Anna Graves, the Minnesota-born singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist who composes with the candor of a late-night conversation where nothing is off the table, is introduced on “Easy For You,” her first single. Revealing an honesty and vulnerability that seeps through the cracks between dusty acoustic guitar and sparse production like glimmers of light underneath a locked door, “Easy For You” is the first music from her upcoming debut EP, GHOSTLAND.
Anna bares the roots of “Easy For You.” “It was inspired by a relationship that ended when I was in Nashville, and it haunted me,” she admits. “It devastated me, my ex was talking mad shit about me. It hurt. I lived to make other people happy. So, it felt like anything they said about me was true – even if it wasn’t. The only thing I could do was say, ‘If that’s the way you cope, do what you’ve got to do in order to make life as easy possible.’ It was the start of the EP.”
“I need to make music that makes me feel like I am being honest with myself, writing about my own experiences or painting a picture of what I imagine life is like below a façade,” says Anna.
The accompanying video, which was filmed on the grounds of Anna’s family horse farm – an old, restored rectory in small-town Minnesota, explores themes of solitude, reflection, coming home, and running away again. Director Hannah Edelman let the biting cold and first snow of the Minnesota season set the stage for the ethereal, contemplative visual, exploring the death of oneself and the birth of another.
Growing up without a television on a small horse farm in rural southern Minnesota, Anna and her brother were encouraged to develop their imaginations by painting, writing and spending time outdoors. In her early years, Anna drew soulful inspiration from Joni Mitchell, Tori Amos, Fleetwood Mac, Tracy Chapman, and two fellow Minnesotans, Prince and Bob Dylan.
These days, Anna has a lot to say, and GHOSTLAND is bound to let us in on the beginning of her process. “I realized I was so hung up on the past, that I didn’t feel like I was moving forward. I wasn’t forgiving myself and I wasn’t forgiving others. This project is about letting go of the ghosts.”
“I hope you experience the colours of the music and know that you’re not alone,” Anna sums up. “This is for my over-thinkers, it’s for those slow and introspective moments. I hope you listen to my music and that it touches an emotion and makes you feel the same way I did when I first discovered my favourite songwriters.”
