FEATURE:
Modern Heroines
PHOTO CREDIT: Maisie Cousins
Part Eighteen: Anna Calvi
___________
I am not sure why I have left it so long…
to include Anna Calvi in this feature! I have scanned back and cannot see her name so, rather timely as it is, I will get to it. Calvi is the Ambassador for this year’s Independent Venue Week, and is someone who has relied on smaller venues - early in her career – to get where she is. I will circle back to that at the end of this feature but, before I mention her debut album, I want to bring in a bit of news that came out earlier in the week. Calvi’s excellent 2018 album, Hunter, has been re-tuned; she has stripped and modified the tracks and has collaborated with some great artists. This article explains more:
“Art rocker Anna Calvi set a record last year when her latest full-length, Hunter, earned her a third consecutive Album of the Year Mercury Prize nomination. No other solo artist has achieved that feat — and now she’s looking to make the record even more unbreakable. Calvi has today announced a new LP, a stripped-down reimagining of Hunter she’s dubbed, Hunted.
Between tour legs, Calvi revisited some of the early recordings she’d made for Hunter. “These recordings capture the very moment I first wrote these songs, and recorded them on my own, in my attic studio,” she said in a statement. Calvi was struck by the “intimate” nature of “these most private recordings,” and decided to highlight that feeling on Hunted.
However, she wouldn’t be reworking the tracks on her own. She invited a number of guests to help her give the songs new life, including Julia Holter, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and IDLES’ Joe Talbot. Lead single “Don’t Beat the Girl out of My Boy” (which, incidentally, was the first track shared off Hunter, as well) sees Calvi teaming with Courtney Barnett.
“Anna is a completely awe-inspiring performer, it’s impossible to take your eyes off her onstage,” Barnett said of her fondness for Calvi. “I love her songwriting for its beautiful and perfect balance between aggression and tenderness”.
It is great that artists take a successful album and then see potential to take it further; whether that is an acoustic version of said album or bringing others into the fold. Right now, Calvi is one of the most revered and talented artists around and, right from her earliest work, there was that spark of brilliance. What about Anna Calvi herself? Born in 1980, she has received three Mercury nominations – every one of her studio albums has earned one! -, and she has won several other gongs. Calvi is renowned for her virtuosic guitar skills, her powerful voice and incredible songwriting. Born to therapist parents in London, Calvi graduated from the University of Southampton with a degree in Music, having studied violin. I often wonder whether children whose parents have jobs like Calvi’s are more attuned to the human condition and have a different insight compared with other musicians – I will muse on that later, perhaps.
Calvi worked with a private guitar tutor and, by 2011, her acclaimed debut album came out (on Domino). It was a Mercury-nominated album – I wonder why Calvi has not won one yet! -, and it is a remarkable offering. Calvi grew up exposed to a variety of musical genres; she was seduced by artists like Captain Beefheart and it seemed, right from childhood, music was her path and connection. Inspired by the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Ravel and Debussy, there are a lot of different artists in her heart. For sure, the stunning guitar work throughout can be traced to Hendrix, but I think Calvi is very much her own artist on the debut. With material written in her parents’ attic using eight-track equipment, there is something intimate and charmingly lo-fi about her eponymous debut. Many artists are a little disappointed with their debut, as they feel they could have done better or changed things. Calvi was very proud of her first outing – and rightfully so! -, and she wanted the music to tell a story more than the lyrics. Anna Calvi is an evocative and immersive album from a unique and hungry artist. Whilst Calvi would go on to better things, Anna Calvi is a remarkable album that, I feel, does not get enough airplay and focus. This is what AllMusic had to say when they reviewed the album:
“Citing the likes of Debussy, Captain Beefheart, and Nina Simone as her main influences, it's clear from the outset that Anna Calvi isn't your average, run-of-the-mill singer/songwriter. She may have been tipped for success by everyone from the broadsheet music press to Brian Eno, but her blend of sultry blues-rock and dark, mysterious flamenco is a million miles away from the chart-friendly output of her fellow Sound of 2011 nominees.
