Interview: Anna Calvi

Anna Calvi’s bringing sexy back, but not the twinkle-toed, Disney-kid hustla variety espoused by Justin Timberlake. Calvi’s is the kind of sexy that sneaks up to you in the dead of night, turns your dreams a scary shade of scarlet and leaves you thrashing ’neath sweat-soaked bedsheets till dawn.

The London-based songwriter’s self-titled debut is the result of nearly three years’ obsessive labour; a darkly carousing tango brought explosively to life by Calvi’s full-blooded vocals and starkly expressive guitar work, drawing equal inspiration from the blues, Ennio Morricone soundscapes and early 20th century masters Ravel and Debussy.

She spent two years in a basement studio working on the record, but you wouldn’t know it to look at her. Greeting us in a tailored jacket, she looks the picture of sharply conducted business; hair scraped back into a bun, bright red lipstick lending a dash of cruel sensuality to the matter-of-fact whole.

“I was quite obsessive, it’s true,” she says. “Because there were no restrictions on me — I didn’t have a label saying I had to get it done. I just… sculpted it, you know? When I’m making my music I want to be completely committed to it. There’s no room for anything else.”

Was it difficult readjusting afterwards?

“Yeah, but I think I’m doing quite well now.” She flutters an eyelid in mock-spasm. “Apart from this twitch.”

The album whizzes from epic to near-unbearable intimacy in a tortured heartbeat — an impressive range which Calvi chalks up to her laterally minded approach to recording.

“When I play guitar I try and imagine it as an orchestra,” she says. “Because a guitar has such a wide dynamic range, you can really push it so that it sounds full and explosive, and then you can make it come down and become a singular voice. It’s trying to get the most out of that.”

Calvi’s touring band includes Mally Harpaz on harmonium and Daniel Maiden-Wood on drums, but it’s their leader’s electric guitar playing that steals the show, raising goosebumps and reanimating the long-discredited myth of guitarist as sexual shaman.

“Everyone plays guitar now, don’t they?” she says. “Other than Jack White, there aren’t really any guitar heroes anymore. I thought it was great the way he made the blues cool again — not that it should be cool or uncool. Other than him, I don’t really know of anyone that makes the instrument seem sexy anymore.”

Mastering the axe might have come easily for Calvi, but singing was another matter entirely:

“I wanted to sing but it was difficult ’cos I’m shy,” she says. “But in the end I came to the decision that I had to get over it, so I practiced for six hours a day. I listened to singers like Nina Simone, Edith Piaf and Scott Walker — singers who don’t hold back. Edith Piaf just gave her all when she was singing. It’s really vulnerable to do that, and yet she sounds so powerful. I think that’s rare, especially now where most singers have a bit of cynicism, quirkiness or irony about them.”

So, stick your flyboy falsetto and your Snoop Dogg guest-spots — Anna Calvi’s bringing sexy back for real, and it’s soon to take up residence as a small, shivery feeling in your gut.

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