Billy Nomates and the rollercoaster 3rd album.
Image: Jack Dallas-Chapman.
Billy Nomates is the performing name of singer-songwriter Tor Maries. Her self-titled debut featured on several album of the year lists for 2020 and was followed in 2023 by the critically acclaimed Cacti. This month she releases her third album, Metalhorse.
While its predecessors were mostly recorded solo by the multi-instrumentalist Maries, this time she was joined in the studio by her live bandmates, bassist Mandy Clarke and drummer Liam Chapman, resulting in a fuller sound. As on Cacti, she worked closely with producer James Trevascus, but now she also felt ready to consider changes to the original basslines or percussion. “I tried to avoid holding it very tightly. I've allowed other voices and thoughts in the room, which always terrified me. I actually think it's really benefited it, and I've learnt a lot from that process of having people in the room with you and going, ‘Well, actually we could try it like this,’ and it being very different.”
Recording was also a more concentrated process than before. “I've never done an album in a two-week block like that – I've always done dribs and drabs, and pieced it together here and there.” As well as wanting to try a different approach, Maries was attracted by a favourable deal to work at Paco Loco studios in Andalusia. “We really loved the idea: it's this beautiful, warm, sunny place by the beach. Paco's amazing: he's kind of credited as Spanish Steve Albini, which I think we all agree with now. He's brilliant, really hands-on – anything we wanted to try and experiment with, he was so accommodating. We had a bit of a language barrier, but it was a really good experience.”
The decision to record at Paco Loco had an unexpected and significant consequence: a guest appearance from Hugh Cornwell. Metalhorse is dedicated to the memory of Maries’ father, who died last year, and she had recorded the demo vocal for “Dark Horse Friend” in the style of his favourite band, The Stranglers. “Paco was like, ‘Oh he’s my best friend. He’s here tomorrow, just ask him.’ Twenty-four hours later I'm talking to Hugh Cornwell down the mic in his cans, and he's singing it back to me. It was very organic; he was lovely and very courteous about it.” Even now, she can hardly believe it happened. “It was just mad.”
“it’s a bit manic – that’s ultimately how the last year has left me feeling. I have moments of calm, and I have moments of hope, resolve and fun, but ultimately it’s this fucking never-ending Ferris wheel or carousel”
Before going out to Spain, Maries had created the demos at her label Invada’s Bristol studio. It was here that the idea of using more piano-based arrangements on Metalhorse began to take shape. “They’ve got an upright piano, and when everyone was out, it was just so nice to sit at that and have it beaming out. I've always written with piano, but I started to think, ‘Actually, I don't want to transpose this. I want this to sound how it sounds.’” The first single to be released from the album, “The Test”, was also the first to be conceived this way. “That really did set the tone for bringing piano into the sound of this album. I think ‘The Test’ is a good marker of trying out that sound within the Billy Nomates camp, and hopefully it works.”
One song not to have been demoed in advance is the penultimate track, “Strange Gift”, which she composed during recording. Although she had thought the album was complete, it seemed to fit perfectly with the theme of Metalhorse – “It is about the collapse and loss of things, essentially, and ‘Strange Gift’ is almost the aftermath of that. I lost my dad a few months before, and I very much attach it to going into that process, figuring out what the next chapter of life would be about, carrying on with Metalhorse knowing that he would never hear it. He was the person in my life that I was closest to musically, so it's a vulnerable piece.” Written late one night on a small guitar lent to her by Paco Loco, it has a more minimalist sound than the rest of the album. “It's not supposed to be a particularly complicated or musical genius song; it's just a song. I was sat outside on a porch with a nylon guitar, and I thought it shouldn't really stray too far from that.”
The album could have ended there, but Maries felt it was too obvious a conclusion and opted instead for the unexpected gear change of “Moon Explodes”, mirroring her shock at receiving an MS diagnosis last year on top of her bereavement. “It came out of the absolute blue, so ‘Moon Explodes’ is very much like, this is a relentless moment in time. But also I thought it should end unexplained. The fact that it even fades out, and it's a bit manic – that's ultimately how the last year has left me feeling. I have moments of calm, and I have moments of hope, resolve and fun, but ultimately it's this fucking never-ending Ferris wheel or carousel.”
Image: Jack Dallas-Chapman.
Several tracks feature a Farfisa organ in the background to subtly evoke that fairground soundworld. “It was a really hard balance because I want the listener to be aware that they are at the fair, but to also do enough work themselves. I'm tipping the hat to it, I'm not giving you the whole thing – I want you to do some of the work because your fair will be different to my fair. It's the same with imagery that I'm using; it's a chapter of life, it's an idea. The fairground of life can be applied to so many moments in time.” Maries says that she had begun experimenting with organ sounds in the final stages of the previous album – Metalhorse track “Comedic Timing” dates from this time but didn't make the cut on Cacti. “At the end of a record, I always feel I'm gearing towards the next thing. I know where I've done it on Metalhorse, but I'm not going to say! And yeah, there's stuff that I was riffing on around certain ideas on there that actually will end up on the next thing.”
Maries has moved on to a new stage where she has a stronger sense of herself as an artist. Rather than chasing down every fresh trend, she’s quite happy listening to eighties classics on Greatest Hits Radio and following her instincts. “I don't look to anyone anymore. I'm influenced by obvious things, but I don't lust after what anyone else is doing. I’m very, very happy and secure with what I’m doing and making. I've learnt that I will always seek to make something authentic for the moment that I'm experiencing, and I do not wish to make something fashionable, or in line with what is happening in the musical world.” That’s not something she could have said truthfully five years ago. “But now I feel very certain that I can make a piano feel cool, I can do whatever I want to do because I like it. And if I'm not hearing it anywhere else, or if that's not the ‘in thing’ or whatever, that's absolutely fine – that's absolutely what I should be doing.”
Metalhorse is released 16th May.
Author: Rachel Goodyear