ANOHNI and the Johnsons Present New Album, My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross,

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ANOHNI and the Johnsons Present New Album, My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross,

Out Now Friday, July 7th on Rough Trade

+ ‘Why Am I Alive Now?’ With Video Directed By Hunter Schafer

“Anohni Isn’t Afraid of the Darkness. Three decades into her career, the art-pop musician is still embracing new sounds, carrying stories from the past and interrogating all kinds of power.” – The New York Times

British-born, New York-based ANOHNI, “one of our generation’s greatest protest singers, or protest songwriters” (NPR’s All Songs Considered), releases new album, My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross, out today, July 7th on Rough Trade.

ANOHNI describes the creative process for My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross, her first album since 2016’s acclaimed HOPELESSNESS, as a renewal and a renaming of her response to the world as she sees it. “Some of these songs respond to global and environmental concerns first voiced in popular music over 50 years ago,” says ANOHNI of her sixth studio album.

With My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross, ANOHNI’s approach moved from someone tasked with challenging global denial to an artist seeking to support others on the front lines. “I learned with HOPELESSNESS that I can provide a soundtrack that might fortify people in their work, in their activism, in their dreaming and decision-making. I can sing of an awareness that makes others feel less alone, people for whom the frank articulation of these frightening times is not a source of discomfort but a cause for identification and relief. I want the work to be useful, to help others move with dignity and resilience through these conversations we are now facing.”

“Why am I alive now?,” ANOHNI asks, her ever-emotive vocals resting atop a bed of lush instrumentation co-produced by Jimmy Hogarth. “I don’t want to be witness/Seeing all of this duress/Aching of our world/Why am I alive now?” As the song continues, ANOHNI’s voice is both subtle and powerful. The accompanying ‘Why Am I Alive Now?’ video, directed by Hunter Schafer (Euphoria), is expansive and cinematic. In her second-ever directorial endeavor, Schafer creates a portrait of women seeking refuge in each other in the midst of an industrial complex overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Schafer comments, “I started listening to Anohni in high school, so it’s a huge honor to help her build a visual world for WAIAN. This music video was an honest attempt to answer the question that WAIAN begs, Why Am I Alive Now? I wanted to focus on the idea of finding sisterhood in a world that does nothing to help – I hope the direction, choreography, and tone conveys a small piece of that journey.”