Billie Ray Martin: Techno's Unsinkable Femme Fatale
I work very quickly. I go in. Sing it. Done. It's my favorite kind of work....
The disco diva struts, shimmies, winks. If she's Billie Ray Martin she also glares, growls, and prowls. Inspired by Andy Warhol's superstars, Billie’s been singing the electronic blues for over 20 years. Born Birgit Dieckmann in Hamburg’s red light district, Martin got her break guesting on S'Express' "Superfly Guy" during London’s acid house days in the late 1980s. Her husky timbre murmured gravitas into Electribe 101’s Balearic classic "Talking with Myself.” In 1994, Junior Vasquez’s remix of her tribal house ballad "Your Loving Arms" had people unfamiliar with the debauched Sound Factory cooing the its sensuous refrain. Collaborations with Slam, DJ Hell and subsequent solo gigs fueled the 21st century’s new electro scene. More recently, techno's unsinkable femme fatale covered industrial provocateurs Cabaret Voltaire's The Crackdown with a little help from Stephen Mallinder. Synth-pop titan Vince Clarke remixed "Sweet Suburban Disco" into a haunting Euro-disco sizzler. Late last year, the Opiates (a dark wave duo formed with Robert Sondheim in 2008) released Hollywood Under The Knife on Martin’s label, Disco Activisto. Aerea Negrot, Kim Ann Foxman, Chris and Cosey contributed to the upcoming remix album Hollywood Cuts. We caught up with the singing dynamo at home in Berlin.
The album title, Hollywood Under the Knife, and some of the song titles all point to film noir.
Billie Ray Martin: Yes it's all very cinematic. Hollywood Under the Knife is about the fact that people in this society are made to believe that if they change their outer or inner appearance they fit in. In the songs, people who do not realize their fantastic potential live through lives of sadness and fear until they arrive at some kind of conclusion. Unless you really question what goes on here, you will be trapped into false images and behavior, believing that society has embraced you.
What is Candy Darling's enduring allure?
Candy is almost more tragic than the rest. While Jackie [Curtis] and Holly [Woodlawn] were nuts enough to give ironic twists to the whole 'female' image and the personas they created and mostly didn't care how they came across (especially Jackie), Candy strived to be the perfect woman and succeed in a Hollywood career. Something that was denied her in the end.
Your Simone Choule song references Roman Polanski’s The Tenant.
Yes. I want thousands of people to walk around with "I'm not Simone Choule" T-shirts. Something that has already started happening at the shows. I love it when I look down from the stage and see people with the tees.
How long have you known Vince Clarke?
I don't know him at all. I guess we know of each other, of course. He's a great artist and producer.
Have you heard his new album with Martin Gore [VCMG]?
Not yet. I'm actually appearing on the same album as Martin this coming spring. It's the new album by Motor and we both sing a song on it.
You are on the new Terra Nova album, along with Khan, Snax, and one of the guys from WhoMadeWho.
I had fun doing that song. I work very quickly. I go in. Sing it. Done. It's my favorite kind of work, doing this for others. I feel less bound by my own production rules, as it's not my production.
What made you want to do the Crackdown project?
The Cabs have been my favorite electronic act from the moment I started listening to this kind of music, which was roughly at the age of 12. There was something hypnotic and dark to their music. I'd vaguely known Mal since the nineties. Mal and I had a drink once in the mid '90s at Fred's Bar in London. I had brought my cassette Walkman and played him the demo of "Persuasion.” He told me he thought I was mad, in the best possible way. A blessing I was most pleased with. I had stalked the Cabs as a teen, going to their concerts wearing CV badges, hoping they would notice me.
Lady Bunny shared a story about you DJing with a bloody leg (pictured, right).
It was a live gig. I pogoed on stage and flew across the stage, landing behind some monitors. When I emerged I didn't notice at first that my knee was wide open with blood gushing out of it and into my shoes. I continued as if nothing had happened… I insisted on DJing instead of going to the hospital.
What are your plans for 2012? How will you remember 2011?
2011 was a year where I continued to take matters into my own hands, with mixed success, and released my music on my own label. Looking at the state of the music business it continues to be empowering. Other than that, poverty, sadly — that was 2011. Meeting great new collaborators and lovely new musicians and DJs. 2012 will be house music all night long. I'm recording my solo album, writing and releasing stuff, and have decided firmly that the style will be classic house taken into the future. Chicago, etc.
What's up with the rest of Electribe 101?
Who knows?
Do you ever perform "Talking With Myself" live?
All the time.
How do you look back on those days?
I don't.
