Yesterday, Anna of the North today released “Someone”, the second single to be taken from their debut album Lovers. Anna also lends her vocals to a new track by Tyler, The Creator available today – 911/ Mr Lonely, which also features Frank Ocean and Steve Lacey.

Speaking about “Someone”, the band say: “We think almost everyone has woken up after a big night, instantly regretting something that happened. It’s about how easy it is to break your promises when you’ve had a couple of drinks. Going deeper, the song is about accepting that you’re only human and to learn how to forgive yourself for your own mistakes and accepting that sometimes we need someone to save us from repeating any old habits.”

Due for worldwide release on September 8th, Lovers is an album deeply rooted in heartbreak, a subject that courses through the veins of all ten tracks – through the turmoil, the guilt and the tentative joy of finally letting yourself move on.

Now they offer up an emphatically assured debut LP, its clean, springy beats and shimmering synths underpinned by the rich, emotive clarity of Anna’s voice. Recorded in Oslo and mixed in Copenhagen and London by Luke Smith (Foals, Depeche Mode), Lovers is a coherent but endlessly varied beast.

The story of the project began five years back. Anna was working in a shop in a small town near Oslo, settled with her first love whilst anticipating a life of routine and normality, when a customer came in and changed her life. Polite and well groomed, the woman, a stranger to Anna, began making daily visits, browsing for hours but never buying a thing. One afternoon, for reasons Anna will never know, the woman approached her and implored her to abandon the traditional life she had planned out, and go and expand her horizons. The plea jolted something in Anna, and in an act of uncharacteristic spontaneity, she booked a flight to Australia, leaving behind the life and the person she thought she’d spend her life with.

Her time in Australia was fulfilling but turbulent. She fell in love again, only to have her heart broken as suddenly and inexplicably as her decision to leave Norway in the first place. That’s when she met Brady Daniell-Smith. Brady, who’d been struggling with his own complicated relationships, was performing an acoustic show in Melbourne; Anna was in the audience, drinking with friends. Becoming friends, he encouraged her to find solace in songwriting, discovering they could make music together as a way of exorcising the demons of their love lives and the project was born. He jokingly started calling her “Anna of the North” and the name stuck.

Anna of the North
Live Dates:

01 Jul – Sommerfesten på Giske, NO
02 Jul – British Summer Time, UK
07 Jul – Blissfields Festival, UK
08 Jul – Mad Cool Festival, ES
11 Jul – Skral Festival, NO
14 Jul – Slottsfjell Festival, NO
10 Aug 2017 – Stay Out West, SW
18 Aug – Pukkelpop Festival, BE
23 Aug – Hudson Ballroom – Sydney, AU
24 Aug – Northcote Social Club – Melbourne, AU
26 Aug – Maroochy Music & Vis Arts Festival, AU
09 Sep – Bestival, UK
26 Sep – Omeara – London, UK
09 Nov – Parkteateret – Oslo, No
10 Nov – Det Akademiske Kvarter – Bergen, No