Reasonable Astronomy
“Universo por estrenar”, Ana López’s fourth album, shows a clear appetite for renewal. Not only because it is the first the Malaga-born artist has recorded in Spanish, but also for her ambition in developing a spacey, psychedelic pop for which she sought help from the leader of the British band Temples. She talks to us about all of it from Granada.
“The unreal is to ignore that the imaginative is the force of all reality.” That line, taken from a book by William Blake, is the one that heads Ana López’s WhatsApp status. It also seems to structure the life story of the artist known as Anni B Sweet. “As a child I didn’t like anything I couldn’t see, because I had a lot of imagination and it led me to think of horrible things. I thought that when I turned the corner I’d find a zombie or something, not a palm tree and an island on the beach. In a way, I was afraid of the dark in places with open doors, but if the place was closed I felt safer with the light off because I could be sure, with my eyes closed, that I was carrying the story in my head.” In some curious way, the opening line and the memory that follows it connect with the lyrics of The Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever” (“Nothing is real”, “Living is easy with eyes closed…”). At one point on her new album she sings “Con los ojos cerrados todo se ve mucho más claro”, but the 32-year-old from Malaga insists that line was not an explicit homage — it came from the unconscious. Universo por estrenar (Subterfuge, 2019) draws on the artist’s obsession with subjects such as quantum physics and astronomy. “I think looking outward makes you aware of the scale you have, blurrier as it may be. I try to understand how the things around me work: with that perspective you’re going to understand yourself better and you’re going to be more aware of why you’re here too. It’s something impossible to know, but research feels very inspiring when it comes to writing, above all because you ask yourself a question you’re looking for answers to and what arises are another thousand questions. It all leads you into a kind of giant ball of doubts where you also find wonderful things,” she explains from her mobile phone as she walks through Granada, where she has lived for six years. “I came after thirteen years in Madrid. I was afraid of feeling cut off from the music world, because that’s where everyone is, but for me Granada is another musical capital: there are lots of venues, lots of activity, and in that sense I don’t miss it. Also, I soaked up so many artists I think are really good. People like Lori Meyers, Napoleon Solo or Antonio Arias have influenced me a lot.”
The parallels with the leader of Lagartija Nick are interesting — he too was seduced by the astronomical-scientific imaginary on his two solo albums titled Multiverso, published in two volumes in 2009 and 2013 respectively. “It’s true that what I do has nothing to do with it, but he has been my soundtrack for these last few years, and even if someone listening to my record would never pick up the influence of Lagartija Nick, he has been very present for me,” she says. One of the things she values most about Arias, for example, is the way he has managed to fit complex concepts and technical words into accessible pop melodies. “That, for me, is the hardest part,” she admits.
By this point in the text, many will think this Anni B Sweet has little to do with the image they had formed of her — you know, that “girl-with-a-guitar” who emerged with Start Restart Undo (Subterfuge, 2009) after the scenic “big bang” set off by Russian Red. Without a doubt, the title Universo por estrenar also signals a renewing intent. It does not show only in the most obvious place, the shift from English to Spanish (“to take the step I was waiting for the moment when I found a sound I really liked; it wasn’t a matter of doing it just to do it”), but also in a stylistic evolution that took shape in her recording in England under the production of James Bagshaw, singer and guitarist of Temples.
“The international bands I’ve been listening to most lately are them, Tame Impala, Melody’s Echo Chamber, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard… psychedelic groups that give it a contemporary edge, that don’t sound like a sixties-and-seventies revival,” she reveals. “When I was recording the demos I took care of the pre-production, but I couldn’t get the sound on my own — making the arrangements real and everything I had in mind. Then I thought of Temples because they have that open, spatial sound. I wrote to James on his private Instagram account, told him what I wanted to do and that I’d love him to help me get the sound, and he said yes straight away.”
Even so, Ana insists on pointing out as equally important the contributions of Antonio López — Noni, of Lori Meyers, who plays on the record with her and Bagshaw — and of her regular collaborators Javier Doria (mixing) and Ángel Luján (mastering). Translating all this to the stage, she is debating between reforming and a total break with the old Anni B Sweet. Her band will include Víctor Cabezuelo and Julia Martín-Maestro, of Rufus T. Firefly; Antonio Trapote, of Ambre; and Jesús Chumillas, in search of a spacey pop that may lift her, who knows, farther than she has ever gone.
Anni B Sweet will play on 5 July in Sagunto (Music Port Fest); on the 17th in Madrid (Terraza Skyline; Live The Roof); on the 18th in San Sebastián (Convent Garden; Live The Roof); on the 28th in Barcelona (Hotel Condal Mar By Meliá; Live The Roof); on 16 August in San Vicente del Raspeig (Club Náutico); and on 6 September in Alicante (Castillo Santa Bárbara; Live The Roof).
Text: David Saavedra · Source: Rockdelux no. 385, July–August 2019.