INTERVIEW: Anna Arco releases second album 'Sad Secret Songs': "Music can help us get in touch with our feelings and I want to show that it’s okay to linger in these dark and difficult emotions."
Image: Maya Santimano
Today Sweden’s Anna Arco releases her second solo album Sad Secret Songs. A cathartic album that sees Arco grieve and confront the passing of her best friend, it is mesmerising, heartbreaking, challenging and soul wrenchingly beautiful.
Initially training as a jazz musician at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, Arco formed a jazz quartet in 2016 and launched her solo career in 2017. Her debut solo album Songs Within the Spectrum was released in 2019, the year after her best friend died suddenly. Arco’s shock and grief informed her subsequent releases and is most present on Sad Secret Songs. ‘Why is it so? / That the best ones have to go’ she sings on the album’s opening track ‘Remember Remember’ which is full of staccato beats and rhythmic lyrics, while the smooth, mellow vibe of ‘Soon’ acts as a self-mantra to hold herself together, sometimes in vain: ‘They say soon, Anna, this too shall pass’. The broody ‘Ravines’ which dabbles with electro and synth, explores loss from the other side - the difficult path to recovery: ‘This is the time we’ve been given / This is the life so let’s live it’. Previous single ‘Higher’, ‘Scar’ and ‘Trade’ are included here and sound as majestic as ever, while latest single, the breathtaking ‘The Last Song', which moves between gentle acoustic moments to full-blooded choruses in which Arco sings ‘this will be the last song that I’ll write about you’, fittingly closes the album.
Arco makes music which can only be described as special. Ethereal and otherworldly, yet at the same time incredibly emotive, human and immersive, Sad Secret Songs is undoubtedly her finest work to date. The type of album you need to - and want to - listen to from beginning to end, it is an emotional journey but one that will leave you with warmth in your soul.
We recently caught up with Anna to chat more about the creation of the album.
Hi Anna! So good to chat to you again, thank you for making time for Women In Pop. How is everything in your life right now?
Of course, thanks for having me! I am… tired. And nervous! This is my third album release where I did almost everything myself, from composing to producing to releasing it. That really needs to change next time, more collaborations! The nervousness is easier to handle and feels natural. Compared to my last album, I have worked much more, and more meticulously with this one, which for me immediately creates higher expectations for how it will be received. Or not received. But that’s okay.
On that note, congratulations on the new album Sad Secret Songs it is truly a beautiful album. You have been working on this for some time, how does it feel to have it out in the world?
Thank you so much! It feels like a relief really. This period of 1.5 years with the pandemic has been really tough and I’m glad that I had this album to put my energy into and also to rely on to create direction in an otherwise quite fluid life. But with that said it’s also satisfying to finally reach the album release and close this chapter.
The death of your best friend and the grieving process is the foundation of this album and your loss is so present in every track. How difficult, and also how cathartic, was it to make this album?
My usual reaction when I feel sad is to isolate myself and not talk about the hurt, I think that goes for a lot of people. So to even be able to process this trauma I think that it was absolutely necessary for me to write this album. I have also gone into therapy and talked about it with friends but putting my grief into words and music is such an accessible output. I can always write down thoughts in my phone or, when I’m at home, sit down by the piano and compose. It’s also a less demanding way of dealing with the pain, the piano doesn’t ask difficult questions or presents uncomfortable truths that I’m not ready to cope with yet.
Grief is very personal but also a universal experience. Is it important for you that your music can not only help you, but also help your listeners get through their own difficult moments?Definitely, it doesn’t necessarily have to be that the listener has been through the same thing as me - or even feel sad - but I want my listeners to feel when they listen to my music. Music can help us get in touch with our feelings and I, just like on my old album, want to show that it’s okay to linger in these dark and difficult emotions. I get deeply touched when someone cries to my music when we play live because that means that the music somehow opened a door to something inside of them.
Your latest single ‘The Last Song’ is such a beautiful track. It closes the album, and we can assume your grieving process, and features the lyrics ‘this will be the last song that I’ll write about you’. Can you tell us a little bit more about the inspiration behind this song?
