Emma Anderson from Lush announces her debut solo album Pearlies

The inception of her debut came following Anderson feeling disillusioned after Lush’s 2016 reunion came to an abrupt end. “I thought we were in it for the long term, so some of these songs – or even just parts of them – were actually going to be for Lush,” she explains. “That didn’t happen, so I had these songs and bits of music that I didn’t know what to do with.”

Picking up the pieces, she began recording home demos and worked on some music with the cellist and string arranger Audrey Riley, with the intention of writing for film or TV.

Anderson intended to use another vocalist, but Audrey pushed her to sing lead. Later, when Robin Guthrie, formerly of the Cocteau Twins and with whom Anderson had worked extensively in the early ’90s, offered to do some further recording, he also insisted that she started – belatedly – singing her own songs.

“He basically said, ‘If you don’t sing, I am not going to do it’, so I decided I would,” she recalls. “I am not someone that feels comfortable in the spotlight, so for me to take centre stage, metaphorically speaking, was quite a big leap."

Over three weeks in rural Northamptonshire, Pearlies finally took shape, following a period of hiatus during the pandemic. The album was produced by James Chapman (Maps) and features Richard Oakes from Suede.

“I didn’t know Richard back in the ’90s, but it turned that he was a bit of a Lush fan,” Anderson reveals. “I have a part-time day job as a bookkeeper, and I do bits of work for the Suede camp. I got to know him through that and we became friends. I asked if he would play some guitar on the record and, to my delight, he said yes!"

Tracklist:

1. I Was Miles Away
2. Bend The Round
3. Inter Light
4. Taste The Air
5. Xanthe
6. The Presence
7. Willow And Mallow
8. Tonight Is Mine
9. For A Moment
10. Clusters