XS Noize | Latest Music News

Hunter, the third LP from the BRIT Award and double Mercury Music Prize-nominated Anna Calvi, will be released on August 31 st, 2018 via Domino.

In conjunction with today’s announcement, Calvi shares a video for the album’s first single, “Don’t Beat The Girl Out Of My Boy”. A battle cry with a rousing chorus, the song was partly written while thinking about how young children are when they’re conditioned to follow gender roles – in particular, the “heartbreaking” process through which small boys are taught not to cry or show emotions. Speaking about the track, Anna said the following: ” It’s a song about the defiance of happiness. It’s about being free to identify yourself in whichever way you please, without any restraints from society.”

Directed by rising star and recent Kendrick Lamar collaborator, William Kennedy and choreographed by Aaron Sillis (FKA Twigs), the video is available to watch and share BELOW.

Produced by Nick Launay (Nick Cave, Grinderman) at Konk Studios in London with some further production in LA, Hunter was recorded with Anna’s band – Mally Harpaz on various instruments and Alex Thomas on drums – with the addition of Adrian Utley from Portishead on keys and Martyn Casey from The Bad Seeds on bass. It has a new rawness, a primal energy into which Calvi pushes the limits of her guitar and voice beyond anything she’s recorded before.

For Calvi, writing Hunter was a catharsis, an opportunity to be more truthful than ever. The first new music since 2014’s collaborative release with David Byrne, Strange Weather EP , Hunter is a visceral album exploring sexuality and breaking the laws of gender conformity. A queer and a feminist record, it is galvanizing in its hunt for freedom. As vulnerable as it is strong; as beautiful as it is harsh; as much about the hunted as it is about the hunter – the power of the record is in the contrast itself; in the way Calvi oscillates between extremes. She wanted to express herself while being “free from the story that either gender is given, free from worrying how people would judge me on what I want to do with my body and myself. For me, that’s quite a utopian vision.”

Anna Calvi said the following about Hunter :

” I’m hunting for something – I want experiences, I want agency, I want sexual freedom, I want intimacy, I want to feel strong, I want to feel protected and I want to find something beautiful in all the mess.

I want to go beyond gender. I don’t want to have to chose between the male and female in me. I’m fighting against feeling an outsider and trying to find a place that feels like home.

I believe that gender is a spectrum. I believe that if we were allowed to be somewhere in the middle, not pushed to the extremes of performed masculinity and femininity, we would all be freer. I want to explore how to be something other than just what I’ve been assigned to be. I want to explore a more subversive sexuality, which goes further than what is expected of a woman in our patriarchal heteronormative society. I want to repeat the words “girl boy, woman man”, over and over, to find the limits of these words, against the vastness of human experience.

I believe in the female protagonist, who isn’t simply responding to a man’s story. I go out into the world and see it as mine – I want something from it, rather than just being a passive product of it. I’m hungry for experiences. Sometimes things seem clear, and other times I feel lost. I feel strong and yet vulnerable; I wear my body and my art as an armour, but I also know that to be true to myself is to be open to being hurt. The intent of this record is to be primal and beautiful, vulnerable and strong, to be the hunter and the hunted. “ – Anna

Hunter will be available digitally, on CD, and LP and via all DSPs. It will also be available on limited edition deluxe LP 180g red vinyl with exclusive signed print, encased in a high gloss gatefold sleeve (with download code).

The album’s tracklist is as follows:

1. As A Man
2. Hunter
3. Don’t Beat The Girl Out Of My Boy
4. Indies Or Paradise
5. Swimming Pool
6. Alpha
7. Chain
8. Wish
9. Away
10. Eden

Anna will perform her captivating new live show on an extensive UK and European headline tour this fall. The tour will culminate in her biggest show to date at The Roundhouse in London. These dates will follow her first live shows in four years this month with three special performances in Berlin (Berghain), Paris ( La Gaîté Lyrique) and London (Heaven) on 19th June, which are now all sold out. Full live dates are as follows and all tickets are available here :

