Billie Duncan is a multidisciplinary artist from Brooklyn, New York (specifically Fort Greene) who writes music under the name Marigold of Morning. Their music is rooted in both Jamaican Dub and Irish Trad, with post punk, triphop, idm, post rock and noise pop influences.
I caught up with Billie to talk about their early musical experiences, how they started playing music and the making of their latest release “String it Up with Twine”.
CMM-What was the first music that really made an impact on you as a kid and what artist or band did you enjoy the most?
Billie-I’ve kind of always like old man music, like the first band that had a big impact on me was Queens of the Stone Age, their album Songs for the Deaf when I was nine or ten. I’ve always liked very complex music, but there has always had to have been a strong groove. I was big into Parliament and Prince (from my mother) and I took an intro to electronic music course as an elective in high school, which shaped me. Everyone who joined that class started a band. Simultaneously, I got really into the Pogues and The Fox Hunt, Steve Earle.
The most important day for my musical journey was when my dad finished building his stereo system. As a kid I was seriously into bebop. My dad filed us all into the music room and had us listen to Black Market Clash, Straight Out of Compton and Return to Forever. I changed that day. I like to think that all of my music can be traced back to those three albums.
CMM-When did everyone start playing music and writing songs and what led to Marigold Of Morning becoming a project of yours?
Billie-I started playing at an early age. In Catholic school, they had us all play the recorder, I moved to flute. I took lessons at the Brooklyn Music School, then the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music (proud Brooklyn girl over here). Then in middle school, I had a bully, his name was Jake, he used to beat the living shit out of me. One day, he pulled me aside and I thought I was going to get my ass kicked: instead he handed me two burned cds, one of the Ramones, one of the Misfits. Gave up jazz and became a punk rocker that day.
Marigold of Morning is just me. I write, produce, mix and master all of the songs, make the album art. I released music (way too much music) under different names since the 2010s. I finally started the Marigold of Morning project two years ago, the name comes from my personal nickname for my best friend.
CMM-You recently released a record called “String it Up with Twine”. What was the writing and recording process like and were there any particular pieces of gear you used to get the sound you were looking for?
Billie-The recording process was arduous. It started as an album called ‘I May Not Always Love You’, some years ago. It tackled too many themes and was terribly mixed so I decided to rewrite it. That turned into ‘Oblivion Angels’ but I wasn’t happy with it, so I rewrote it again. I spread it out over three albums I’m sitting on, I have one album left to write in this series. The whole series is called ‘Those That Don’t Like Us, Love Us’.
The first ‘String it Up with Twine’ was written for my best friend and two friends that committed suicide. One hung themselves, so I took the Hazel Dickens lyric as a title. But yeah, I wrote most of it over three psychotic breakdowns, then edited the shit out of it. I also wrote a book and a zine to go along with the project. It was hell. I’m probably going to write more music, but I really don’t like the suffering that goes along with it.
As for equipment, I just kind of bang on anything I can find.
CMM-If you could do a score for any film director, who would it be and what would the film be about?
Billie-I don’t really watch movies, never really have. All of the albums have loose narratives attached and I’ve always wanted to write a soundtrack for some dystopian Lord of the Rings, sci-fi/fantasy type deal. That’s kind of the goal really. The perfect job for me would be scoring movies.
CMM-Anything coming up?
Billie-My zine ‘Tales from the Anarchist Jurisdiction’ just came out! It’s about a soul that’s rejected from both Heaven and Hell, kind of a little metaphor for the gender binary. Link here.
I also have the next installment of the music series coming out in January, there’s a Christmas song! It was cowritten and recorded with Neanderthal Woman, another Brooklyn artist, check her out! She’s got an album coming out soon.
This album is a lot darker, there are a lot more dirge-like song. I’m also working on getting a band together, gigging around Brooklyn. The goal is to do the whole Johnny Appleseed/Black Flag thing, gigging around the country playing music and selling zines, turning the next generation onto punk rock and political dissent. Who knows what tomorrow holds? I’m just happy to be here.
