It’s Queer Up North - Incantation Presents
For as long as Martha can remember, she’s been writing songs. Music has always been the medium she uses to communicate emotion when words fail. What began with a guitar and a loop pedal, would soon see her writing bangers and performing in bands.
Later, her production itch would be borne out of necessity, finding herself in a position where she knew exactly how she wanted songs to sound, but was unable to get that out of her head. She soon fell in love with the production process and now it’s her daily life. Martha started Incantation Music during lockdown to support both her own releases and queer music in Manchester, but it would later transform into a community with a focus on live events and production.
As the lead singer of band, TRUNC, she’s known for her unique voice that resonates - it’s authentic to its core and influenced directly by her experiences as a queer, neurodivergent woman. Nowadays, she spends her time making music in her beloved shipping container studio, stretching across her different streams of artistry.
‘Incantation Presents’ in collaboration with BMG see’s Martha enter the world of production music for the first time. In this candid interview, she tells us about her experience with the project, and is joined in conversation with BMG’s Megan Lawrenson and John Roffe-Ridgard. Here, we unravel Martha’s evolution as an artist, BMG’s broader vision of creating authentic and resonant work, and what the future holds for both.
LBB> Martha, tell us a bit about what’s led you to where you are now?
Martha> I guess it’s the communication issue. Growing up as a little queer and neurodivergent kid in the north of England, I always felt set apart without knowing why, and music was both an escape and communication tool that I learnt to depend upon. 15 years on it’s become such an integral part of who I am, it’s as if there’s no choice but to make music. And, because I’ve been writing for so long, I’m now in a position where I can dissect songs into patterns and shift genres quite easily. It’s also given me a passion to create and support the community I was craving growing up.
My partner and I started Incantation in lockdown to support queer music in Manchester; since then it’s grown into an independent record label releasing some of the best queer music on the scene right now, we run club nights like Chipped Polish for the alternative queer scene, and we now have our first studio space in a converted shipping container where I can produce other artists as well as make my own music.
LBB> Also, congratulations! You’re known as the lead singer of TRUNC, and your distinctive voice has resonated with many in the queer alternative scene. What inspired you to enter the world of production music with 'Incantation Presents'?
Martha> Well that is very kind, thank you! TRUNC is a really special project for me, it’s that escape I mentioned early, and is the culmination of a deeply personal writing and production process - it’s through TRUNC that I learnt to produce!
Incantation Presents is a whole different world that came about at just the right time.
I think, with TRUNC being the place where I express myself and my personal struggles and mental health etc, it can become quite dark, and I’m quite often writing songs through tears! Whereas this album, which we’re releasing under a completely different artist name, it’s allowing the lighter side of my personality to come out in the music as well, which I’ve never really done before. I’ve had a lot of fun making this album and channelling the pop princess within me, and I think you can hear that in the music too. It’s quite an analytical process rather than the fluidity of TRUNC which has been so refreshing. It's not taking itself too seriously, which has allowed me to make creative decisions that I wouldn’t normally have made.
LBB> TRUNC’s music often reflects the complexities of being a queer, neurodivergent woman in various facets of life. How have these themes influenced the sound of the album? What else has impacted it?
Martha> These qualities are who I am so it’s so great for that to be recognised in the music and welcomed by BMG. There’s themes of queerness, self love and female empowerment that can only sound and feel authentic coming from someone that has experience those things. There’s some experiences that are unique to LGBTQ+ community, even down to things like trying to work out if someone across the room is also queer so you feel safer, or so you can ask them out! That’s what 'Fruity' is about. At the time of writing we were just coming into summer and I could feel myself coming a little more alive as the nights grew shorter - you can definitely hear that in some of the tracks, especially 'What A Woman'. I also got to play at Glastonbury this year for the first time with IORA who also features on the album; seeing so many strong and confident women on massive stages (I’m looking at you Rina Sawayama, Lizzo, and Maggie Rogers!) was a massive inspiration for me as an artist and influenced songs like 'She Is The Boss' and 'Me, Myself, & I (ft. IORA)'.
LBB> Incantation Records, emphasises the importance of creating a safe space for female identifying and queer individuals. How does this mission align with how you approached the creation of 'Incantation Presents'?
Martha> I think musically taking inspiration from queer artists like Hayley Kiyoko, Troy Sivan and Kim Petras has made this a more specific type of pop that you might find on Canal Street for example. Lyrically, as I mentioned a little before, some of the themes and experiences on the album are unique to these communities, some of which I haven’t really heard in pop music before. Even down to use of pronouns, for a woman to be singing about/to another woman so explicitly is really important for normalising our experiences, and is still quite a recent thing to hear in pop music.
LBB> Can you share a particular track or moment in the album that holds significant personal meaning for you and tell us why?
