FEATURE: Spotlight: Martha Hill — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Martha Hill

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EVERY week gives me the opportunity…

to reveal and explore a new artist who I feel is primed for big things. Most of my features have revolved around female solo artists and, whilst I want to include more bands, I still find that the most inventive and interesting music is arriving from women. Martha Hill is an artist who I have been invested in for a little while now and her recent track, Grilled Cheese, has been on the radio a fair bit. If you are new to Hill and want to know a little bit more than, handily, her Bandcamp page provides some biography:

“After being tipped as one of BBC Introducing’s “ones to watch”, followed by a feature on Jools Holland, northern musician Martha Hill is one of the most exciting emerging artists of 2020. The first single from upcoming EP Summer Up North “Grilled Cheese”, was not only named Huw Stephens track of the week and placed on numerous Spotify playlists but was also put on BBC6music’s A-List playlist”.

If you have not checked out Martha Hill’s Be Still E.P. of last year, then I would recommend you investigate it. It is exciting, as she prepares to release her new E.P., Summer Up North, on 23rd October. The five-track E.P. opens with Grilled Cheese, and I am interested to see how it is received. She put out another new track recently called Landslide, and it is another cracker that shows what a broad and consistent talent she is! I think Hill has grown more assured as a songwriter since her earliest tracks, but I think she always had that confidence and original talent – it has just been heightened over the past year or so.

I want to bring in a couple of interviews she conducted this year in a bit, but going back to 2018, Hill spoke with Get in Her Ears, and she was asked about her start and progression:

“Welcome to Get In Her Ears! Can you tell us a bit about how you got started as an artist?

Thanks for having me! I just kind of stumbled into it. First as a hobby, but then it became a lifestyle – I was travelling around quite a bit and busking was how I got by.

You are originally from Scotland but left at 17 to travel across Europe busking. That must have been quite an eye-opening experience at 17?!

It was great to mission about and do loads of different things. I also got to play in different countries with a wide variety of musicians like Italian jazz flutists or old Spanish drummers – it definitely shaped me and the way I approach music.

And you are now living in Newcastle, what were your reasons for moving there? What’s the music scene like there?

My cousins are from there; my cousin Wilf (Dansi) is a musician, and I’d grown up having wee jams with them. They seemed to have this lifestyle that was a million miles away from what I knew, so I moved to be closer to them. The Newcastle music scene is incredible! It’s proper underground – you hear about Manchester’s scene a lot, or even Leeds, but rarely Newcastle’s. I feel like we all look out for each other a lot and support each other. Check out my Spotify playlist ‘Women Are Mint‘. It showcases female musicians based in the North East”.

There is so much competition out there regarding songwriters, and it can be hard standing out from the crowd! Some songwriters have their own labels, whereas others record and release in a unique way. Maybe these are ways to get noticed, but I think modern songwriters are quite business-minded and ambitious. Many do not want to simply release songs and be very limited and traditional. Martha Hill has her Women Are Mint festival, and she spoke with Spotlight earlier this year about the festival and Reading and Leeds’ male-heavy line-up. This was when the 2020 line-up was announced (that had to be rescheduled) and before the controversial line-up for next year was revealed:

“On that subject, Reading and Leeds Festival got its fair share of controversy this year for their poor representation of women on their lineups. What’s your opinion on that?

“I think that there’s definitely more that can be being done - I know that Festival Republic, who put on Reading and Leeds, are actually taking that in their stride and they’ve set up an initiative called ReBalance and they’re using that initiative to empower women and give women a voice.”

“They’re doing things like giving female artists free studio time, they’re helping to put on gigs and being really supportive in other ways as well - their way of looking at it is rather than saying: ‘Okay we’re going to do a quota and we’re going to throw female acts who may not be career ready onto stages where it isn’t their time in their career to get to,’ they’re going to support things from the bottom and build up that way.”

I think that’s a really sensible idea - there should be more media on things like that!

“Well obviously, things should be 50/50, but quotas alone are not the only way forward - there has to be a lot more going on than that, there has to be a lot of support from base level up.”

Are there any other reasons as to why you’ve booked the artists you’ve booked, aside from them being female?

“I try to keep it at least 50% of the lineup local because I really love supporting North East female artists.

I also try to just have a massive mix, for example the final act on Saturday is My Bad Sister, who’ve played massive stages at Boomtown and Glastonbury and they’re absolutely unreal. And then before them is an act called Cadi and she’s an unreal DJ who’s only played two or three shows her entire life - one of the main things I wanted was for people to be rubbing shoulders with everybody equally”.

Though this year has been a bit of a washout and non-starter for so many artists, I think Martha Hill will have a very successful 2021. With a new E.P. coming next month, it is a perfect time to get involved with her music. I want to end with a quote from a final interview, where Hill discussed her previous single, Grilled Cheese (among other things):

“What differs you and your sound from other upcoming artists in the music industry?

I’ve been told my voice is quite distinctive, so I guess that would set me apart. I like to focus on my lyrics a lot as well. I guess my usual aim is to make something weird and then work to make it accessible.

Your latest release ‘Grilled Cheese’ is out now! Can you please describe the creative process and explain the meaning behind the single?

It began with the first verse “my baby messes me around, yeah she don’t love me anymore and I know that for sure”. I liked the way the 2nd and 3rd lines rhymed, rather than the usual 2nd and 4th structure. From that I fleshed out the rest of the song. The pre-chorus was written with Rhiannon Mair and the chorus came out of a production session with Julien Flew, so there’s been a lot of different input in this song. It’s all about daft fights in relationships.

What personal advice would you give to someone wanting to pursue this career?

Don’t be afraid to ask for things. A lot of people in the industry are out there to help. Ask questions, listen, learn as much as you can. Also just start doing things. Don’t sit around waiting for someone to “discover” you. Get out and play, meet people, write.. something at some point will happen!”

She is an amazing artist with a terrific sound, and I am excited to see how she blossoms over the coming years. It has been a very strange year, but I think music has provided us with some direction and comfort. I have loved what Martha Hill has been putting out, so make sure you follow her and buy her music. In a sea of terrific new musicians, Hill ranks as…