Thank you kindly. It started with the first phrase popping up in my head ”My heart was heavy so I let it go, I dropped it softly in the snow”. Then I subbed as a piano teacher at a school where the students didn’t show up, I was in this lovely big room with skylights and a grand piano, and I started to experiment with that first phrase. I got the feeling that the song was going to be about daring to let go, even if you know that it’s only for a short while: ”Another day I’ll take it back - but not now”. It’s important to deal with your emotions, but it is also okay to not always dwell in them - and you must allow yourself to be happy sometimes, even if your best friend has died.
‘Scar’ is one of the more experimental songs on the album and features DEEREST. How did this collaboration happen?
When I wrote ‘Scar’, which is actually the oldest composition on the album, I developed different vocal parts which then led to the idea that it should be a duet. Linnea, DEEREST, is an old friend of mine and I immediately thought of her for the other vocal part. She has such an otherworldly sound and great musicality. Lucky for me, she wanted to join and we met up to record her vocals and cello. I got really excited by that collaboration so on the next album there will hopefully be a couple of more duets.
There is a really broad range of musical styles on the album, was there a particular style or sound you were hoping to achieve with the album as a whole?
Initially I chose from maybe 15 finished songs. In that selection I thought about which songs that would thrive in a more electronic suite. But the instrumentation, and the musicians, were really the only fixed things that I had from the beginning. Being a jazz musician I get energised when the recording process can be pretty open, letting each musician put their personal signature on the music and encouraging them to come up with ideas for arranging and producing, which both my drummer Max and my pianist Björn really has done. That has been such a fun and creative process. So, I’m not aiming for something in terms of ”this is my art-pop album”, I just want the music to point me in the direction of where it wants to go and see if I, and later we, can take it there.
Can you tell us a little about how you recorded the album - who you worked with, where you recorded, how long the process took?
As it says on the vinyl ”Recorded in various studios, kitchens and bedrooms between Stockholm and Örebro”, this album has really been an organisational challenge! The recording of most of the songs started in the amazing synth-wizard Björn Eriksson’s cosy studio here in Stockholm where we recorded most of the synthesisers. Then I went to Örebro for a couple of times, my drummer Max lives there, to record drums. We recorded the vocals and choir at, I think five different places, but most of them in my friend Alice Petz’s studio Frukt City and she, together with Anna Lindahl, also sings on the album. Jessica Tjörnmark plays bass on 4 tracks and we have haven’t even met this time, just sent files back and forth. In the last stages of production I’ve mostly been sitting at home in my flat in Bagarmossen in Stockholm, comfortably working in pyjamas. True pandemic-style. We started to record the first single Trade in November 2019, so it has taken approximately 1.5 years from the first recording day to finishing it. Not so bad considering the circumstances!
The last 18 months have been really difficult for musicians during the pandemic. How has the experience been for you, and what do you suggest music fans do to support artists when going to shows isn’t possible?
To be honest, it’s been awful. Not only in terms of me and a lot of my friends and colleagues being unemployed, struggling to pay rent and feed your kids, but also in terms of putting a spotlight on the terrible conditions that musicians and artists been working under, at least in Sweden. The thing that hits me hardest is that it seems like a lot of people, not only your average person, but also politicians and musicians find it so hard to articulate why art is important. So - if you find art important: support the artists by buying their work. If you can’t afford it - share their work. It’s free to share something on social media or putting songs into playlists. Tell them you like it. Be a fan! And talk about it - tell your friends that art is important, not for free and that art and artists can not be taken for granted.
What else do you have planned for the rest of 2021 and into 2022?
It’s hard to plan with the pandemic, we had a gig at an international showcase festival in September that just got cancelled due to new restrictions in Sweden… I think I’d rather be safe than sorry at this point and start focusing on my next album. Me and my friend Aleem are going to start working on some string arrangements for the new music, I’m really looking forward to that. I’m also releasing a remix-EP this fall with a lot of amazing musicians making new versions of some of the songs on the album. Fun! After this intense period with the loss of my best friend, the pandemic and then a lot of work with the release of this album I’m also at least going to try to chill out a bit and be nice to myself, eat a lot of good food and go to as many live concerts as I can!
Sad Secret Songs is out now. You can buy signed vinyl and CD copies here. You can also download on iTunes and Bandcamp and stream on Apple Music and Spotify.
To keep up with all things Anna Arco you can follow her on Instagram and Facebook.
