Billy Nomates
Billy Nomates | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Maries in 2024 | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as | Billy Nomates |
| Born | Victoria Ann Maries 2 May 1990 Leicester, England |
| Genres | |
| Occupations |
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| Instruments |
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| Years active | 2020–present |
| Labels | Invada |
| Website | [1] |
Victoria Ann "Tor" Maries[2] (born 2 May 1990) is an English musician and singer-songwriter who performs under the stage name Billy Nomates.
Life
[edit | edit source]Maries grew up in Leicester and was a member of a number of bands that failed to be noticed. Following a period of depression, a Sleaford Mods gig inspired Maries to return to making music and she moved to Bournemouth to write and compose.[3] Her stage name, Billy Nomates, was taken from an insult directed at her when she turned up at a gig on her own.[4] In 2024, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.[5][6]
Music
[edit | edit source]
Maries' first album was recorded in Bristol with Portishead's Geoff Barrow.[3] She released this in 2020[7] and quickly gained attention from BBC Radio 6 Music.[3] She describes her music as no wave.[4] Critics make mention of post-punk and describe her delivery as sprechgesang.[3][4] She featured on "Mork n Mindy" by Sleaford Mods in 2021. She released the Emergency Telephone EP in October 2021, produced by herself on Barrow's Invada record label.[8]
Maries's second album, Cacti, was released in 2023.[9] Later that year, after playing a set at Glastonbury that used a backing track instead of live music,[6] Maries received what she called an "insane" amount of online abuse and requested BBC Radio 6 Music to remove footage of her performance from their web pages, a request the BBC complied with.[10][11] Fellow musicians such as Billy Bragg, the Anchoress, and Lonelady expressed their support for Maries and criticised the misogynistic character of the abuse.[12] Maries initially vowed never to perform live again after the incident, and even considered leaving music altogether, but eventually recovered on both fronts.[5][6]
Maries's third album, Metalhorse, was released in 2025 and was the first Billy Nomates release where Maries worked with other musicians instead of performing all musical aspects herself, with Mandy Clarke being her bassist and Liam Chapman her drummer.[5] A tour showcasing the album took place that autumn and began with a benefit gig for the MS Society.[6]
Reception
[edit | edit source]
BBC Radio 6 Music DJ Amy Lamé chose Maries's debut as her Album of the Year in 2020.[13] The Guardian's Laura Snapes picked out Maries as one to watch in 2020, describing her voice as "deadpan yet biting", offering "an acute lens on British class structure".[3]
Discography
[edit | edit source]Studio albums
[edit | edit source]- Billy Nomates (2020)
- Cacti (2023)
- Metalhorse (2025)
EPs
[edit | edit source]- Emergency Telephone (2021)
Music videos
[edit | edit source]| Year | Title | Director | Album |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | "No" | Jack Joseph & Bobby Spender | Billy Nomates |
| "FNP" | n/C | ||
| 2021 | "Heels" | Jack Joseph Dalby & Bobby Spender | Emergency Telephone |
| 2022 | "Blue Bones" | Tia Salisbury | Cacti |
| "Balance is Gone" | NWSPK | ||
| "Saboteur Forcefield" | John Minton | ||
| "Spite" | NWSPK |
References
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- 1990 births
- Living people
- Musicians from Leicester
- English post-punk musicians
- British indie rock musicians
- No wave musicians
- Invada Records artists
- 21st-century English singer-songwriters
- English women singer-songwriters
- 21st-century English women singers
- English women rock singers
- People with multiple sclerosis