top to bottom exquisite album from a new-to-me artist who has three other albums to dig into. Here’s hoping she loves her visit to Maine enough to want to keep coming back.

Billie Marten
8 p.m. Wednesday, June 28. Space, 538 Congress St., Portland, $17 in advance, $20 day of show. space538.org

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