Billy Nomates

Self-described no wave songwriter and musician Victoria Ann "Tor" Maries, who performs as Billy Nomates, was born in Leicester, England, on May 2, 1990. Member of a number of bands that failed to be noticed, she returned to music after a depression and moved to Bournemouth to write and compose. Her stage name Billy Nomates was taken from an insult directed at her during a gig. She released her self-titled debut album in August 2020 on Invada Records, working on the LP in Bristol with label boss and Portishead's Geoff Barrow. The Emergency Telephone EP was released in October 2021 and followed by her second full-length, Cacti, in 2023, packed full of spiky deadpan tunes in thrall to post-punk and indie-rock. The self-produced album, in collaboration with James Trevascus, was followed in 2024 by the commissioned music for the play Mary and the Hyenas, staged at the Hull Truck Theatre. Entirely composed, produced and performed by Maries, the album was issued in 2025.