start Me up

Born to an artist mother and a songwriter father (folk player steve tilston), Martha has been around guitars all of her life…

Martha Tilston had a childhood steeped in music. Brought up by her mother in south west London, there was nearly always music on the turntable. “Generally, it was Joni Mitchell, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and that kind of thing,” she says. “Then, when I’d go and visit my dad, I’d see him a lot with a guitar in his hand – or cooking a curry, those were the two things I mostly remember dad doing!”

Her early years also saw her mixing with her parents’ circle of friends that included Bert Jansch, John Renbourn and John Martyn. “They were around quite a lot and I used to hear them jamming and playing; we used to go and stay at John Renbourn’s house down in Exmouth and they’d be playing together.”

Surprisingly, the guitar wasn’t Martha’s first instrument. “At my mum’s, we didn’t have a guitar in the house,” she continues, “but we had a battered piano that someone found in an old house and gave to us. That piano became the vehicle through which I wrote music – until I went to university, when I took a guitar with me because I couldn’t take the piano!”

Martha formed a duo called Mouse with guitarist Nick Marshall, but she was still finding her way with the instrument. “It was a writing tool, really. I’d play a few obvious chords, move the capo up and down the neck to make it a bit more interesting, but then Nick would take it to another level. He taught me interesting tunings and how to really tune into the tone of the guitar. We made bugger all money, but we built up a following and I learnt my trade – and it wasn’t in folk clubs. We were playing at underground festivals, so no-one was comparing me to my dad, because nobody really knew who he was on that scene.”

After Mouse split, Martha secured support slots with Damien Rice and Nick Harper. “Each person I supported was like a private lecture. Nick taught me an awful lot about songwriting and guitar playing. His tone, the pedals he’d use and detuning – it would be such a faff, but I always think of Nick and how many times he’d tune up and down during a show. I can bring it down to DADGAD and back up again in a gig now!”

It was Nick who gave Martha some valuable advice: “He said to me, ‘Your songwriting’s great and your guitar playing is okay, but you’ve got to stop resting on your songwriting. You’ve got to get better at the guitar.’ I saw him a few years ago at Glastonbury and I said, ‘Thank you so much for that advice.’”

And her current choice of instrument? “At the moment I use Nathan Ball acoustics: parlour-sized, resonant and I love it!” [DM]