Her self-titled debut, therefore, is unlikely to reap the same commercial rewards as the likes of Jessie J and Clare Maguire, its uncompromising, gothic, David Lynch-esque nature certainly won't spawn any bite-size TV ad soundtracks or airplay favorites your mom can sing along to. But in a music scene dominated by female solo artists, Calvi's romantic but often sinister ten songs certainly helps her to stand out from the crowd. Opening track "Rider to the Sea," sets the scene immediately, a brooding instrumental whose atmospheric twanging guitars would provide the perfect score should Quentin Tarantino's much rumored Kill Bill 3 ever come to fruition. Calvi's haunting and intense vocals first come to the forefront on "No More Words," a gloriously menacing number which evokes the shimmering distorted harmonies of My Bloody Valentine. But it's on the grandiose "Desire" when Calvi really unleashes the impassioned post-punk tones that have drawn favorable comparisons with the likes of Patti Smith and PJ Harvey (whose regular collaborator, Rob Ellis, is also here on production duties). Backed by an impressively tight backing band, the likes of "Suzanne and I," a future James Bond theme in the making, "I'll Be Your Man," which would sit comfortably on Florence and the Machine's Lungs, and "Blackout," which evokes Phil Spector's expansive Wall of Sound, prove Calvi isn't averse to delivering slightly more accessible material.
But it's the more unconventional "The Devil," which undoubtedly provides the album's highlight, a mesmerizing, stripped-down fusion of classical, rock, and flamenco that showcases her virtuoso guitar skills, and her effortless shifts from whispering restraint to primitive aggression before ending in layers of drenched feedback. By the time the epic strings have reverberated on closing track "Love Won't Be Leaving," you're left in no doubt as to why the industry appears to be so excited about her. Capturing the intensity and raw emotion of her captivating live shows, Anna Calvi is an ambitious and always intriguing debut which heralds the arrival of a unique and inventive addition to the plethora of U.K. female singer/songwriters.
I am going to bring in reviews of all three of her studio albums in a minute – not including her latest work – but, right from the start of her career, Calvi was speaking with the media and telling her story – a lot of artists avoid interviews for a while, which is a shame. Calvi is someone who arrived on the scene with a very original and interesting sound, so it is understandable people were keen to know more. I am not sure when I first encountered her music, but it might have been just after her sophomore album was released in 2013. I have gone back to her debut a lot since then, and I am struck by how complete and confident it sounds. In this interview with The Guardian, Calvi talked about her influences, confidence, and where her voice emerges from:
“In fact, almost everything about Calvi's musical vision seems to be the result of intense fixations and pushing herself to uncomfortable limits. In many ways, performing seems to be a release for her. It gives her courage, putting her in touch with "a different side of me that's strong and braver and more powerful", which, perversely, allows her to be more vulnerable, too. "The singers I love, that's what they have," she says. "Nina Simone is extremely vulnerable but her voice is powerful.
This rawness, this complete fearlessness, in giving everything, and leaving nothing. It's a really inspiring quality." On a personal level, she says being creative "stops the annoying side of consciousness that's like, 'Nanananana!' You know, all that crap that your mind is filled with, worrying about what you said yesterday, what you're going to do about this. All of that completely goes away. Without it I'd be a bit of a nervous wreck."
“…But that takes confidence, which was slower to come than technique. "Often you have singers and you know who it is in the band because they walk in strutting, if it's a girl, in heels, clop, clop, clop," she says. "And I look at them and think, 'God, I can't do that. I can't be that kind of person.'"
Instead, she's created a world of her own. From the smuttily seductive Blackout ("Here in the dark/ I could be anyone") to the pining but sinister First We Kiss ("...then you will lock the door, my dear"), the album is heavy and close. "There's a sense of internal forces taking you over and finding a way to survive them," Calvi says. "They can be anything from loneliness to passion. At times it can feel really close, and at times really vast. Musically, I love the sense of tension and release that you get a lot in orchestral music. You get it in bite-sized form in pop music but I like to extend it and make the most of it, because I find it really exciting; the dynamics you get from really building something up until it's almost unbearable, then letting it go."
