Billie Marten returns to Aus & NZ in February with a full band, we chat gardening, lyric tattoos, and intimate live shows.
UK folk favourite Billie Marten is heading back down under, returning to Australia and New Zealand in February 2026 after a run of sold-out shows here just a year ago.
This time, she’s arriving with a full band in tow, bringing her quietly evolving sound to stages across Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland.
Currently road-testing her latest album Dog Eared across the US, Canada and Europe, Marten sounds more assured than ever.
Produced by Philip Weinrobe (Adrienne Lenker), the record marks a shift from solitary introspection toward a warmer, collaborative band dynamic – a move DIY has dubbed her “most confident outing yet.”
Ahead of her return to our shores, we caught up with Marten to talk gardening, London winters, lyric tattoos and finding lightness on stage.
HAPPY: What are you up to today?
I’ll be pottering in the garden, getting rid of old leaves and planting bulbs and seeds.
I have some writing on the piano to do and some interviews.
Everyone over here is just trying to get through the dirge that is London in January.
HAPPY: You live in London now, what do you love most about it?
I’ve been here nearly 9 years now, it’s very much home to me, and I miss her when I’m in any other city.
There’s an ease to it. A natural rhythm that can be fast paced when you want it to be but languid and dozy when you need that too.
Whether you feel small or large on a certain day, London can cater for that.
HAPPY: Dog Eared feels like a big step in your sound, how did working with a full band in Brooklyn change the way you write and perform?
BILLIE: I was writing with the players in mind, conscious to leave gaps or melodic movement that could be on another instrument.
The guitar parts were simplified as I didn’t have the challenge of making one instrument and one voice sort of demand the listener’s entire attention.
Writing with that in mind, and working with a producer who provided instant demo feedback, was really the biggest change.
I didn’t come to him with a ready made collection of songs, I wrote in real time and even days before the studio things were floating in.
It was a very present and active process – not much time to dwell.
HAPPY: Your music has always carried a literary quality. Are there any books or poems you’ve been revisiting while making this album?
BILLIE: During the recording process I remember reading Thoreau’s On Man And Nature in which a few of his proverbs held my hand at the time. Eg.
“Let every man mind his own business, and endeavour to be what he was made.” Or
“Cultivate the tree which you’ve found to bear fruit in your soil.”
It’s good stuff!
HAPPY: A lot of fans have tattoos of your lyrics, have you seen any that completely surprised you?
BILLIE: They do indeed. Quite a nuts trend going on.
A lot of people ask me to hand-write lyrics so they can get them inked, so it’s quite strange seeing your handwriting on someone’s skin.
But the signature ones are totally mad, there’s a guy walking around LA with my signature on both his thighs.
The artwork ones are so pretty though!
HAPPY: You’ve toured extensively across the UK, US, and Europe–how does it feel to return to Australia and New Zealand? Any favourite memories from your last visit?
BILLIE: I feel as though I was just there as my first trip was this time a year ago, so I’m totally honoured to be able to come back so soon.
I really enjoyed walking the hot streets of Melbourne and having some fantastic brunches.
The highlight was staying in NZ after all the shows were done, hiring a car, staying in a batch, and hiking to the beach most days.
I felt the furthest I’d ever been from home (of course) but also very familiar and calm.
HAPPY: Your live shows are often described as “intimate and cathartic.” How do you balance vulnerability with performance energy on stage?
BILLIE: Some days are harder than others, wrangling with the real feelings in front of people every night.
Some nights I give too much, reveal too much, and others not enough. Or so it seems in my head.
As long as you’re tuned in to the songs you’re singing, and trying to think back to the moment those words were written, I think a good performance is given.
Between songs I like to keep things purposefully light and funny.
That’s my secret coping mechanism I guess. I can see the relief in peoples’ eyes, that they don’t have to sob away for 90 minutes.
I often say we can all go off and cry in our cars *after*, but for now we can be merry and bond with one another and have total presence.
HAPPY: Dog Eared explores ideas of letting go and embracing collaboration. Do you feel like this album is more honest than anything you’ve written before?
BILLIE: I wouldn’t say so, every song comes from an honest place.
I don’t quite have the imaginative flair to make things fully up, so for that reason there’s a base level of personal confession going on.
HAPPY: Mental health and relationships are recurring themes in your songs. How do you approach writing about something so personal without it feeling too heavy?
BILLIE: There are ways to approach certain subjects in songwriting, sometimes creeping up on them or slightly subverting the meaning, double entendres or dryness, word play, melody or chordal changes to disguise what’s going on.
I like playing around with that, keeping things conversational as if you were talking to a stranger on a bench.
Having said that, certain songs demand a heaviness, one that is naturally there.
HAPPY: What makes you happy?
BILLIE: Animals, gardening, swimming, sleeping, a good soup, The Simpsons, the smell of my book, watching my cat think, going to the post office, wrapping presents, the cinema, when someone wants to hang out with me, my partner in the morning, oranges, finishing the laundry, having a tired body (in a good way), my nephew.
Check out Billie’s Tour dates here.
