Anna Leone today releases a new single ‘Once’, produced by Paul Butler (Michael Kiwanuka, Hurray For The Riff Raff) and released via AllPoints/Half Awake. Released alongside a stunning video shot on The Azores, the new single follows 2020’s ‘Wondering’ – also produced by Butler – which arrived close on the tail of Stockholm native Anna’s win at the 2020 Music Moves Talent Awards (alongside Flohio, girl in red and Pongo). Leone emerged in 2018 with her widely applauded debut EP ‘Wandered Away’, drawing fans at 6Music including Lauren Laverne & Guy Garvey, alongside Ones To Watch tips from Spotify and Youtube, and over 18 million streams online. ‘Once’ is streaming across all platforms , alongside the new video, from here.
Rueful but unmistakably hopeful, ‘Once’ considers naivety, regret and efforts to break certain patterns of behaviour with Leone’s disarming candor and the bell-like clarity of her voice. The track’s quietly insistent urging to move past impulses to close off from the world is brought to life in Savannah Setten’s startlingly surreal video, created with Anna on The Azores.
With the changeable weather systems of the Portuguese archipelago mirroring the tender, dream-like sequence, Anna notes; The narrative loop comes from the idea of being stuck in your ways, going through the same patterns, but then choosing to break out of that and do things differently. Towards the end I reconcile with the past, symbolised by the little girl. I choose to embrace what once was in order to move forward. It was incredible getting to shoot the video in that beautiful environment. The weather was really unpredictable – we went through almost all four seasons in one day.
Now 26 – still shy, but determined to connect, Anna grew up the quietest of five sisters in a suburb of Stockholm. An introverted video game and sci-fi obsessive, Anna fast developed her own rich inner life, absorbed in the storytelling DC and Marvel. It’s an escape she seeks comfort from now; I love losing myself in other universes, they give me a sense of belonging. Similarly, Leone bought a guitar with no other intention beyond privately perfecting treasured releases by the likes of Bon Iver, Lana Del Rey and Laura Marling.
Demonstrating a facility for emotionally resonant song-writing of her own, Anna’s music was first released by a French music producer & owner of French indie label Half Awake, who had been told how good her music sounded. He saw their potential to connect instantly, that her songs deserved to break out of their physical confines. Battling against the debilitating stage fright which is still present today, Leone has found a fast-growing international audience which continues to stretch far, far beyond the four walls of her teenage bedroom.
