Peeling Apples

Description

As a child, Athena would climb Mount Olympus, heading high above the tree line to a place of perfect serenity. One day, while still a teenager, she experienced a revelation. "As you get past the lushness it gets rocky and suddenly all you can hear is the wind. It's incredibly beautiful," she says, before laughing. "Actually, you know what it sounds exactly like? The start of Pink Floyd's 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond'…"
Athena is one of those people who live and breathe and think and talk about music and she writes with the same sort of direct focus. During a Sky Arts documentary made about her, legendary songwriter Chris Difford described Athena as someone who, "writes and sings from the heart. She doesn't need to be packaged by anyone – she is simply and beautifully her."
The songs from her new album, Peeling Apples, are just as skilled at marking the point where the personal becomes universal as they are withdrawing to where a longer, more enlightened view of human nature becomes clear. She has the same sort of clear artistic vision that marks out Norah Jones or Tori Amos or Bjork and it's matched with a fresh, limitless ambition. "Athena's classic, with a twist…" noted Jamie Cullum recently.
Athena's debut album, 'Breathe With Me', drew many excellent reviews, indeed The Guardian commenting that she was "Brave and original. A remarkably fine singer songwriter." 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.
Athena has been writing poetry all her life (she won awards for her poetry in the past) and her songs reflect that. Perhaps the most poignant song on her new album is 'Finding England' is set in London and beautifully talks of letting go of expectation and accepting of the moment for what it is. '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.
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 more 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. They figured it would distract her from her studies, but as we all know, natural musicians are made of sterner stuff than that. "I just joined the Drama Club where they had a piano," she smiles "and when I was home alone I'd practice singing exercises I invented for myself."
The first time Athena told her parents she wanted to dedicate her life to music they didn't really take much notice – "so I locked myself in my room as teenagers do," she says. Athena stayed there for three days listening to the Rolling Stones.
A couple of years later Athena tried again, but this time her parent's reaction was even stronger. 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.
After securing a First Class Degree in Business Athena told her parents, quite directly she would be doing music full time and she enrolled on a course at Trinity College, London.
"I felt like I had two years to learn all I could," she says. Athena taught herself piano while learning to sight-read music. She joined an electronica group and sung with rock bands.
One summer Athena went to Greece and gathered a great pile of songs she heard in remote villages and brought them back to London where she played them with a new group of musicians. The demo ended up on the radio and that got them onto the bill at WOMAD. It was then Athena started writing seriously, first on her own. 'Breathe Again' – recently on TV an ad for Concern – was an early song that featured just her voice and a piano.
Athena was introduced to Chris Difford from Squeeze who, in turn, put her in touch with a group of singers and songwriters. It was among these new friends that Athena began to co-write pieces.
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. 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."
Ultimately, Athena wants us to stay aware of every moment, to never forget to enjoy our lives. "It's so easy to get so caught up," she says. "We all need some perspective because in the end it's the little moments of stillness that stay with you, that help you truly enjoy life. I try to do that," she laughs out loud. "I really do! The trouble is I keep forgetting…"