Billie Ray Martin has plenty of new music on the way.
The singer-songwriter recently re-emerged with ‘Electribal Soul’ – the ‘lost’ second album from Electribe 101, recorded as the follow-up to their debut ‘Electribal Memories’.
More than 30 years later, the album remains timeless, but Billie isn’t sitting idle and, speaking in the May 2022 edition of Retro Pop, she reveals work is underway on four new projects.
Confirming plans to release the records over the course of the next couple of years, she shares: “Three of the four albums I have planned are already two-thirds recorded at the moment. I just need to do some overdubs, then a lot of editing and, after that, will mix the albums. Literally, there is still many months of work to do.
“The first album is about Hamburg and in relation to its gentrification and homelessness. It’s also got a story line about the destruction of urban society and how the whole thing finally collapses and our entire civilisation gets all washed away by a big flood. And the style is a little drum n’ bass and jazzy in places.
“The second album is about my love for classic French movies and movie soundtracks of the 1970s,” continues the star. “The third album is a very stripped-down affair that features ten heartfelt poems put to simple music; piano and vocal.
“And the fourth album is based around the subject matter of civil rights 1968, racism, student movements and freedom of speech in the United States. The music on that will be very soulful but also very indie sounding.”
After more than four decades in the music industry, Billie has no plans to slow down and insists she’s “happier than ever doing my own thing now and being completely, 1000 per cent outside of the industry”.
“It took all my life, about 40 years, to learn this lesson, and that is you have to do what you want to do, at all times,” she smiles.
Read the full interview in the May 2022 edition of Retro Pop, out now. Order yours or subscribe via our Online Store or use our Store Finder to locate your nearest stockist.