…Is this where that enormous voice comes from? "It's a bit like when something really bad happens, there's a survivor in you that kicks in and you don't realise how strong you are," she explains. "It's the same part of me that kicks in when I sing. Physically and emotionally, because it's both. It's a very physical thing to do." Being so slight, she says, means that performing takes it out of her. "I think that's why I like Edith Piaf, because I know she was small as well, and it's really nice that even if you're of a small frame – and I'm really weak – there's something in me that's like that".
After such an intriguing and well-received debut, Calvi could have taken a few years off and taken a breath. Calvi was busy gigging and preparing the songs for her follow-up, One Breath. Recorded at Black Box studios in France, it was mixed (in Texas) by Calvi’s new producer, John Congleton. The fact such an esteemed and legendary producer was working with Calvi so early in her career shows what an impression she was making and how good her music was/is! One Breath is full of thrills and vulnerability; about being open and surrendering to that feeling of fear, but then embracing it. I think One Breath is an even more confident and nuanced album than her debut. Eliza, Suddenly, and Piece by Piece were released as singles, and the whole album shines and sparks. It is a terrific creation and, again, critics were keen to lend their praise.
This is what The Irish Times wrote when they listened to One Breath:
“Described by Brian Eno as “the biggest thing since Patti Smith” and addled with bounteous comparisons to PJ Harvey, Anna Calvi does have her work cut out for her. But the Londoner makes certain to brand her own style across her second album. The tumultuous rock of Eliza, the intimate, woozy throb of One Breath, and the primal bluster of Tristan are distinctive yet complementary. Still, it is Piece by Piece that best sums up Calvi’s appeal. Tiptoeing through verses of whispered choruses and swaddled drums, she unleashes an abrasive scramble of atonal guitar and noisy keyboards at the song’s most vulnerable points. It confirms that you never quite know what’s coming next with Calvi, be it ghostly hymnal passages, cinematic strings or buzzing rock’n’roll – but the anticipation is both delicious and satisfying”.
I am keen to get to Anna Calvi’s latest album and a couple of interviews she provided fairly recently. With each album, she has grown stronger and more assured. One Breath is a remarkable album that exceeded the high standard of her debut and announced her as one of the finest songwriters in the U.K. Again, she had another Mercury nod under her belt, and so many people were eager to explore this ever-evolving and blossoming artist. I do not have too much to add to what I have already said about One Breath, other than to say it is a stunning album that everyone should listen to – I am ending this feature with a playlist that includes One Breath’s best tracks.
PHOTO CREDIT: Eva Pentel
I want to quote from this interview in The Independent, as it is a really interesting piece and, whilst I would recommend you read the entire interview, I have selected a few choice passages:
“That voice has certainly helped her records, 2011's eponymous debut and 2013's One Breath, win fans and acclaim; both were Mercury Prize-nominated. Yet Calvi says she was "phobic" about singing for many years, not able even to warble in the shower or along with the radio. "I guess I always felt a bit hemmed in. I just decided one day, I'm going to work and work and see if I can sing. I practised for hours every day. I had a few lessons at the beginning, and they were more like therapy sessions: me being like, 'I can't, I can't,' and [the therapist] being like, 'You can, you can!' I would say it is the thing I'm most proud of in my life, finding this voice."
"I can get really lost in my own imagination, and there's something important about having that space," she says. "Not speaking, not writing, just thinking. It's funny, when you're left with your thoughts, they go to different places… k I do think it affects how I write – this idea of loneliness, what it means, how it can be liberating, but also reminds you of all the most scary things about being a human… I kind of like that."
As you can tell, Calvi is not afraid of exploring the deep stuff: loneliness, anxiety, identity, reinvention. Before our interview, I'm told by the PR she'd like to "discuss gender". So we do.
She claims it's a topic she didn't used to think about much – until she became a famous musician and journalists started asking her highly gendered questions. "I felt I was being reminded constantly about my gender in a way you never usually are. 'What's it like as a woman playing guitar?' 'As a woman, how do you…?' 'What is it like to play such a phallic instrument?' At first it surprised me, then it made me angry, and now it's like my eyes are opened to seeing the world in a slightly different way. You're so brought up in the patriarchal way we live, you don't notice it, yet it's everywhere. It's everywhere."
