Hi Pal,
Welcome to 7 Answers From. This is a newsletter where I have conversations with artists, composers, producers and other creatives in and around the Christian alternative indie scene by asking them 7 questions.
Bio: Born and raised in Seattle, Anna has grown up in the church. She's seen the beauty that comes from belief in Jesus, but also the pain that can come at the hands of the church.
Her songs are for those who have faith and those who have lost faith, those inside the church, outside the church and everyone in between. Anna strives to write songs that are raw and honest — hoping that telling the truth can encourage others to do the same.
She is inspired by the concept of lament in the Bible. She doesn't shy away from writing her doubts, struggles, and questions about God into her songs. If He already knows the cry of her heart, why not be honest about it? Anna's first EP Haze came out in the summer of 2021. Since then, she's started collaborating with other artists such as Verses, Free As a Bird, and Rachael Teixeira.
Introduction
I discovered Anna Palfreeman’s music last year and I loved the way her style of indie drew inspiration from pop, folk and sometimes contemporary gospel. However, what endeared me to her sound the most was a sense I got from her songs that showed an intent to tell stories of real and practical experiences as a person of faith. Her 2023 album, “Certain”, only made this sense stronger.
In some ways, this conversation was inspired by a need to find out more about this, and I’m grateful that she was open to sharing this and much more with me.
The Conversation
Q: Hi Anna. It’s still fairly early in the year and it feels like you’ve had a packed year already. Can you share some of your major highlights from the year so far and the events that have helped strengthen your faith?
You’re right, this year has been packed with a lot of things. I home-school my two kids; work part-time as the worship director at my church and then I have music that I release on the side and my husband has a full-time job. So our lives have been about moving through a lot of different seasons.
Around Easter, I was trying to focus mostly on church — our Good Friday service and our Easter service — both of which ended up being really encouraging and fun services to put together. Releasing an album in March was a big deal and it took a lot of work and I feel really proud of it. The rest of the year has been just living life with my two kids and trying to soak up this last year, because this is the last year we are going to home-school both of them, so I’m trying to enjoy life at home with them.
Q: Your debut album is finally out and I must say that I am quite fond of it. Listening to Certain, it’s clear that you have quite a number of stylistic and genre influences. Can you share some of your musical/artistic inspirations that helped define the sound of this album?
I have tons of music influences — as most people do. I actually have a Spotify playlist that I made specifically for inspiration for this album. When I look through it there are songs by
James Vincent McMorrow
(he’s a big one for me),Matt Corby
,The National
, andSylvan Esso
; I recently foundOlivia Deen
and I really enjoy the swag and soul that she puts into her music. Beyond that will probably beBon Iver
,Sufjan Stevens
and a lot of the old-timers likeBillie Holiday
,Louis Armstrong
andNat King Cole
. Those sorts of artists are big influences on me.
Q: Storytelling in music is very dear to me and it’s one of the features of your music that attracted me. For example, in the song “Change”, you treat change and grief like characters in a story and that simple writing choice elevates the song completely. In your opinion, how important are storytelling and the expression of life events in Christian Alternative music today?
I think storytelling is very important and you can do it in different ways. Some people are more literal in the way that they tell stories, as in the way country music has more literal stories than lyrically veiled or artistic ways of telling stories. I think the point is that music and lyric writing comes from a place of genuine honesty. It comes from your own story and the real experiences that you’ve had.
Specifically about Christian artists, if you’re going to talk about faith and how that intersects with your life, it’s so important that you tell the whole truth. The whole truth of your story and what is going on with you because I don’t think we are doing anyone any favours by only telling the good side. Telling the truth honestly with your story is really important.
Q: “I Am Certain (That I’m Glad I Chose You)” is a song inspired by your husband and marital life. As someone who just got married recently to someone I’ve known for over a decade, there are many aspects of the song that resonate with me. How important do you think it is for Christian artists to write songs that speak about the human experience and emotions, both the good and the bad?
There is a weird warped sort of gospel today, at least in my culture, that teaches that for you to be uplifting or edifying, you have to look on the bright side or say encouraging things about how God has it or is in control.
I genuinely believe that He is, but, I think that it’s so important to tell the truth of our grief and our suffering because you don’t see ‘looking on the bright side’ in the Bible. It’s not a Biblical story and that’s not the story of Jesus. It’s people who are genuinely living their lives and walking through pretty gnarly stuff and crying out to God.
The Psalms are brutally honest and I think we have a call on us. If you are a musician and you are going to be stepping into the area of talking about God and faith, you owe it to yourself and your listeners to tell the good, the bad and the ugly of the story.
Because God is the one who is going to shed light on why things happen or why hard things happen. It is not up to us to preemptively say, “oh but I know God has it” or “but I know He is still good” because sometimes we don’t know. We don’t know why He allowed something that is so gut-wrenching and I think that our job is to just say that we don’t know why or where He is in these things and then we wait for Him to bring resolution if that is what He chooses.
Q: Do you have any favourites on the new album? If you do, talk to us about them and why you connect with them so much.
I love the song “I Am Certain (That I’m Glad I Chose You)”. I feel proud of that song because I usually just write about weighty topics — sadder topics — and I really love that there is joy and celebration in the song. There’s definitely still weight, especially if you listen to the lyrics, but the feeling of the song is very fun and joyful and it was important to me when talking about my husband that even though we have walked through a lot, we take the time to celebrate that we still love each other, we’re still in this thing, we’re still choosing each other and that is great and beautiful.
I also really like the song “Revival”. I love the choral vocals in the background of that song. I was in choirs from first grade until college so I love getting to have elements of the choral vocals there and they were really fun to record. I think the song “Alone” is probably another favourite of mine. I love how the sadness and beauty of the instrumentation — the strings — and vocals all mix together to convey very aptly what I was feeling when I wrote that.
Q: Outside of your music career, what other interests do you have that folks may not know about?
I love to cook, I genuinely love cooking. I dabble in sourdough bread baking but I feel like I’m definitely more of a cook than I am a baker. I also recently have gotten nerdy into doing crossword puzzles and I do a crossword puzzle every day. So feel free to mock me about that one, but I love a good crossword!
Q: What does the rest of 2023 have in store for Anna Palfreeman?
We have a podcast coming out that we did for the album. We did one episode per song on the album and we’re going to talk deeper about the subject matter, the lyrical content and how we recorded it, so look forward to that.
And then, I have a couple of remixes in the works. I have some really talented friends who are going to take a stab at different songs on the album. So there will be alternative versions of four of the album songs coming out. That’s what we have so far, and I guess there is another collaboration that I will just kind of hint at for now, that I am hoping to get done this year too.
A big thank you to Anna Palfreeman for taking out time to answer our questions.
You heard her! Tell her what your favourite tunes on the album are.
Listen to Anna Palfreeman here:
Apple Music • YouTube • Deezer • Other Links
Connect with Anna Palfreeman here:
Instagram • Facebook
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I havent listened to the album yet. However, I watched and listened to the live version of Alone and was really moved. I'm here asking myself what inspired that song, especially as it hit deep for me.
Perhaps Anna'd see this and answer. I hope.