INTRODUCING:Marianne Joyce

With her debut single Inventing Something, Plymouth-based singer-songwriter Marianne Joyce arrives with a quietly powerful anthem for lost queer love stories — and a sound that sits somewhere between Leith Ross’s intimacy, Lucy Dacus’s emotional clarity, and Laura Marling’s timeless songwriting. Out Friday 6 February, the track is inspired by Joyce’s own journey of self-discovery and a line from Portrait of a Lady on Fire — “Do you think all lovers feel as though they’re inventing something?” Already backed by BBC Introducing in the South West, it’s a debut that feels both deeply personal and strikingly universal. We caught up with Marianne to talk queer history, finding your voice, and turning identity into anthemic indie folk.

‘Inventing Something’ looks back at queer love stories that were never written down. When did that idea first take hold for you, and how did it turn into a song?

It's an idea I'd been thinking about since I came out a few years ago. I realised I was the only gay person within my extended family - which makes you feel a little self-conscious and different - but I kept thinking about the fact that I must have had queer relatives in my family tree if I reached back far enough. I had this feeling of sadness that I'll never know who they were or any of their stories, because they would have had to keep it secret for their safety. That definitely inspired my process of writing this song, it's got this romantic but also slightly melancholic feeling to it, both lyrically and in the arrangements.

The lyrics feel deliberately timeless, almost suspended outside any one era. How did you approach writing something that could speak to both queer history and present-day experience?

I think some parts of the human experience are pretty universal, and falling in love is one of those, so I stripped away contemporary references that might keep the listener in the present day and kept the focus instead on emotion. Where I felt like the song needed some specificity, I wrote lyrics like "the poets start making me weep", which is accurate to me crying over Mary Oliver poems (a fairly frequent occurence), while also being relevant to someone centuries ago reading love sonnet. I questioned whether to reference 'her' or 'she' in the lyrics and make the queer aspect of the song more obvious, but I decided to keep it in first-person so that lyrically it's not just reflective of my queer identity, but of anyone's - no matter space or time.

The title references Portrait of a Lady on Fire, which centres on intimacy, memory and being seen. What did that line mean to you personally, and how did it shape the emotional core of the song?

When I watched the film, that line - "do you think all lovers feel as thought they're inventing something?" - made me feel so connected to those characters. That feeling resonated with me and I wanted this song to capture it. In the bridge of the song, I repeat the lyric "are we inventing something?", which I think connects all of these love stories. In a world before any queer representation, people would relate to that question in a literal sense and wonder whether they're the only two people in the world to feel this way. But I think for anyone discovering their identity and falling in love for the first time today, it's still an intense and emotional process, and nothing captures it quite like the idea that you're inventing something new. 

This is your first official release, but it’s already received support from BBC Introducing. How has it felt to put such a personal story into the world as your introduction as an artist?

A little daunting.. I wrote this song years ago now, long before I'd started performing, so I was writing it under the assumption that no one else would hear it! But maybe that has worked out for the best. If I'd written it with an audience in mind, I think there's a danger you can self-censor more, and often personal songs are the ones that people love best. When I was picking which track to release first, Inventing Something felt like the right introduction. The songwriting is front and centre, but it's also got this big folk instrumentation and a very hooky chorus which I love. To hear it being played on the radio was a wild experience, I'm so grateful for the support from the BBC Introducing team for that one!

Your music draws on folk traditions, place, and storytelling, while also feeling very current. As you work towards your debut EP, what parts of yourself or your world are you most excited to explore next?

I'm really excited to share different parts of my songwriting. This track is on the more serious side but I love writing with wit and humour too, because my personality is definitely not very serious! Inventing Something feels like it's designed to be listened to in headphones with your head against a rainy train window, but I've also got songs which are meant to be played in car full of friends driving to the beach. I can't wait for those ones to come out and for people to hear those stories as well.