NOW IT'S OFFICIAL.

Anna Phoenix – the goodbye.


Anna Phoenix is coming to an end. After six years of songwriting, recording, performing and spilling our hearts out, me and Alexandra are putting the most beautiful thing we ever created on a shelf.

About six years ago me and my sister, manager, producer and lyricist Alexandra noticed we shared the same passion for music. We loved to create it. Alexandra had fallen for writing lyrics while I was getting to know my guitar and trying to find my own sound when it came to melodies and chord progressions. We soon realized how combining both our areas could create some really amazing stuff, something worth bringing out in the open. We were eager to let people hear what we had made, so pretty soon we began recording Anna Phoenix’ first record ever, the Fractions EP.

Our EP had only room for five songs, and we had lots and lots of more material we were eager to release. So when the exciting release gig for the EP was due we had already begun planning a full-length album. The release concert was held at the After Eight café in Jakobstad, and all the positive feedback made us even more motivated to keep working on our next project – This Cannot Be Smoked.

The EP had been acoustic and contained the performance of only one artist apart from me. With this upcoming full-length album we wanted to go further. We felt that our music had room for much more than only one instrument accompanying my voice, even though that kind of setting was the original sound for our music. Still things can always evolve, and this time we felt that we wanted to bring out the band.

We searched the grounds for young musicians who would want to participate, and we threw together an awesome album. Alexandra’s touching experiences in words combined with mine in music were now put together with many different musicians’ and friends’ own personal sounds and ideas, creating a really, really good end result. I have personally always been specifically fond of the string duo, filling out the album with amazing violin- and cello sounds. Even though all this awesomeness was created and the slamming release party was even more successful than the first one, we were not finished. There was more to come.

We had a lot more to say and many more ways in which we wanted to take our music even further. We wanted to bring a message with it. Society started slowly but surely nagging on our creative nerve and this time our new songs became angrier, more desperate and frustrated, but still they kept up the hope we were preaching from the beginning.

We recorded a single called Hey, Hugo. It contains two awesome songs, one called Hey, Hugo, and the other Now the world can rest, a duet with Sebastian Jacobson. Sebbe was not only awesome enough to lend his voice for this Anna Phoenix single, he had already earlier been a part of what we do, playing the harmonica and guitar on This Cannot Be Smoked.

The Hey, Hugo single is dedicated to Hugo Nikula, a Fenno-Swedish rapper whose life tragically ended in suicide due to addiction to prescribed medicine. The single goes out to everybody in need of proper help and not getting it, and the profits from the record are still going Hugo Nikulas Minnesfond, working for this specific cause, getting young people the help they need.

The single was released in the spring of 2010. Around that time Alexandra spontaneously decided that a tour on the West Coast of the USA was possible. She arranged everything, and when summer came we started packing. For this trip we would bring our friend and record label partner Niklas Harju. He had been both technician and musician on the single, and would therefore be the perfect guy to bring along on the tour. He knew us, he knew our music and he was awesome.

The California tour was probably the most intense experience in my life until then. We only played four coffee house gigs and a couple of open mic nights, but still it felt like we were conquering the world. I was nineteen at the time and my only experience of America before this trip had been watching TV and movies, so everything seemed just fantastic to me. Of course every trip has its downs, and navigating in big foreign cities with lots of luggage didn’t always bring out the best in us. But still that trip is to the day the most insightful trip I have ever been on.

So. After the single had been released and many significant trips had been made we decided to make a second full-length studio album happen. This time it would be more mature, more thought through and more wrapped up. It was more about the trip than about the goal, it was more about seeing the good in all the bad, more about important realizations.

We really worked our asses off for this one. I went to school at Axxell Lappfjärd, kind of a home base for all three of us as Alexandra and Niklas had gone to school there together a couple of years before I enrolled. This is where we decided to record the new album. We used my amazing friends and classmates as musicians on this album, along with a few guest stars from our closest circle of talented musician friends back home. All the music was recorded at the Lafo Studio, while the vocals and brass were recorded in Alexandra’s cozy home. A perfect environment for the vocals on this album.

We decided to call this one All Is Won. This would be the first Anna Phoenix production officially released on a record label. Our own record label, Univocal Music. Founded and run by Alexandra and Niklas, with me owning a tiny corner of it. The release party for this one had to be big since we were celebrating not only Anna Phoenix’ next album, but also Univocal Music’s first album release ever. Alexandra, Niklas and me threw together an awesome happening with lots of artists, jam sessions, art, vinyl and cupcakes. Alexandra took care of all the practical arrangements once more, my job was to get the band together and Niklas would of course be the head technician, helping to make all of this happen.