Martha> I really loved making 'She Is the Boss'. I’ve never been the most confident of people so to write a song where I’m bigging myself up for three minutes felt like quite a challenge, but once I started writing it actually started flowing quite quickly. When it came to recording the vocals I was channelling this confident version of myself that I was sooo not used to, and it felt amazing! This is why the track ‘features’ TRUNC, as the recording process felt similar to when I’m on stage as TRUNC. I also had a lot of fun recording the percussion on this track, going around the studio finding cool sounds to use like my water bottle, a plant pot, the leg on my desk and putting them all together to make a funky beat! My neighbours must love me.
LBB> What has your experience been like working with BMG?
Martha> An absolute Joy. I’d not worked on a brief of this scale before so I was learning a lot along the way. Megan and John were so supportive and encouraging - I feel like you can tell a lot about a person and a work environment by the amount of positive exclamation points in an email !! Honestly never worked in a team with as much enthusiasm!
LBB> Megan, given your extensive experience in various facets of music licensing and creative direction, what unique qualities did you see in Martha’s work that made 'Incantation Presents' such an exciting project?
Megan Lawrenson> I’ve known Martha for a long time: I used to book her for gigs and festivals back when I worked in the live music industry, and she’s always stood out to me as a truly captivating performer. I saw her live with Trunc at the Camden Assembly earlier this year and I can attest that this hasn’t changed one bit – she had the whole room hanging onto her every word! Martha’s music always has a very raw and emotive core, and I was curious to see if we could harness that within the pop arena, which, sonically, is quite the departure from Trunc. But the root feelings of defiance, empowerment and individuality are exactly what we wanted to pull off with this release, so I had a feeling Martha would be able to flip it perfectly. From the first demos, John and I were really blown away (at one point John ruined a white shirt spilling his coffee in excitement). But going back earlier to the brief I wrote: I wanted an album that was authentically queer at its core, where the narratives are born from the lived experience of what it is to be queer, to be a woman, to be northern - something that resonates with me personally.
Production music is still a white man’s world, so is the world of production more generally (only 2.8% of producers are female-identifying). I found myself in a position where I’m a gatekeeper to opportunities and thought fuck that! If you want change, you have to make it happen yourself. It really is as simple as giving opportunities to diverse voices. Martha had never produced a full album before this project, and I had never supervised something on this scale so closely. Granted, from a business standpoint that doesn’t sound like the wisest investment of time, money and resources. But always taking the safe option is what has led to a male-dominated, top-heavy industry, and you can’t introduce new talent without taking some risk. The result is shimmering sapphic pop perfection.
LBB> Can you tell us a little bit about how you collaborated with Martha and how her vision shaped the production process? Any unique challenges or opportunities throughout?
Megan> There were a lot of mainstream references in the initial brief such as Miley Cyrus, Sophie, Kim Petras. These are all people who’ve helped make queer narratives the norm, as well as making superb pop music. We wanted an album that was super syncable, but I don’t think we’ve sacrificed any subtlety or nuance in that aim. I love that the queer community holds certain things back for themselves, there are coded languages, little visual identifiers, signs and signals that come from being a suppressed community and that’s really present in this release too, so it sounds very mainstream but it feels very niche, which was the aim.
That’s also a huge testament to Martha’s lyricism - she’s made listening to the album feel like you’re part of this little club. More than once I’ve pulled up the Google Drive on my phone and listened to the demos on the night tube home, because they’ve filled me with such joy. I have to take a moment to name check some of my favourite tracks: All That You Are is the most euphoric coming out anthem I’ve had the pleasure to listen to (the best way to appreciate this track is on repeat). This Road is so vulnerable and filled with the beautifully painful anxieties of new love. ‘She is The Boss’ is the kind of person I want to be when I jump out of bed everyday: I’m really excited to see what syncs we can get for that one. I’m also hoping that, with help from Incantation, BMG can host a Northern Creatives event in the new year!
LBB> Can you tell us a little bit about how you collaborated with Martha and how her vision shaped the production process? Any unique challenges or opportunities throughout?
John> Working with Martha was an absolute joy. From the first demos I heard it was clear she was a very talented producer, multi-instrumentalist, and lyricist (obviously why Megan had brought the project to the table). The whole process was so enjoyable, I think early on we settled into our roles, Martha in the driving seat with all the artistic vision, Megan refining concepts and giving feedback from a sync and style point of view, and myself with the occasional mix note.
We all know how subjective music is and trying to convey thoughts/feedback/ideas over email can often be challenging but Martha was so amazingly responsive. Not just a super talented producer but also an incredible collaborator. Definitely one of the most rewarding projects I have worked on at BMG and I will miss mine and Megan’s studio discos.
LBB> Can you tell us about anything exciting we can expect to see from BMG in the near future?
John> There’s so much going on right now, and I can’t speak for the other producers as everyone has cool projects they are working on. From my side though, we have a new compilation from Tileyard Education coming soon that is sounding awesome! Plus, new releases from our partners Expand Music with artists such as OGe X OT (a mix of Afrobeats and soulful melodies) and Louie, a 17 year old with a deep passion for country music.
You can check out the new album, Incantation Presents, right here.
