20 year-old Birmingham-bred Jess Martins is breaking the rules of Indie-Pop - and she wants you in on it.
The London newcomer shaking up indie pop with biting honesty, playful chaos, and hooks that linger long after the first listen. Her debut EP In A While, Crocodile is a bold introduction to an artist who refuses to play it safe.
Across the EP’s tracks, Jess moves effortlessly between razor-sharp lyricism and gut-punching melodies, channelling the wit of Lily Allen with a 2025 edge. One moment she’s cheeky and conversational, the next she’s ripping into heartbreak and self-doubt with total vulnerability. It’s this push-and-pull, messy, and unfiltered vibe that sets her apart in a scene that craves authenticity.
Already backed by Spotify with a coveted spot on New Pop UK and Our Generation, Jess Martins is fast cementing herself as one of the UK’s most exciting new voices, drawing comparisons to Nieve Ella, Olivia Rodrigo and beabadoobee, but carving her own lane in the process.
Whether you’re screaming along at 2am or crying quietly into your coffee, In A While, Crocodile is built for all the highs and lows in between.
Picture: Sean Neale
27th August 2025
What time of day do you feel most inspired?
At night! I have a really bad sleep schedule and I’m often up very late but I have quite a chaotic life and think I like the stillness of when everyone else is asleep. A lot of my songs are written in the middle of the night and my phone has many whispery voice-memos from 3am. Other than that, I often get inspired when I’m on the move and on public transport - lots of time looking out of windows!
What do you daily to get into your creative mindset?
I do journal but it’s less of a routine thing and more when I feel like it. Lots of my creativity is inspired by my experiences and emotions and I’m a real day-dreamer so I don’t think I necessarily do something daily to get into the creative mindset. But a good dog walk always helps get into a good headspace!
Tell us a bit about your self-care routine
I love a slow morning - lie-ins and making myself avocado on toast with some music on.
Where's your favourite space to experience music?
I loooove live music - I go to as many gigs as I can from small venues to bigger stadium concerts to festivals. A lot of my money goes on concert tickets. But I also love listening to music when I’m travelling somewhere. There’s nothing like a good old yearn staring out a bus or train window. And I love putting on an album in the car and blasting it and singing really badly to it as loud as you like.
Favourite song you've released to date?
Oooh hard to pick because they’re all special to me but I thinkkk Off Script (even though it’s my least streamed). I just really love the metaphor going through it and think it’s a great one to dance to with your friends. I worked on it with Iain Berryman - who has produced loads of my favourite songs - and a really cool artist called Callinsick before finishing it with my amazing producer Fergus. And I also got to go to Abbey Road to get it mastered so the whole experience of making it was really cool!
You're going to a day festival, who are 5 artists you want on the line up?
Olivia Rodrigo
Sam Fender
Taylor Swift
Catfish and the Bottlemen
The 1975
Where is somewhere you’d really love to perform live?
I would love to do festivals and hopefully I will soon! I just think they’re such vibes and such a mixture of people in the audience and I love that they’re outside.
You have 24 hours to master a musical skill, what are you choosing?
I think production or maybe vocals. I’m not a trained singer so would love to learn to utilise my voice more and be more technical. And I think it would be really cool to be able to produce my own stuff - when I write songs I always know what I want the production to sound like, but I’m pretty rubbish with the technology side of producing so it would be cool to master that.
You have 24 hours, which musician/industry person are you spending it with?
Hmm I think Sam Fender. I just love his music and the messages he conveys so much. I’d love to chat to him and I think he’d be hilarious too.
Tell us a little about your recent release ‘See You Later (maybe never)’
This one is so vulnerable and really special to me. Things had come to an unexpected sour end when the person I was seeing moved to uni. A few months in (after being very angry for a while), I think I reached a real grieving point of missing them.
I sat down at the piano and this kind of all poured out of me in one go in a very stream-of-conscience style. It’s about realising that the last time you saw that person may have been the last time you’ll ever see them again and coming to terms with that. And also learning that you can’t fix someone haha. I then took it to Rory Redfern (who is a master on keys) and he jazzed up the chords and added some beautiful strings and a cello line with me and we made most of the song in his bedroom, but went to a studio to record with a real piano as that’s something that I really wanted the song to have.
If you could time travel for the day, what era of music would you most like to visit?
70s! Rock n roll Daisy Jones and The Six style. My grandad was a guitarist and my biggest music inspiration and my grandparents are always listening to Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, The Eagles etc. I love Fleetwood Mac and Queen and Led Zeppelin and so many bands from that era. And I think the fashion and the hippie movement was so cool. Yeah, I’d really love to experience that world.
Your track of the day
My Friend the Sun - Family (thinking about the 70s now)
What's next for you?
I just released my debut EP ‘In A While, Crocodile’ which I’m super proud of and feel like it turned out exactly like my vision. I love the tongue-in-cheek title and the artwork and feel like it tells the story in the way I wanted to. But I have so much to come! My next release will be a single in November and it’s another really special one to me. It’s actually the first song I ever recorded with my producer Fergus in my first ever session so I’m really excited for it to come out. We’ve kept all of the vocals and most of the production from the demo so it feels really raw and I can’t wait to start sharing it!