Getting To Know...
Anna Tosh.
London born and bred, Anna Tosh has been lending her considerable six-string skills to a varied roster of bands since she was a teenager, among them Wildhood, Love Nor Money, Hey Gravity and Shotgun Venus. But with her own collection of striking self-penned songs demanding attention, and the assistance of a red-hot rhythm section in waiting – Herman Stephens (bass) and Jeremy JayJay (drums) – Anna decided it was high time to make her mark as a solo artist.
Anna’s decision to take more control over her musical output was part of a general reappraisal of her life direction following a relationship break-up. She emerged galvanised and positive, reflected in the songs that comprise her debut EP, One Big Fire, which deal with friends, lovers and an acceptance of the capriciousness of these relationships.
Spin her radiant songs and you may feel the presence of artists of many stripes: Nick Cave, Sonic Youth, Sheryl Crow, Captain Beefheart, The Slits, Talking Heads, Patti Smith, Elvis Costello, PJ Harvey and Bowie, all linked by their quality and all key inspirations on ‘One Big Fire’. It’s a release that proves Anna to be as agile and exciting a vocalist as she is a guitarist, making us grateful that she has decided to take centre stage once again.
We had a chat with Anna about her influences, One Big Fire and more. Read it below.
You've played guitar in a number of bands over the years. What made you want to pursue a career as a solo artist instead?
"I have fronted bands in the past, being the singer and main songwriter, in fact that was how I started out as a teenager. I played guitar in other people’s bands too from quite early on, and that was mainly what i was doing for 5 years or so, up until last year. I guess I just got bored of compromising, plus I had a clear idea of what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it. It feels important to me personally to release as a solo artist, to take that risk."
Who or what have the biggest influences on your music and songwriting?
"It’s weird, I can hear clearly when artists I listen to influence my work but it doesn’t seep through into my own writing until about 12-18 months after I have an intense phase with them. I was listening to a ton of Elliott Smith a few years back, kinda overdosed on him and have barely listened since. When I started writing a lot this time about a year ago I could hear a lot of him in what I was writing: chord changes, arrangement details, little melodic things in my vocal ideas. But I hadn’t listened to him for at least a year. It’s the same with life experiences that make me want to write. I almost never write about an experience i’m having while I’m actually having it, it takes me ages to process these things through into music. It’s very therapeutic but rather slow."
You have just released your debut EP One Big Fire. What are the songs on the EP about? What was your songwriting process?
"The songs were written mainly in the last year, but one of them (’Weightless’) was written, or at least started, like 6 or 7 years ago at the tail end of the last band I was singing and playing guitar in. I picked it back up in 2016, rearranged it with the new band, wrote some more lyrics and a new section. It felt good to finish an old song and get it out into the world properly, sort of closure for that last band and then on into something new…
"A couple of the tracks are about relationships, romantic, or with friends. The title track, ‘One Big Fire’ is about my frustration with the political status quo and how it can leave you feeling so powerless… like it would be easier to burn the world down and start again than to make the kinds of changes that I would like to see made. 'Idle Kid' is about a shift in my own perspective where I can see how the choices that I have made have played out so far."
You recently unveiled the video for 'Weightless'. What was inspiration behind the track and the visuals?
"My friend Vito Camaro made the video. He’s an awesome artist. 'Weightless' was written about a recurring dream I used to have where I was walking out over a desolate beach into the ocean, I would drift out and sink under the waves and there I would meet characters from my past and present and future. I wanted to shoot a video where I was partially underwater and I wanted it to be trippy, on the edge of unpleasant, like a fever dream."
What struggles have you personally faced in the music industry thus far, if any? And how did you overcome them?
"My industry struggles have been much the same as any artist from my generation. When I was just getting started, the idea was (and had been for ages) to make a demo, play a million gigs, get noticed by a major record label, get signed to make an album which your career would sink or swim based on the success of. You could have a potentially very lucrative career selling CDs for £13.99 and the label could get even richer off you. That all changed once the internet as we know it today took off, so I spent the first 7 or 8 years alongside everyone else, flailing around in confusion, either looking for the new standard business model or hoping that the old one would somehow come back to life. There’s no return to a standard way of doing things which is cool, I have chosen to embrace that. It’s all about the cottage industry. The idea of ‘making it’ means almost nothing to me now, I’m not a pop artist. I would rather be playing to a smaller amount of people who completely understand my music, truly get it and love it, rather than aiming for making one song that millions of people kind of like."
FInally, what's next for Anna Tosh?
"I’m going to be playing quite a few London gigs over the next 6 months or so to promote ‘One Big Fire’, some solo, some with the band. I’m making plans for my next EP. I don’t think there’s going to be a full length album anytime soon, I much prefer the idea of making regular EPs and releasing singles."
One Big Fire is available now via espirit de corps.