She fears we're sliding backwards in terms of gender roles, that pressure is again increasingly being put on women to simply be pretty and passive, as if their appearance is their primary purpose. "It's beyond perfection, the way a woman is supposed to look. And shapeless – like an 11-year-old boy. You look in the mirror and see that you have hips and you imagine they shouldn't be there. I do shave my legs and my armpits but really, what are you being told, that you have to shave off parts of yourself? You're not allowed to just be in the world. You're always being told that your natural state is a bit disgusting".
After the success of One Breath in 2013 and increased interest, there was a bit of a gap before a third album arrived. Hunter came out in 2018 – five years after One Breath -, but it is Calvi’s strongest work yet. It runs deeper and hits harder; singles like Don’t Beat the Girl Out of My Boy, Hunter, and As a Man see Calvi with her voice in incredible form; her musicianship and guitar playing is truly extraordinary. I love the album and, whilst it was nominated for a Mercury again, it lost out last year – Dave won for PSYCHODRAMA. Produced by Nick Launay and Anna Calvi, Hunter is one of 2018’s very best albums. Few artists manage to hit such peaks on their third album. Calvi released a sensational album that blew fans critics away. Taking in subjects such as gender and sexuality, the songs make you think, but they are striking in terms of the vocals and compositions, and not just the lyrics. AllMusic remarked the following when reviewing Hunter:
“Anna Calvi took a five-year break after releasing 2013's One Breath, but the intervening time didn't diminish the grand sound she's been cultivating since her debut. From the title track's breathy opening to the soaring melody of "Away," her gift for elucidating the drama of a bygone era is intact and just as effective. If anything, the lustily provocative nature of her artistry reaches its dizzy apex on Hunter.
She takes the drama of '80s power ballads and extracts its most gothic textures, no doubt aided by Nicolas Launay's (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Yeah Yeah Yeahs) expansive production, which recalls the airiness he gave the Bad Seeds' Push the Sky Away. A great deal of the record explores the fluidity of gender by playing with many of the common tropes associated with masculinity, from "Alpha" to "Hunter." The former track's arch, elongated riffs, and the predatory prowl of "Indies or Paradise," include some of Calvi's most warped and consummate shredding to date, further dispelling another macho myth -- that only boys can play guitar. Nevertheless, these virile expressions never come at the expense of Calvi's femininity, as the lush swirl of "Swimming Pool" attests.
Like gender, the record also examines sexuality. Calvi has flirted with a queer point of view before, as on "I'll Be Your Man" from her 2011 debut. But Hunter is the record which fundamentally lives and breathes queerness, a record where on "Chains" she suggests, "I'll be the boy, you be the girl/I'll be the girl you be the boy." Unlike earlier efforts, this feels less like theater for theater's sake, and ultimately, unbridled and infinitely real. On "Wish," for instance, she's never sounded so liberated, and that lack of constraint bleeds into her guitar playing, hinting at a newfound joy amid the curious majesty of her music.
Hunter is the record where, more than any other, Calvi's talents have fully crystallized. The true character of her music has been unleashed and will likely see all those PJ Harvey comparisons finally fade, eclipsed by the radiance of this tough yet open-hearted work.
I will conclude and wrap things up soon but, before then, I want to source from another review of Hunter. It is an album that deserves all the love it received and, when The Guardian wrote about Hunter, they made some keen observations:
“The more one listens, the more Hunter seems like a filmic album: it is defined by colour. Swimming Pool, a gorgeous, rippling ballad was apparently inspired by David Hockney’s 1960s paintings, and the celebration of shameless pleasure. Yet it seems to recall the films of Douglas Sirk, where colours were used as signifiers of repressed desire.
There are depths to be explored here, depths to wallow in. The title track switches decades: Hunter’s stately, four-chord synth pattern, and little twanged guitar detailing calls to mind something from Bruce Springsteen’s Tunnel of Love, albeit with a female protagonist as the seeker of prey.
There are missteps – the refrain “I’m an alpha / I divide and conquer” on Alpha feels more like a truism than a truth – but ones so tiny as not to reduce the impact of the album. Hunter is glorious and triumphant, a record that succeeds on any terms you try to force upon it”.
