Photo credit: Emma Cole
Alt-rock superstar Annabel Lee is making waves in the music industry and she’ll have you asking why haven’t you tuned into her sooner. She is a true powerhouse of a songwriter and vocalist, evoking haunting sounds that ring true to herself and her raw self expression. It’s what makes her so unique and such a force to be reckoned with. Don’t you dare get in her way. She is fearless and authentic in her work and it truly shows in her projects. Hailing from Dighton, Massachusetts she began her musical journey as the acoustic opener for hardcore shows around New England when she was a teenager, honing her craft and building a loyal following. She has since played hundreds of shows around the US sharing stages with Indigo De Souza, Zella Day, Moon Walker and Amanda Palmer, to name a few.
In 2023, Annabel released her debut album, Mother’s Hammer to immense praise and admiration. It is truly a work of art that sees her at her most authentic. In 2024 she released a two song EP ‘COUPLET No.1: The Panic & The Nightmare’, which is also stellar and emotionally raw. Annabel is a fantastic storyteller through her work and it really evokes such strong emotions for the listener to really feel what she was feeling in those songs.
We had the pleasure to interview Annabel Lee recently and we talked about her hometown show in Boston which was such a bittersweet moment for her, as well as inspirations, and stories behind her music. Check it out below!
Credit: Annabel Lee
Hey! Appreciate you taking the time to chat. For those who may not know who you are, give us a little background on yourself. I have a bad attitude and I write songs.
You recently played a hometown show in Boston, what was it like to come back to the place you grew up in and to have that support there? It was my first time playing back in Boston for 8 years since I moved to LA, so it was incredibly sentimental for me. There were people from every corner and chapter of my life there screaming the words. Really couldn’t have asked for a sweeter way to end this tour.
On the topic of growing up in Massachusetts (as I also grew up there), what is your favorite thing about there? I think my favorite things about MA other than the people I love there, is the East Coast mentality, the seasons, and the Italian food. I think people from the East Coast do well in LA because if you’re a no bullshit communicator and care about loyalty, people tend to like working with you.
Moving coast to coast can be rough, what has that been like for you? It was the best decision I have ever made. I went through some of the most difficult times of my life, and had to really rough it for a while – rock bottom for two years. Once I pushed through that, I got to where I am now, which is happy, creative, healthy, and working.
Your debut album Mother’s Hammer is a work of art-what was the inspiration behind that album and how you chose that name? Thanks for saying that 🙂 Means so much. I named Mother’s Hammer after the song, because that song kind of sums up the entirety of the parts of my life that the album is about. My late teens and twenties. “Mother’s Hammer” is actually a term I coined because when I was a teenager me and my mother would always drive around and listen to music in the car, and one day we had this Elton John song called ‘The One’ blasting. There’s a lyric in that song describing the moment that you truly find your soulmate- “the second that the hammer hits”- and when that lyric rang out, my mom said “That’s exactly what it’s like!”- and I never forgot it. So Mother’s Hammer is the story of me painfully stumbling through my young life trying to feel that hammer hit. Learning about all the different types of love. Especially the ones that are paired with deep grief and self-realization.
Which song from your entire discography would you say is your favorite? Either MOTHER’S HAMMER or ALL OF MY GHOSTS-but I love all my kids!
Last year you released a two song EP COUPLET No.1: The Panic & The Nightmare- talk to us about the story behind that one and why you decided to release it. The couplet consists of two songs that I wrote in the same few days while I was having gruesome dreams and panic attacks. Often if I have panic in my body, I have very violent dreams, and this was one of those weeks. I knew I wanted to record the songs together and have them be a duo of sorts. But I also thought because they both felt cinematic that telling a visual story was also necessary. I wanted to make something that felt like my panic feels to me. So I made a short film with my boys Ivan & Gabriel Ovalle that was scored by the songs. It was one of the biggest undertakings artistically I’ve ever done, and was actually quite painful. But people are loving MOTHER MARY! Which is so cool. Who would have thought my songs without choruses would perform the best!
I’ve seen you curate and host themed, multimedia immersive events around Los Angeles including “The Sweat Gala” and “A Night At the Opera”– what made you want to hold these events? At my root, I am an art school kid. I got my BFA at Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt) in multimedia. I love doing all the parts! The production, the scripts, the campaigns, the visual art, the music of course, and the performance art. I love doing my special events because it forces people to do art and be somewhere surreal for a night–which everyone kind of forgets that they like to do. It also feels like a way to separate myself from every other artist out here. It’s nice to play venues of course. I’m happy on any stage, but building out my own space and experiential night for people feels like a fun challenge. They’ve been a blast.
Is there an artist you’d say you draw inspiration from? So many artists. The biggest are probably Patti Smith, Frida Kahlo, Irving Penn, Rihanna, Bob Dylan, Marina Ambramovic, Tina Turner, Kurt Cobain, Dolly, The B52s, Alexander McQueen, Allison Mosshart, Nina Simone, Janis Joplin, Thom Yorke, John Galliano and recently Coralie Fargeat because the movie THE SUBSTANCE made me feel high after I saw it.
What has been your proudest moment of your career so far? I think releasing this album and touring it has been the best. I’m excited to make another and just keep doing that until I die.
Lastly, what’s a message you want people to take from your music? (Thank you for taking the time to do this interview!)
That you are not alone in your darkest feelings, that it is your right to be enraged, and that I love you!
Keep up with Annabel Lee // website // Instagram // TikTok // youtube //
