Best known as Metronomy’s long-term drummer, Anna Prior has released an eclectic dance based EP – the wonderful ‘Almost Love’ – that shows her range and influences away from the group. But that’s not all. Anna Prior has a deep love and awareness of club culture, something that comes to the fore in her DJ sets, and her twin role as a label owner, spotlighting other producers.
The path to her debut solo EP hasn’t been entirely smooth – CLASH sat down with Anna to discuss the sounds that inspired the EP, her teenage love of Nine Inch Nails, and the impact of her time in Lisbon during the pandemic. — — How did you get into writing and making your own material? Honestly, people – namely Metronomy’s manager and a bunch of other musician friends – have been bugging me to do it for a long time, maybe 10 years. I’ve always been so resistant because I only really play the drums.
It’s an obnoxious instrument for a start and you can’t really write songs on a drum kit. You can write grooves and stuff, but I couldn’t quite get my head around it. Then a friend of mine, he just gave me one of those really small Akai MIDI keyboards that you plug in.
I had it for about two years and it was just staring at me. I was like, come on, I can do this..
. And this is a tale as old as time now but it took a global pandemic for me to just download Ableton and watch a load of American men on YouTube. Do some tutorials.
I picked it up quite quickly, I find the the interfac.