With every new album, Anna Calvi was talking about a new phase of life and developments. Queerness has always been a part of her music, but much more so on Hunter. Artists such as Calvi, Shura and Marika Hackman are putting queerness in the spotlight, yet it is still an area that is under-exposed and supported. I wonder whether the industry is as open as it should be, or whether queer/L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ artists feel like they can be open and expressive.
Hunter is an album that stays with you long after you have heard it. I have a couple of interviews to cover before I come on to her post-Hunter work/activity. I came across an interview in i that interested me, where Calvi talked about the period before Hunter and how she was rebuilding things:
“It was a time to rebuild my life, my identity and confidence”, she says. “I wrote the record very much in tandem with falling in love again and exploring being happy and experiencing pleasure and being more free. All the possible things a human can be, which is so restricted by the constraints of having to perform one’s gender. That was what I wanted the record to feel like.”
And she has had to defend her relationship. When Calvi and her girlfriend were looking to rent a flat in France, a landlady – on realising that they were a couple rather than a pair of students – refused them. “It was like wow, shit, this stuff really happens.”
So you can understand why Calvi is angry. In the years since she emerged as an esteemed art-rock guitarist and singer, alongside winning best breakthrough act at the 2012 BRIT Awards and being twice nominated for the Mercury, she has found herself answering such questions as: “What’s it like playing a phallic instrument?”, and that other favourite: “What’s it like being a woman in music?”
“It’s this idea that women are a genre and that you would be compared to really random female artists because you have breasts, but not compared to a male artist”, she says”.
With Hunter, a whole new clan of fans and supports headed the way of Anna Calvi. It is an album that still sounds so refreshing and important now, over a year after its release. The record is very intimate and personal in places; that mixes with the more outward-looking and charged. That combination of sounds and emotions makes Hunter such a magnificent album. I am going to bring us into the present soon but, quickly, I want to quote from an interview from The Independent where Calvi talked about releasing such intimate music:
“It was “scary”, she says, to release such intense, intimate music. “It’s a weird thing to say really personal things and then think that any old person is gonna hear them. Especially if you’re quite an introverted person, which I am.”
The risk has paid off. The record is one of 12 in the running at tonight’s Mercury Prize, shortlisted alongside albums by Foals, Dave, Little Simz and The 1975. Calvi says it feels “incredible” to be nominated, but she’s not concerning herself with what happens on the night. “I’ve experienced losing twice, I know how it works,” she says with a laugh. Her self-titled debut was shortlisted in 2011, as was its follow-up, One Breath, two years later. “You spend the whole time thinking, ‘I’m not gonna win’, and then you get there, and you’re waiting at the table, and there’s two minutes where you’re like, ‘Hang on a minute, I could win this!’ And then they announce the winner, and it’s someone else. So I’m so ready and prepared for that. I’ve got it down.”
Calvi is buoyed by the increasing acceptance of queer artists into the mainstream, though she worries about her identity being commodified. “I talked to a journalist who was a bit older who was saying, ‘Is this whole sudden queer thing the new counter-culture, like the punks?’ And I tried to explain to her that the main difference is that if a trans person doesn’t feel they can be understood... we’re talking about life and death. People kill themselves. It’s not just for fun, it’s not about what music you like or what hobbies you have, this is about people’s lives. And I think it’s really dangerous to try and condense it and make it a product. But I do think it’s great for me as an artist that there’s a family of queer artists. The difficult thing is if only people in that community hear about each other, then there’s a sense of ghettoising. I suppose equality is only when it’s not even a thing anymore. And we obviously are far away from that being the case”.
Since Hunter’s release in 2018, Calvi has been touring a lot and keeping busy. I will end by talking about gigs (and bringing in a live review from last year), but Calvi has been doing some T.V. composition for Peaky Blinders. She is a big fan of the show, and she has contributed her magic. I will include a cut from the Peaky Blinders soundtrack in this feature but, if you are not a fan of the show – or missed it -, here is an article from July 2019 where the news was announced:
“Anna Calvi is pleased to announce that she has written and performed the score for the entire new season of BBC One’s Peaky Blinders.
