New album Hunter out 31st August

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

Produced by Nick Launay (Nick Cave, Grinderman) at Konk Studios in London with some further production in LA, the album 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.

Hunter is the embodiment of the feeling of truly letting go. For the songwriter and virtuosic guitarist, it 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, her self-titled debut album and the 2013 follow-up One Breath, Hunter is a visceral album exploring sexuality and breaking the laws of gender conformity. A queer and a feminist record, it is galvanising in its hunt for freedom. It was important to Calvi that it was as vulnerable as it is strong; as beautiful as it is harsh; as much about the hunted as it is about the hunter. But she’s careful not to characterise any of these traits as “masculine” or “feminine” – the whole point is that one person, of any gender, can be both. The power is in the contrast itself; in the way she oscillates between extremes, sounding freer than ever before. 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.”

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 below.    

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 more free. 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 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 on DIG, CD, 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).

Hunter Tracklist

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 autumn and winter kicking off in Belfast on 27th September 2018. The tour will culminate in her biggest show to date at The Roundhouse in London on 7th February 2019. 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