My dad supported me from day one… I’d like to honour his spirit by keeping going, says Billy Nomates on third album

THE idea for Billy Nomates’ third album Metalhorse came after a “personal and tumultuous” time in her life.

Firstly, Billy Nomates — stage name of Leicester-born, Bristol-based songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Tor Maries — was beginning to tire of the music industry circus.

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Then, just as she was about to start recording, her beloved dad Peter died from Parkinson’s, a year after diagnosis.

Both problems fed into Metalhorse — a concept album of sorts about a dilapidated old funfair.

Maries explains: “The concept came from feeling like I was in quite the fairground of life.

“It came from riffing on an idea that a chapter of my life, the industry I work in and politically, it felt like an absolute circus and I don’t mean a good one.

“I felt like this fairground wasn’t thriving and quite difficult to get on. Sometimes when you’re on a ride and see the bolts are coming off you wonder if it’s safe? I resonated with it and tapped into it.”

But the big influence was the death of Peter Maries, who was hugely supportive of his daughter’s work, last summer.

He died just before she travelled to Paco Loco Studio in Seville, Spain, to begin recording Metalhorse.

“He was the best dad I could have possibly hoped for,” she says proudly. “He taught music but he was a quiet artist in himself. He found very beautiful things in life and in all the things he did.

“My dad supported me from day one and saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself. And so to be here with what is my best work, it must be dedicated to him.

“I’d started the record before he died and he knew it was called Metalhorse — he’d heard demos so my soul was good with it. And it’s very much dedicated to him and his memory.”

Chatting to Maries in a video call from her kitchen she says she is thankful to have inherited a love of music from her dad and his advice is a constant.

“It’s a gift he has given me,” she says smiling. “And it’s nice because it never goes away and it never turns down. Now he’s gone, if anything, the volume of him is so loud — he’s so present.

He was the best dad I could have possibly hoped for. He taught music but he was a quiet artist in himself. He found very beautiful things in life and in all the things he did.

“I’d like to honour his spirit by keeping going. It’s not an option to wallow in self-pity — it’s time to do things. It’s time to honour the life that he has given me.”

Maries, whose dad was a massive punk fan, was inspired to start making music after seeing Sleaford Mods perform. She got the name Billy Nomates from a jibe after no one turned up to one of her early gigs.

The singer was recently diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.

She says: “I’ve been diagnosed with the relapse remitting type, and I’m on a course of treatment that works really well. So, I have a lot of hope.”

The fantastic album closer Moon Explodes is a song written just after Maries had been diagnosed with MS. She says: “It came off the back of a completely relentless year, and I was just thinking, this is just it.

“But getting the diagnosis made sense in a lot of ways. A couple of years ago, I started performing barefoot and people thought it was me trying to be all hippy and cool, but it was because I was losing my balance in shoes.

“I’d also noticed the dexterity in my hands occasionally would come and go when I was playing. I was relieved to be diagnosed, because, you know when something is up.

“Fifteen years ago, you’d be worried about becoming disabled but there’s been a lot of advances in where MS medication is going and that gives me hope.

“Recently I was reading about the twin sisters Laviai and Lina Nielsen who won medals at the Paris Olympics with MS and I thought it meant the Paralympics but it was the actual Olympics.

“The only pressure of getting the diagnosis is that I need to stay super fit which I wasn’t planning to do before my diagnosis.”

Maries’ positivity can be heard throughout the album Metalhorse.

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Brilliant first single The Test is about “working against the odds” and has been a huge radio hit. She says: “The song is loosely based on Yvonne Stagg, a female Wall Of Death rider who I was reading about.

“She had a tumultuous life, falling in and out of love and was an alcoholic but she became very good at the Wall Of Death.

“I was thinking about her life in the 1960s when women didn’t do things like motorbike stunts — there’s the sound of a motorbike in the song — and I loved the idea of her being so fearless, but it was also a test of life.”

Gorgeous ballad Strange Gift is another special song that brings hope. Maries says: “I wrote that song when I was in Spain. I had a guitar and started strumming one night.

Strange Gift was important to put on the album because I like how it made me feel. It’s about what’s left when people are gone

"It was very much inspired by dad’s passing and Metalhorse is about things crumbling and not being as they were.

“Strange Gift was important to put on the album because I like how it made me feel. It’s about what’s left when people are gone.

“I call it a ‘strange gift’ because you don’t want it, you really want the person to still be there.

“But what you are left with is a profound understanding of life that wasn’t afforded to you before. You can only get that on this side of something awful.”

Another standout on Metalhorse is Life’s Unfair, which introduces the second side of the album.

New single Plans is, says Maries: “Enjoying life because it is over too fast.”

She adds: “I like the idea that life is a ride and you’re going to get off it at some point. Even though the world is awful, there’s still those two minutes to get on a Waltzer and have fun being flung around.

“So, we must all fall in love, develop friendships and go wild as these things disappear from our lives quickly. It’s important to grab a hold of those moments and go ‘F**k it’ — I’m going to enjoy myself.”

A special moment making Metalhorse came when she got to work with hero Hugh Cornwell of The Stranglers, who her dad had been a huge fan of — he was buried in a Stranglers T-shirt.

Maries explains: “I was in the studio and I told my producer James Trevascus that I was going to sing Dark Horse Friend in the style of Hugh Cornwell because I really love his voice and he’s the voice of my childhood.

“Then someone said. ‘Oh he’s here tomorrow!’

“By the next day I’d written lyrics for him.

“He was absolutely lovely and it was so nice for him to sing on that track. We went for dinner afterwards so I think the stars were aligned for that track.”

Metalhorse is the first album Maries has made as a “band” working with drummer Liam Chapman and bassist Mandy Clarke.

She says: “I’m still very much a solo artist. But I worked with a band on this record. I still write and demo everything — I’m not ready to let go of that part yet and I still need to be in the driving seat for many things.

“But it was a great experience to share and to invite people in because whenever I’m creating something, there is very much a police line around me saying ‘Do not cross’.

“But I allowed a few people to come in and I learned loads as a writer.”

With the album released next week, Maries is looking forward to getting out and touring later in the year.

“I can’t wait,” she says excitedly. “It’s been a long time coming. The album was written this time last year, so we’ve been waiting for this moment to get it out and get on the road.

"We’re going to be up and down the UK and Scotland and we’ve got European dates as well. I’m also performing on Later . . . With Jools Holland on May 25, which is cool.

When you’re first starting out, it’s very important to be successful and to reach milestones but that’s not what I’m about

“It’s an honour to be able to play Later . . . as it’s something I’ve watched throughout my teens and twenties and where I’ve discovered some of my favourite new artists.

“The last couple of years I’ve experienced life in a completely new way. Everything I’ve been through means I’m inevitably changed forever.

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“I don’t sweat the small stuff as much and I’m very clear about what I want to do as an artist.

“I want to write songs and make interesting work, and anything else is by the by.

“When you’re first starting out, it’s very important to be successful and to reach milestones but that’s not what I’m about.

“Now I want to survive enough to keep making interesting work. And that’s what Metalhorse is.”

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