Anna Phoebe: Strings of the Sea

After a substantial violin-playing career for the likes of Roxy Music, supporting Bob Dylan and being heard on programmes such as Peaky Blinders, plus collaborations with such organisations as the WWF and the European Space Agency, you’d perhaps think Anna Phoebe would surely be done adding to her CV at this point. Not quite, as this British violinist has been increasingly unveiling her composing ability with a string of new singles that are haunting, stunning, and hugely progressive. Locked down at her home in Kent, Phoebe chats with Headliner about her sparkly playing career, new music and the interjection between her compositions and science.

We do begin on a more sombre note, as Phoebe tells me how grateful she is to have been able to continue doing music during this time, whereas so many self-employed musicians have found this period next to impossible.

“It's been an incredibly tough year for all creators,” she says.

“The general public has depended more than ever on music and TV to get through. And yet the arts are so severely underfunded. A lot of musicians I know just fell through the cracks. They're self-employed, they don't get furlough. So many shows are cancelled, and there's no cancellation fee. Most people I know weren't eligible for any kind of government funding. So I’ve been incredibly lucky to have other projects.”

I mention to Phoebe that I’d wanted to interview her after hearing her string of new singles last year on Mary Anne Hobbs’ show on BBC Radio 6.

“She's the one who actually sort of encouraged me to release the first single, I didn't set out to write a solo album this year!” she says. “I had to do something for BBC Kent. Basically, I was putting together a 10-minute package of what life is like in lockdown, and realised the best way I could communicate this would be through music.

“So I went and sat down by the sea and just had a little think. I was feeling really anxious; it was a scary time when no one knew anything. I went back to my studio and sat down and played some chords and I improvised this violin line. And then I bounced it down, sent it off to BBC Kent with me talking. But then I sent it to Mary Anne Hobbs; she said ‘oh, I want to play this on my show!’

"So I named it By The Sea, and then it got a really good reaction from her listeners who are just so amazing and supportive. Mary Anne is so warm and giving too, so I’ve felt so fortunate.”

With the sounds of crashing waves, ambient, spacious chords and Phoebe’s brilliant violin soaring over the top, it truly is music that serves as a healing tonic in the midst of uncertainty and anxiety. And there’s many more singles that have been released since, which she says she hopes will become an album in the near future.

It all coincides with a dizzying array of cultural and scientific institutions requesting pieces from Phoebe – no wonder she needed that gentle push from Mary Anne Hobbs to add more work to her plate. “I was collaborating with the European Space Agency,” she explains.

“And I've been commissioned to do music for York Minster for the opening night of York Festival of Ideas. So I'd written all this music as a response to the climate crisis and the observation data that the European Space Agency does. I'd flown out to where they do the satellite testing. It was a 10-minute piece of music that was performed with the astronaut Tim Peake, and we won an Arthur Clarke award for education outreach.”

If that sounds like more than enough to keep Phoebe busy, that’s only scratching the surface.

“And also for Cancer Research UK, I wrote a 40-minute ensemble work for choir, strings, piano and violin. And that was responding to research undertaken at the University of Kent, which goes towards helping cancer and Alzheimer's research. The research generates these incredible images. It's like you're flying through your body on the molecular level, and it looks very galactic.

"I commissioned artist Skylar Bridges to put together a 40-minute film to accompany, and we premiered it. Sadly a lot of these things had to be cancelled, but they’re definitely in my mind for when we can perform again.”

Phoebe is also on the precipice of releasing her Icons EP, a collection of cinematic covers of songs she grew up with, including David Bowie, Faithless and Tracy Chapman.

As you can imagine, her instrumental takes on these songs are most special and unique indeed. She’s also very excited that the tracks have “been mastered by Guy Davie on an original EMI British-made 1970s desk – it spent much of its life in Lagos, Nigeria, and is now in Westbourne Studios at Electric Mastering. The music sounds so warm!”