Tue 12 June 2018 – Berlin, Germany – Berghain [SOLD OUT]
Fri 15 June 2018 – Paris, France – La Gaité Lyrique [SOLD OUT]
Tue 19 June 2018 – London, UK – Heaven [SOLD OUT]
Thu 27 Sep 2018 – Belfast, Northern Ireland – The Belfast Empire
Fri 28 Sep 2018 – Dublin 8, Ireland – The Tivoli Theatre
Sun 30 Sep 2018 – Glasgow, Scotland – St Luke’s
Mon 01 Oct 2018 – Manchester, England – O2 Ritz
Wed 03 Oct 2018 – Newcastle, UK – The Boiler Shop
Thu 04 Oct 2018 – Birmingham, UK – Town Hall
Fri 05 Oct 2018 – Brighton, UK – All Saints Church
Sat 06 Oct 2018 – Bristol, UK – SWX Bristol
Mon 08 Oct 2018 – Lille, France – Le Splendid
Tue 09 Oct 2018 – La Rochelle, France – La Sirene
Wed 10 Oct 2018 – Nantes, France – Stereolux
Sat 13 Oct 2018 – Valencia, Spain – La Rambleta
Sun 14 Oct 2018 – Barcelona, Spain – Cruïlla de Tardor @ Razzmatazz 2
Tue 16 Oct 2018 – Madrid, Spain – Chango
Wed 17 Oct 2018 – Santiago, Spain – Sala Capitol
Fri 19 Oct 2018 – Porto, Portugal – Hard Club
Sat 20 Oct 2018 – Lisbon, Portugal – Capitolio
Mon 22 Oct 2018 – Lyon, France – Le Radiant
Tue 23 Oct 2018 – Strasbourg, France – La Laiterie
Wed 24 Oct 2018 – Utrecht, Netherlands – Tivoli Vredenburg, De Helling
Thu 25 Oct 2018 – Brussels, Belgium – Botanique
Sat 27 Oct 2018 – Odense, Denmark – Posten
Mon 29 Oct 2018 – Oslo, Norway – Parkteatret
Tue 30 Oct 2018 – Stockholm, Sweden – Nalen
Thu 01 Nov 2018 – Helsinki, Finland – Tavastia Club
Sat 03 Nov 2018 – Lund, Sweden – Mejeriet
Sun 04 Nov 2018 – Copenhagen, Denmark – Vega
Mon 05 Nov 2018 – Aarhus, Denmark – Voxhall
Wed 07 Nov 2018 – Warsaw, Poland – Niebo
Thu 08 Nov 2018 – Prague, Czech Republic – Lucerna
Fri 09 Nov 2018 – Leipzig, Germany – Conne Island
Sat 10 Nov 2018 – Weissenhäuser Strand, Germany – Rolling Stone Weekender
Mon 12 Nov 2018 – Bratislava, Slovakia – Nova Cvernovka
Tue 13 Nov 2018 – Budapest, Hungary – A38 Ship
Thu 15 Nov 2018 – Vienna, Austria – Simm City
Fri 16 Nov 2018 – Rust, Germany Rolling – Stone Park
Sat 17 Nov 2018 – Fribourg, Switzerland – Le Nouveau Monde
Sun 18 Nov 2018 – Zurich, Switzerland – Plaza Club Zurich
Tue 20 Nov 2018 – Ljubljana, Slovenia – Kino Siska
Wed 16 Jan 2019 – Munich, Germany – Freiheiz
Fri 18 Jan 2019 – Berlin, Germany – Astra Kulturhaus
Sat 19 Jan 2019 – Hamburg, Germany – Kampnagel
Tue 22 Jan 2019 – Cologne, Germany – Gloria Theatre
Wed 23 Jan 2019 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Melkweg
Fri 25 Jan 2019 – Nancy, France – L’Autre Canal
Sat 26 Jan 2019 – Nimes, France – Paloma
Sun 27 Jan 2019 – Toulouse, France – Le Bikini
Tue 29 Jan 2019 – Bordeaux, France – Le Rocher de Palmer
Thu 31 Jan 2019 – Reims, France – La Cartonnerie
Thu 07 Feb 2019 – London, UK – The Roundhouse