Martina’s voice sounds familiar for a reason – even if her name doesn’t. It was the random hand of fate that brought Bristol street poet Tricky and Camden-born Martina together in more ways than one. As well as recording and touring together on Tricky’s projects, she had his daughter. It’s been a while, but Martina Topley Bird’s new album is well worth the wait.
CMU drank coffee in Kensington with the enchanting chanteuse and songsmith.
“My mum didn’t listen to much until we moved to Maidenhead. There was this big soul scene - Womack & Womack, Shalama and so on – and my dad was really into Barry White. When I was 14 I realised that I was bored of pop music. I listened to a lot of alternative music – rock stuff. Then I went to a boarding school and they were all into the Pixies and the Sugar Cubes and U2.”
Martina’s voice became ingrained on the ears of a generation through working with Tricky on his ‘Maxinquaye’ and ‘Pre Millenium Tension’ albums.
“I was doing my GCSEs at the time. I just met him in the street one day and went round his house and just hung out for a while.
"We started working together a bit when he was trying to do his own thing in this little squat studio in St Pauls [Bristol]. Then I went to school in Cambridge and I only saw him a couple of times. We started working together again when he’d signed his deal with Island Records. He rang me and was like ‘Everyone’s going crazy about our single!’ and I was like ‘What fucking single?!’ he said’ y’know the song 'Aftermath'…’
Martina and Tricky worked on his solo projects for some time and enjoyed a massive amount of love from the press and crowds around the world.
“I had to get back into being in the studio, because I took a full year off after moving around a lot and touring a lot. I didn’t sign until two years ago – so then there was the money there to involve other people so we went to work. I was working with my brother and two other guys so I didn’t know how it was going to work. But it worked out well; it was able to be varied – I could come in and do this type of thing or that type of thing.”
The album is diverse to say the least – with eerie Bristol-inspired soundtracks, uplifting soul and heavier power-chord driven epics. Although the tracks vary from the mellow to the energetic, from the optimistic to the melancholic, Martina’s voice shines through like the sun coming over a cloud.
“In comparison to working with Tricky, the song structures are more traditional. This reflects my head-space. I wanted it to be really calm and together. But I’m aware that I don’t like doing one thing – I get bored.”
“The songs really reflect how I was feeling at the time of recording” [re: ‘Soul Food’] I came in really hung over and the guys had this lovely bass-line going and I just said ‘gimme the mic’ and I just went at it. It just all fell into place.”
Outtake
Martina: “You’re not going to ask me about pop idol at any point are you?”
Gill: No
Martina: “I shouldn’t bring it up, it’s just that every other person has asked me about it…
Gill: Why, did you go on Pop Idol?
Martina: [laughs] “Did I go on Pop Idol? Nooo, the last two people asked me ‘what do you think of Pop Idol?’ I’m like 'why the fuck do I have to answer that?'. People ask ‘why do want to be so private?’ I’m like ‘Are you fucking insane?’”
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