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Jun 06, 2018 Anna Calvi By Christopher Roberts

Anna Calvi has announced a new album, Hunter, and shared a video for a new song that examines gender, “Don’t Beat the Girl Out of My Boy.” Hunter is due out August 31 via Domino. She also has a bunch of tour dates and issued a statement about the album. Watch the “Don’t Beat the Girl Out of My Boy” video below. Also below are her statement about the album, the album’s tracklist, cover art for both the album and single, and her upcoming tour dates.

William Kennedy (Kendrick Lamar) directed the “Don’t Beat the Girl Out of My Boy” video, which was choreographed by Aaron Sillis (FKA twigs) and features Calvi and various dancers. The song is about gender roles and how children at a young age are conditioned to conform to gender stereotypes, particularly how small boys are taught not to cry or express emotions. Calvi had this to say in a press release: “It’s a song about the defiance of happiness. It’s about being free to identify yourself in whichever way you please, without any restraints from society.”

Hunter is Calvi’s third full-length album and the follow up to 2011’s Anna Calvi and 2013’s One Breath. That makes it her first album in five years. Nick Launay (Nick Cave, Grinderman) produced Hunter at Konk Studios in London, with some additional production in Los Angeles. Calvi’s band was featured in the sessions: Mally Harpaz on various instruments and Alex Thomas on drums. Adrian Utley from Portishead also played keyboards and Martyn Casey from The Bad Seeds played bass.

In a press release Calvi says she wanted to express herself on Hunter while being “free from the story that either gender is given, free from worrying how people would judge me on what I want to do with my body and myself. For me, that’s quite a utopian vision.”

Calvi released a longer statement about the album: “I’m hunting for something - I want experiences, I want agency, I want sexual freedom, I want intimacy, I want to feel strong, I want to feel protected and I want to find something beautiful in all the mess.

“I want to go beyond gender. I don’t want to have to chose between the male and female in me. I’m fighting against feeling an outsider and trying to find a place that feels like home.

“I believe that gender is a spectrum. I believe that if we were allowed to be somewhere in the middle, not pushed to the extremes of performed masculinity and femininity, we would all be more free. I want to explore how to be something other than just what I’ve been assigned to be. I want to explore a more subversive sexuality, which goes further than what is expected of a woman in our patriarchal heteronormative society. I want to repeat the words ‘girl boy, woman man,’ over and over, to find the limits of these words, against vastness of human experience.

“I believe in the female protagonist, who isn’t simply responding to a man’s story. I go out into the world and see it as mine - I want something from it, rather than just being a passive product of it. I’m hungry for experiences. Sometimes things seem clear, and other times I feel lost. I feel strong and yet vulnerable; I wear my body and my art as an armor, but I also know that to be true to myself is to be open to being hurt.

“The intent of this record is to be primal and beautiful, vulnerable and strong, to be the hunter and the hunted.”

Hunter Tracklist:

1. As A Man
2. Hunter
3. Don’t Beat The Girl Out Of My Boy
4. Indies Or Paradise
5. Swimming Pool
6. Alpha
7. Chain
8. Wish
9. Away
10. Eden

Anna Calvi Tour Dates:

Tue 12 June 2018 - Berlin, Germany - Berghain [SOLD OUT]
Fri 15 June 2018 - Paris, France - La Gaité Lyrique [SOLD OUT]
Tue 19 June 2018 - London, UK - Heaven [SOLD OUT]
Thu 27 Sep 2018 - Belfast, Northern Ireland - The Belfast Empire
Fri 28 Sep 2018 - Dublin 8, Ireland - The Tivoli Theatre
Sun 30 Sep 2018 - Glasgow, Scotland - St Luke’s
Mon 01 Oct 2018 - Manchester, England - O2 Ritz
Wed 03 Oct 2018 - Newcastle, UK - The Boiler Shop
Thu 04 Oct 2018 - Birmingham, UK - Town Hall
Fri 05 Oct 2018 - Brighton, UK - All Saints Church
Sat 06 Oct 2018 - Bristol, UK - SWX Bristol
Mon 08 Oct 2018 - Lille, France - Le Splendid
Tue 09 Oct 2018 - La Rochelle, France - La Sirene
Wed 10 Oct 2018 - Nantes, France - Stereolux
Sat 13 Oct 2018 - Valencia, Spain - La Rambleta
Sun 14 Oct 2018 - Barcelona, Spain - Cruïlla de Tardor @ Razzmatazz 2
Tue 16 Oct 2018 - Madrid, Spain - Chango
Wed 17 Oct 2018 - Santiago, Spain - Sala Capitol
Fri 19 Oct 2018 - Porto, Portugal - Hard Club
Sat 20 Oct 2018 - Lisbon, Portugal - Capitolio
Mon 22 Oct 2018 - Lyon, France - Le Radiant
Tue 23 Oct 2018 - Strasbourg, France - La Laiterie
Wed 24 Oct 2018 - Utrecht, Netherlands - Tivoli Vredenburg, De Helling
Thu 25 Oct 2018 - Brussels, Belgium - Botanique
Sat 27 Oct 2018 - Odense, Denmark - Posten
Mon 29 Oct 2018 - Oslo, Norway - Parkteatret
Tue 30 Oct 2018 - Stockholm, Sweden - Nalen
Thu 01 Nov 2018 - Helsinki, Finland - Tavastia Club
Sat 03 Nov 2018 - Lund, Sweden - Mejeriet
Sun 04 Nov 2018 - Copenhagen, Denmark - Vega
Mon 05 Nov 2018 - Aarhus, Denmark - Voxhall
Wed 07 Nov 2018 - Warsaw, Poland - Niebo
Thu 08 Nov 2018 - Prague, Czech Republic - Lucerna
Fri 09 Nov 2018 - Leipzig, Germany - Conne Island
Sat 10 Nov 2018 - Weissenhäuser Strand, Germany - Rolling Stone Weekender
Mon 12 Nov 2018 - Bratislava, Slovakia - Nova Cvernovka
Tue 13 Nov 2018 - Budapest, Hungary - A38 Ship
Thu 15 Nov 2018 - Vienna, Austria - Simm City
Fri 16 Nov 2018 - Rust, Germany Rolling - Stone Park
Sat 17 Nov 2018 - Fribourg, Switzerland - Le Nouveau Monde
Sun 18 Nov 2018 - Zurich, Switzerland - Plaza Club Zurich
Tue 20 Nov 2018 - Ljubljana, Slovenia - Kino Siska
Wed 16 Jan 2019 - Munich, Germany - Freiheiz
Fri 18 Jan 2019 - Berlin, Germany - Astra Kulturhaus
Sat 19 Jan 2019 - Hamburg, Germany - Kampnagel
Tue 22 Jan 2019 - Cologne, Germany - Gloria Theatre
Wed 23 Jan 2019 - Amsterdam, Netherlands - Melkweg
Fri25 Jan 2019 - Nancy, France - L’Autre Canal
Sat 26 Jan 2019 - Nimes, France - Paloma
Sun 27 Jan 2019 - Toulouse, France - Le Bikini
Tue 29 Jan 2019 - Bordeaux, France - Le Rocher de Palmer
Thu 31 Jan 2019 - Reims, France - La Cartonnerie
Thu 07 Feb 2019 - London, UK - The Roundhouse

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