Black Marble is redefining the art of making it

His latest record, Life in Small Spaces, reflects on what it means to build an artistic life without allowing the music industry’s ideas of success to become its measure. Black Marble first sparked to life in 2012, and Stewart has spent the years since writing, recording, and delivering his records largely by himself. Over time, he began to notice a pattern in the way the industry gauges an artist’s progress. At first, every new opportunity felt like a singular breakthrough. But after years of watching other artists move through the same cycle, he began to recognise a familiar sequence. “There are these little check marks,” he says. “You play on KEXP, you get that contract, you play in that venue, you do this, you do that… The industry offers these things to artists and, once you’ve done them, it’s like, well, am I real now, or am I still a wooden boy like Pinocchio?”Stewart came to realise that completing the checklist did not necessarily mean building a sustainable career. He watched artists receive those opportunities, briefly become the next big thing, and then disappear as another artist took their place. The longer he stayed in music, the more clearly he saw the machinery beh...