Anna Secret Poet is a genderfluid singer/songwriter,musician,poet and model based in Glasgow. Their influences range from The Ramones to Doctor Who, and you can find them performing in clubs,cabaret nights and at comedy shows.With new music on the horizon,I caught up with the delightful Anna Blair to find out what’s in store for 2024.
Is it true that Anna Secret Poet started out as part of the spoken word scene?
From a performing perspective yes! I coined the name around 2004/2005 for a possible musical project for my female alter ego. I used it for years just as a name online for my blog and social media in general. My crossdressing was still very much a secret at this point so only a handful of people knew about it. In December 2015 I got briefly Twitter famous when I created the top trending hashtag in the world – #DepressABeatlesSong – basically take a Beatles song title and make it sad. For example ‘Love me Don’t’. Loads of folk like Pam Ayres, David Baddiel and Wheatus were joining in! There was even an article in the NME about it and they were slagging my initial tweets but gave a Top 10 of the best ones. I realised I couldn’t tell anyone about it cos no one knew about Anna so that’s when I decided to go legit and take Anna out into the real world. Seeing as the word poet was in the name I elected to be a poet haha! I got bored with that after a few months and started introducing music into the equation and here we are now.
Your songs and poems cover a diverse range of themes, from playful and comedic, to intensely personal. Are there any subjects off-limits?
None spring to mind. I’ll write and sing about anything me! It’s always been the way. I love a bit of variety. There’s nothing worse than hearing all those other songs out there continually bleeting on about love and stuff. I know love is something we all feel and I occasionally pen an ode to heartbreak but there are other things happening too like eyebrows, biscuits, sausages, ancient Egypt…the list goes on.
You recently had a cameo in Del Amitri’s video for ‘You Can’t Go Back’. How did that come about?
My friend Courtney put me up for it so I’ll be eternally grateful to her for that. Such a fun experience and they were so so nice. I totally regret not getting a photo with them for posterity but the clip with me in it has been used rather widely so I can’t complain. It was even shown on ‘This Morning’ amongst other things and is even played over the end credits of their recent documentary so you can buy the blu-ray and see me in HD!
Finally, please tell me about your new music.
My latest music came out of a period of sullen, dark introspection when I had no motivation to make any but occasionally did anyway because of habit. A friend of mine called Speculum Bunny releases music on a label called New Reality Records and I heard they were always looking for new folk to collaborate with. I sent them a sample song I had made in the autumn detailing in spoken word form all the things I see out of the bus window on the way to work and he really liked it. That provided the much needed spark and within a week I bashed a few other scraps of unfinished ideas and thoughts into an E.P. worth of songs and recorded them that weekend in my bedroom.
The songs are variously about exhaustion, commuting, confusion, inadequacy, masking and looking on the bright side no matter how excruciatingly difficult it can be at times. I’m looking forward to other people hearing them! This is always a nerve-wracking period for me between the recording and the release. I’m filling it by planning for another E.P. later in the year with more upbeat songs on it. One of them in particular is a belter and I can ‘t wait to record that one!
Photos with guitar by Andrew Bradley.
Find Anna Secret Poet here:
https://annasecretpoet.wixsite.com/annasecretpoet
https://annasecretpoet.bandcamp.com
Hit The North 
Thank you so much! ❤🥰❤
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Thanks to you! 😃🐱💓🌻
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