With “NUOVO AMORE PASSATO – PT.1”, Anna and Vulkan sign the first chapter of an emotional story divided into two acts.
A project that was born as a flow of memory and sensations, where love – fragile, imperfect and never completely accomplished – becomes a mirror of a broader condition: that of a confused existence, suspended between desire and resignation.
On the album, played songs and carefully crafted arrangements coexist, between funk, urban, singer-songwriter introspection and Neapolitan tradition, with a sound research that alternates intimacy and experimentation.
Alongside DamianK in production (with the exception of Mama Misigned by Yosh Whale), Anna personally recorded the drum parts in the Antoniano studios in Bologna, while Bruno Belissimo contributes elegant and pulsating bass lines. The result is a cohesive and vibrant work, where the care of sound becomes language and each song tells a fragment of itself, waiting for the second part of this “new past love”.
After a summer tour with bands that took her throughout Italy, Anna and Vulkan anticipated the album with Particular period, How many tears and 'Nu bitter poison.
We met her at the album presentation.
THE INTERVIEW
“New love past” is a title that I really like and that began to take shape in my head when I realized that the songs I was writing were all part of the same narrative. The album can be read as an intimate and raw reflection on vulnerability and uncertainty, with at the center the feeling that moves everything: love.
Each song represents a different moment of the last year, and I remember perfectly when each of them began to come together.It excites me to think that each of these fragments is linked to a specific place: some songs were born in Naples, others in Vienna, Milan or during the tour around Italy, only to be reworked in different studios and at different times.”
The album alternates intimate moments, guitar and voice, with more electronic ones. How did you manage to make these two sound worlds coherent?
The most beautiful part of music, for me, is the sound research. Conveying an emotion not only with words but also with sounds, production choices, atmospheres.
With Damiank, who is a great researcher, we worked a lot on the harmony and the links between the songs. M
I like that each song has its own identity, but that they all speak the same emotional language.
Is there a common thread that unites the songs of NUOVO AMORE PASSATO – PT.1?
The album tells a story, not so much on a temporal level, but on an emotional level. The dominant sensation is melancholy, but not sad: it is a lively, at times cheerful, melancholy that runs through even the most lively pieces. At the base there is always love, with all that it brings with it, for better or for worse.
You also personally take care of the visual part of your projects. Tell me how the album cover came about?
Yes, the cover is completely mine. We made it in a hotel room in Milan, in a very spontaneous way. The guy at the front desk saw us come in with the camera and asked us what we were up to (laughs). All the visuals that will be released on Spotify are set there: we wanted to create a coherent visual story, which was not a simple sequence of images but a small world. The cover represents a fragile bond, like those that run through the album.
In the lyrics you talk about love with great sweetness and realism. Are these stories autobiographical or do you also take inspiration from others?
I would say a bit of both. Most arise from personal experiences, though not always current ones — sometimes from things in the past that I hadn't yet processed. Every now and then I also get inspired by the people around me: I'm the one everyone tells their sentimental dramas to! But writing about everyone would be too distracting, so in the end the starting point always remains myself.
Are you already thinking about the live dimension of the project?
Yes, we are working on it. The tour will start soon, with a very careful visual part. I will bring the record with the band, so it will have a different flavor but always consistent with what you hear on the record. It's a project I care a lot about, and I can't wait to bring it to life.
THE TRACKLIST
Particular period
Mama me
So many tears
As if they were for us
No way or no way
I won't wait for you anymore
'No bitter poison
At night
THE VIDEO
THE TOUR
14 November – Turin, Off Topic
15 November – Piacenza, Musici Per Caso
19 November – Milan, TBA
November 23 – Rome, Spaghetti Unplugged @ Monk Club
19 December – Bologna, Covo Club
27 December – Aiello del Sabato (AV), If a traveler spends a night in Irpinia
March 7 – Rende (CS), Mood Social Club
ABOUT
Anna and Vulkan comes from Torre Annunziata, in the province of Naples, and is one of the most interesting and fresh new releases on the scene. He sings, plays, produces and personally takes care of the graphics of his projects, putting his artistic vision into every detail. With a crystalline and unmistakable sound identity, he manages to transform emotions and experiences into music, authentically narrating the multiple realities he passes through.
The Volcano is a clear reference to Vesuvius, always present outside the window of his house and a constant symbol of returning home.
From an early age she grew up surrounded by musical instruments due to her father's profession, a musician and composer, and listened to Lucio Dalla, Pino Daniele and Petrucciani on numerous car journeys. He approached music slowly and quite independently, starting to play the drums, one of the few instruments absent in his home.
He then began to strum the guitar and piano as a self-taught person and to write his first songs around the age of 15. In the same period he put together the group Sonder, where he participated as a drummer and singer and had his first live experiences in small performances and regional competitions. With Sonder he produced an EP, “Come ti senti”, in the entrance of his house.
He then moved to Trieste, where he studied at the Interpreter School and became passionate about languages and linguistics. After three years of university he moved to Vienna where he worked as a Brand Designer and played in a new project, once again as a drummer.
In Vienna he starts writing and producing songs independently, playing guitar, drums, bass and keyboards. He approaches Italian music, old and new, with more passion, but continues to explore the international scene. Listen to anything with interest, ranging between different languages and genres, from Italodisco to reggaeton, passing through more intimate sounds and then ending up in jazz and indie pop.
On 17 November 2023 he made his solo debut for Pluggers with the single “Comm'è” followed by “Scurò” and then, on 12 April of the following year, the first EP “Andare, returning”, welcomed with enthusiasm by the press and public.
The summer of 2024 sees Anna and Vulkan busy with her first tour during which she also releases the remix version of her EP renamed “Andare, returning to dance” with productions by Bruno Belissimo, Euro Nettuno and Damiank.
On September 20 of the same year, the single “Comme se fa (a te scurda)” was released featuring their labelmates Fuck Pop, a song that they themselves defined as Neapolitan funk which pays homage to their city and its traditions. At the end of October a new song is released, “Farla Facile”, a song with a bittersweet flavour, melancholy but at the same time danceable which continues to define the crystalline talent of the Campania artist.
After a summer tour with bands that took her throughout Italy, Anna and Vulkan released “Quante Lacrime” followed by “'Nu poison amaro”.
