Billy the Kid: the folk outlaw speaks out

WITH arms and chest covered in brightly-coloured tattoos, Billy Pettinger is far from the usual image of the lone girl singer-songwriter.

But then ‘Billy the Kid’ is not your standard folk artist. Yes, she plays heart-stoppingly beautiful country-tinged music, but there is grit there too - a legacy of her feisty early days as a punk rocker.

“It all started because my band had a tattoo endorsement,” she laughs.

“I don't know if I would have so many if they weren't free. I grew up in punk bands where it wasn't so unusual. I guess you don’t see too many folk singers covered in tattoos but I think it's more common now.

“They're just tattoos, though. They're not that big a deal.”

Assuming the name of the famous Western gunslinger, she admits to having her own outlaw tendencies.

“It is just a nickname, but when it comes to music I like to do my own thing,” she says. “I am a bit of a lone wolf as far as my art is concerned. Perhaps at times it suffers for this.”

Hailing from Vancouver, British Columbia, Billy, 30, describes her music as “Canadian Americana”. That though is seriously underselling her perfectly-formed songs inspired by the world she sees around her. She may be a fairly new name on this side of the Atlantic, her music has many admirers at home, and has seen her work alongside Americana legend Garth Hudson of The Band, Marty Rifkin from Bruce Springsteen's band, Randy Cooke of Dave Stewart's Rock Fabulous Orchestra, and Stan ‘the Baron’ Behrens, who has played harmonica for Willie Dixon and the Four Tops.

“Garth is kind of cryptic but has some great stories,” she recalls. “But Marty was ‘off the charts’ nice.”

She lists her major influence as Ryan Adams, indeed she shares his producer, Jamie Candiloro, whose credits also include R.E.M. and Willie Nelson.

“Ryan stopped by the studio while we were recording,” she says. “He said he liked my song These City Lights and was texting Jamie trying to take us out for lunch while I was recording a vocal one day. It was pretty hard to pretend like I didn't really care!”

But she says her real influence is closer to home - the people she meets on streets of her hometown.

“Good people inspire me on a daily basis,” she says. “Musically I like to be alone. I like to just sit and make up little things. Though that sounds depressing!” she laughs again.

But she can’t quite escape her punk past - including her stint in a Ramones tribute act and with rock band Billy and the Lost Boys.

“I grew up in punk-rock and playing in punk-rock bands,” she says. “It was very much alive for me. It’s the same with folk and country. It's all music to me and I like all kinds of songs.”

So what has been her greatest punk-rock moment? “I once got a bass in the head and had to get five stitches!” she grimmaces. “I destroyed a lot of drum sets when I was a kid, too. I would probably laugh at myself if I saw me doing that now.”

But while she may have calmed down, she has kept her political conscience. Her debut The Lost Cause was a manifesto for life, aimed at putting something back into society.

It also launched her Lost Cause fund to create a scholarship for foster children going into higher education, providing guitars to schools in poor areas, and helping young people affected by drugs and homelessness.

“The Lost Cause is kind of a way of life,” she explains. “It is about trying to find your own way, throwing out the maps and just going and getting things done. It's a code of conduct, really, with some sort of rules to live by. It is about helping other people, and looking outside yourself.

“I can’t stand liars and lies, poverty and hunger, hurting the planet and other people, unjust action and circumstance,” she adds.

Sticking with her self-help philosophy, her full-length follow-up, the appropriately-titled Ours, and this year’s Stars Exploding were funded by an imaginative crowd sourcing campaign which saw her turn her back on established labels, and adopting a DIY approach.

It turned out to be quite a journey and one which took her across North America on some wild adventures. “I have gone white water rafting, rock climbing and camping with fans to raise money to make records,” she says.

“I have also played birthday parties, wedding anniversaries and fundraisers. I would cover any song and make a video in order to finance my records. Pretty much anything you can think of that I could do, I would do it.”

It is, she says, the only way to release a record. “Personally I never had much help from the industry side of things,” she says. “Maybe this is tied in with me being sort of a lone wolf or whatever.

“I've always had a need to get music out so I started a label 10 years ago and began putting out my records and my friends' bands. The pre-order thing is just a way to connect directly with the people via these incentives. I am cutting out the middle man, so to speak.”

But you don’t have to buy a record to hear ‘The Kid’. Her music has cropped up on a surprising range of television and film soundtracks - among them American Idol, 16 and Pregnant and the Juliette Lewis movie Foreverland.

“It's always a surprise when someone asks to use something,” she says. “You never know when it is going to happen or what it is going to be for. But I appreciate it.

“At the same time you can't bank on it or depend on it, because you're kind of depending on other people. I guess that, in that sense, it is only as important as you make it.

“For me I consider it a bonus. My focus is on the creative aspect.”

But for the rest of us, it is all about that voice. Though she, herself, is way too modest to admit it.

“I feel like I am still learning,” she grins. “I started realising I should probably learn how to sing a little late in the game. Honestly, I am more of a songwriter; I always have been - I just really like making things up.”

Billy The Kid plays The Cellar, Frewin Court, Oxford, on Monday. Tickets
are £8 from wegottickets.com