Athena
Athena releases her second album ‘Peeling Apples on 19th March, through Embraceable Records
Athena’s strength is in her fragility, and as her story is revealed on ‘Peeling Apples’ she navigates the most intimate subjects on human nature and relationships with the skill of a classic songwriter, and one of the UK’s most original voices. As Jamie Cullum recently noted Athena is 'classic with a twist'.
Born in London to Greek parents, Athena’s mother would sing her to sleep with traditional folk songs and lullabies and she grew up in a house that reverberated to classical music and Greek song cycles, as well as the more straightforward pleasures of The Beatles and Pink Floyd.
However, despite all the music around, the young Athena was denied a piano until she was 16. The first time Athena told her parents she wanted to dedicate her life to music her father insisted she study business so she headed to Bath University but she continued making music and seeing bands while studying business.
'I was very unhappy though,' she says. 'I didn’t see the point in living without doing what I loved full time.'
Part of the course involved working in a business and Athena upped and moved to New York for six months. While there she auditioned for a teacher from the elite Juilliard School of Performing Arts who spotted her talent and took Athena on as a private student; within days they were meeting twice a week and developing an intense vocal training programme, as Athena was self-taught up to that point.
Athena secured a First Class Degree in Business and then told her parents, quite directly, she would be doing music full time and she enrolled on a course at Trinity College, London.
Athena’s debut album, ‘Breathe With Me’ (2009), drew many excellent reviews, and since then she has headlined and sold out numerous UK tours, played at Glastonbury, had songs covered by other artists and seen her own music synced with TV, commercials and movies.
All the while Athena has built a strong and sizeable following with the sort of word of mouth that can only come from connecting directly with the emotional heart of your audience.
Now there is a new album, ‘Peeling Apples’, produced by Swedes Magnus Frykberg and Tobias Froberg (Ane Brun and Lisa Ekdahl), and co-writers on the record include Richard Causon (Ryan Adams, Ethan Johns, The Kings of Leon, Rufus Wainwright), and Jamie Hartman (Joss Stone, Anastacia) features on a duet.
The songs from her album have the same sort of clear artistic vision that marks out Norah Jones or Tori Amos or Bjork with a fresh, limitless ambition.
Perhaps the most poignant song on her new album is ‘Finding England’, set in London, and beautifully talks of letting go of expectation. ‘Looking At Me Looking At You’ is, on one level, about the nature of love and life, falling into the same traps again and again, but it also draws inspiration from philosopher Alan Watts’ understanding that, 'through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself.'
How can we pull back from abusive relationships when we’re all involved in the most colossally abusive relationship of all? ‘I’ll Never Know’ tackles the sweet pain of a temptation resisted, that endless battle between head and heart.
Then there’s ‘Little Jane’, a message of hope and strength to a girl spotted through a window playing in a field as well as being a supportive word sent back through time to Athena herself as a child. Stay innocent, it says, stay brave. Most of all stay happy.
This then is the sort of artist that understands how a great album is a story, it must have a shape and a sense of momentum to it, it can’t exist in a vacuum. Athena’s skill is in writing epic songs and still maintaining a feeling of intimacy.
She expresses a love for Mumford & Sons, Ani Di Franco and PJ Harvey. 'I like to see people doing things their way,' she says. 'I remember hearing Blowing In The Wind at 14 and thinking, this is what I want to do with my life.'