The release party was so much fun. Everybody really stepped up and did their best, and it turned out great. I am so thankful for everybody’s participation; this wouldn’t have been the same if any of you guys were missing. The release party felt like the perfect introduction to this new album, but at the same time, at least for me, it felt like an ending.

And now we’ve come to a point where we are comfortable to say goodbye to all this. I want to experience new sides of music, and also study something completely different next year. Anna Phoenix still feels like us, but it has inevitably come to some kind of an end. We won’t say it’s definitely over, who knows if we return in the future surprising everybody with some brand new material. But at the moment this feels like an ending, so for now, we put the project on hold.

The whole Anna Phoenix project has been going on for six years. And it’s been awesome. As I write this, I cannot hold back my tears. Six years of dedication and always having that one thing that’s really me that I can lean on, will now be over. But I’m comfortable with it. I think all three of us should do something different for a while, or from now on. Breathing new air would probably work miracles on all three of us. So this is what we’ve decided to do.

We will still be selling all of the records, and the new album now for ONLY 10€, due to these news. We would love for people to keep digging our music, wanting to know more and getting our records. We are always happy to answer questions, and Univocal Music is here to help young musicians trying to get their music out there.

We have a couple of gigs left with Anna Phoenix and the crew. The last one will be at O’Leary’s in Jakobstad 2.2.2012. Be sure not to miss it.

So this is it. Thank you to everyone who have shown support during these six years. Thank you to all the musicians and all the others who have made all of this happen. We are forever grateful. So this is where we make it official.

Anna Phoenix has come to an end. And this is our goodbye.



// Anna.




And the Soulmama conclusion:


I'll just add a few words, as Anna Phoenix has been my main focus as well, these past years.

Being a lyricist with no singing talent, and with very honest and personal lyrics, it's hard to find a way to get those lyrics out. Anna Phoenix has been the perfect thing. Having my sister understand me and translate everything into music, no secrets untold, is just as honest as it can get without me saying it myself.

But Anna is moving, growing and transforming like the rest of us, and here we are. The music is always depending on the songs. And we haven't been writing together for a while, just producing the record, and living our lives. So it's a natural ending.

I'm really glad we got everything recorded. Really, almost all of it is on the EP, the albums, the single, and the Collective (release this winter). We wrote some really touching songs, and they still give me new realizations every time I listen to them. That's kinda intense, and we did that! Amazing.

I will continue working on myself, as always, but any art that comes from that will be in another form. I'm always cooking up some musical adventure, so you will hear my work again.

This was the coolest trip I ever took in music. I'll do some unpacking and head on out the door again.



With love, as always,

Alexandra Soulmama Phoenix

happy times gånger en MILJON!

livet ler idag. randomly, men inte som omväxling. tur!

JAG ÄR PÅ FRUKTANSVÄRT BRA HUMÖR!

*ner på jorden - DUNS*. sitter för tillfället i produktionsrummet och trixar med drumreplacement. intressant, men inte direkt något jag skulle använda mig av. efter lunchen ska vi påbörja höstens stora projekt (gällande vår linje): 1 st musik. vi ska göra en låt helt enkelt. låter ju lätt, men nä. det är fråga om att satsa stort on this one. roligt!

jag fick äntligen skrivet anna phoenix-hejdå:et. tog inte länge när jag väl kom igång, men i takt med att skivan snurrade och känsliga ord blev skrivna så trängde ett par tårar fram, och förståelsen för att slutet faktiskt är här slog mig. sorgligt, men skönt.

jag har vision på vision angående låtar nu, jag tror att jag snart ska dra igång mitt stora personliga projekt. berättar mer om det längre fram i tiden, det är inte dags än.

nästa veckoslut ska jag hälsa på min pappa, länge sedan sist! ska bli skönt att gå på hemgatorna i tammerfors och shoppa inför julen. ÄLSKA TAMMERFORS på vintern! valoviikot, juldekorationer och all the CHOKO, amazing. kommer att bli ett underbart mysigt veckoslut. skönt att bara få ta det lugnt. synd att jag missar rizzles hangökeikka dock. men hey, nästa gång! blir också första gången på LÄNGE som jag och S alls är ifrån varann. ja, jag har det ganska lyxigt. ;)

veckoslutet efter det bär det av norrut tillsammans med S, styvmamma fyller 50 och ska firas. vi planerar hemliga presenter och det kommer att ta sin tid att fixa ihop. fun fun fun!

nu ska jag fortsätta leka med loopar och mixa lite spaghetti junction. 'til next time:

PZ!