Billie Marten shares new single ‘Leap Year’
“Cult folk favourite” (DIY) British singer-songwriter Billie Marten releases ‘Leap Year’, the third single from her forthcoming album, Dog Eared, out July 18th via Fiction Records. Following the “gorgeously graceful and head-bob catchy” (Stereogum) lead single, 'Feeling', the irrepressible 'Leap Year' was written on Leap Day in 2024 while Marten wrestled with winter malaise in bed.
Marten’s first non-autobiographical song considers a couple who can only rendezvous every four years, on our astronomical makeup day. They long for the future but cling to the moments they have. The song is the centerpiece of Dog Eared, with Sam Evian’s epochal guitar solo perfectly framing a couple trying to feel their way forward while knowing they are destined to fail.
Recalling the track’s genesis, Marten says: "This is what happens when you’re having a sick day in bed but your mind wanders off somewhere dreamy and there’s no stopping it. Leap Year is the first fictional love song that I’ve written - but lain over the top of such a traditional structure and songwriting form. I had just been listening to a lot of 1920s/30s music for a project and I remember thinking, ‘what would happen if I did it like they did it?’"
In the summer of 2024, Marten headed to New York to record what would become Dog Eared, with Phil Weinrobe (Adrianne Lenker, Buck Meek, Laura Veirs) at his Sugar Mountain studio, alongside an all-star cast of musicians Núria Graham, Josh Crumbly, Mike Haldeman, Shahzad Ismaily, Sam Evian, Maia Friedman, Adam Brisbin, Mauro Refosco, Vishal Nayak, and Sam Amidon.
What resulted was a warm, rich and textured record that bristles with confidence and self-belief, with Marten already approaching the prolificacy of a “lifer” with so much life left to live. It’s a left turn from her previous recordings, albeit a subtle one, taken with a deftness of touch. The album sees Marten embracing change while staying true to her core self.
The 10 songs of Dog Eared tell the story of who Marten was as she wrote and recorded it, cleaving her adolescence from her adulthood in order to move forward. She is a consummate singer-songwriter who has dared to push beyond the limitations of that form and make a stunning record that marks a new page, suggesting what comes next through the strength and beauty of what’s right here.
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