Peaky Blinders had its season 5 premiere in Birmingham yesterday evening, where Anna Calvi joined the cast and director Anthony Byrne on the red carpet.
Previously a fan of the series, Calvi said on writing the original score: “This is a new thing for me but it was a really good fit, I love everything about the show. I completely immersed myself in it and became quite obsessed with the characters, especially Tommy Shelby [played by Cillian Murphy] and getting lost in his mind”.
Anna adds: “There is a duality to the show, a beauty and a brutality, which I have been exploring in my own music and on the Hunter album. I want to say thank you to the director Anthony Byrne for believing in me and letting me seek out what I needed to".
Anna Calvi is an artist who can step into film and T.V. with ease and is instantly adaptable. I wonder where she might head next, and whether she will write music for other T.V. shows or films. 2020’s Independent Venue Week Ambassador Calvi joined BBC Radio 6 Music on Friday, and she spoke about the event/week and live music. I opened by stating how Calvi, like so many artists, relied on venues to get her break and experience. She is vocal and passionate when it comes to supporting live venues and ensuring their survival. In this report from The Guardian, Calvi spoke about the importance of music; asking why there is not as much funding (for music) as ballet or other areas of the arts:
“Britain’s independent music venues should receive the same reverence and support as the ballet or opera, according to the musician Anna Calvi and the organisers behind a week-long initiative to promote the UK’s smaller concert halls.
Calvi, a three-time Mercury music prize nominee, told the Guardian that venues which predominantly focus on live music – and helped contribute £1.1bn to the UK economy in 2018 – need to be protected at a time when a third of smaller venues report they are struggling.
She said: “Just because it’s music that is played with guitars, why is it any different to a place like the ballet or opera? Other areas of the creative industry might have slowed down, but people are still going to gigs.”
Calvi, who is an ambassador for Independent Venue Week, added that investment in venues should be seen as a long-term project, which allows talent to develop. “There might only be 150 people in the room at the time at those early gigs, but those artists could go anywhere from there,” she said. “Playing smaller venues was instrumental for me to becoming the artist I am now”.
I have not even mentioned Calvi as a live performer. I have not seen her live, but I have watched televised performances and she is incredible! The passion she puts into each performance is electrifying. She has a couple of dates announced this year, but I am sure there will be more dates revealed down the line. I am hoping to catch her live this year, because it is clear Calvi is one of the best live performers around. CLASH caught Calvi in London last year and were mesmerised by what they saw:
“A combination of some Kate Bush gothica; amazing, jaw dropping, on-just-the-right-side of overindulgent virtuoso 80s-era Prince guitar, PJ Harvey sultriness… and – dare I say – a touch of Bruce Springsteen? Oh, and also an incredible soaring voice that, from what I can gather, physically knocks one woman in the audience over at the front.
PHOTO CREDIT: Eva Pentel
This is a performer that you can’t take your eyes off for one second. Her voice is insane – and I hope I’m not doing her a disservice when I suggest that she should be a shoo-in for the next Bond theme – she could Carly Simon the shit out of it.
But back to the gig – the unconventional and unexpected rhythms; the very of-the-moment themes of androgyny and sexual fluidity; the heavy atmosphere cut through with thrusting guitar and operatic voice - and the highlight - and my new favourite track of hers, ‘Don’t Beat the Girl Out of My Boy’.
She didn’t play ‘Suddenly’, but maybe that would have lifted the atmosphere too much. As it was, the occasion has an almost David Lynch-like quality - like you’ve got too drunk in the Red Room, and someone is holding a blue velvet cushion over your face... in a good way.
It she ventures anywhere close to you this year I urge you to catch her – it’s like a fever dream that never quite leaves you”.
I will leave it there, but I think this year will be big for Anna Calvi. There are no plans for a new studio album yet, but one wouldn’t bet against it – and, I suspect, it will be nominated for a Mercury! There are going to be tour dates and, as festivals are announcing their line-ups, I feel like Calvi will be featuring on more than a few. There are some truly great artists in the music world right now, but few are as impressive and inspiring as Anna Calvi. She is an artist who will be a true…
ICON of the future.