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Back from the death and hungry for success

Anna Steina reveals all the truth about her unexpected split with The Wombats and tells us the story of how she managed to disappear for a whole year from all existing medias, and then come back with an absolutely great and new solo album.

Nothing appeared like there was something bad going on within The Wombats. Always smiled and witty, at day Anna was playing bass guitar and singing backing vocals in the band; at night she was occasionally performing her rock ballads in some independent night clubs in Liverpool. From time to time the lads came to see her performances and afterwards they were all partying together. The Wombats began their phenomenal career in 2002; however Anna, Matthew, Daniel and Tord met in 2000 at the Liverpool Institute for Arts. Over these five years they released two top-selling albums and toured around the UK, Europe and even Japan. It is not like our editorial staff is still in mourning after Anna has left the boys; however we cannot stop asking ourselves WHY? It’s Monday, the day after the premier of Anna’s new album, Anna and I are in a cosy coffee shop in London’s Soho. “There is not much to explain why? I just felt trapped, after five years of ongoing touring and recording I needed a break.” And as she said, she did. Nevertheless, braking up with them for ever, wasn’t it a bit too much? “I’ve never said it was for ever, I am too much attached to guys to just leave them. I know I won’t come back to the band, as a full time member, however we’ve still got few gigs on mind. For now I don’t want to do anything with rock by myself, I am completely focused on my soul and jazz experiments” It seems like these experiments worked out. While we were talking in the coffee shop, about ten people came up and asked for Anna’s autographs; three from them already had bought her CD. However lets come back to this whole ‘being trapped’ issue. On 30 December 2007, she set out to spend her New Year’s Eve in New York. It was already after she spoke with the guys and then they all agreed that they would reveal her decision in two weeks; after she comes back from New York. At that time, she didn’t know by herself that she would stay there for a little bit longer. “In New York I was spending my time with a good friend of mine, Mark Ferguson. We have known each other since we were kids. He never thought I would become a rock star, and I never thought that he would ever be a serious professor with a degree from Oxford; it was supposed be the other way around. Anyway, when I was trying to extract as much good as I could from my trip, one day Mark took me to a gospel workshop in The New York’s City Hall. I think it was the most amazing experience in my life. At first I was a bit shy, however Mark was well known there and after few minutes of my struggle, one of the teachers, took me aside and told me to show her what I’ve got!! I was petrified, my voice was nothing comparing to the rest of those great kids, who were there. “ As it turned out later, the woman who has challenged Anna; was Jean Terrell – the former singer of The Supremes, who now is teaching stars such as Joss Stone or Beyonce. She said that Anna’s got really good voice and that she should come for the next workshop. Anna by herself didn’t know that she’s got such a strong voice, so she attended the next workshop and the next three ones. It was nearly the time, when she was supposed be coming back to Liverpool and face the reality. However the day before her flight Mark asked her, if she would like to accompany him in the next workshops, which were going to take place all over the States. He said that he just simply forgot to tell her that he was doing a research on them, and that he would travel with the teachers and attend every session. “I honestly thought I would kill him for such teasing me!!” She quickly made up a decision and called the guys back in Liverpool. Apparently they weren’t very happy that they had to tell the public about her break-up by themselves; especially after she had asked them not to tell the media in Britain, where she was at that moment “They have done a really good job by not saying a word about my position. Even my friends did not say anything” Ok, that was only the three months, but what about the rest of your time spent in the States. “The rest is about my record deal, but it is a longer story than this one. I will only say what I have told Robert Marwick from the Blue Note Records, when he asked, if I would like to record a new album: I’ve grown up from being a rock’n’roll queen...which doesn’t mean I’d stopped being crazy.” Of course the answer was YES!!!