Annahstasia

“My career has been a lesson in patience,” says Annahstasia, whose path has woven through love, loss, and transformation. Her full-length debut Tether (via drink sum wtr) reflects that journey — a soulful, poetic folk record anchored by her powerful voice and rooted in resilience. Love, in all forms, has guided her art from the moment a 17-year-old self-taught Annahstasia was thrust into the industry.

She carried these songs through years, singing them for friends and strangers, refining them with lived experience. “The song is written, and then I have to live with it and see if I really believe what I’m saying.” Recorded live at Valentine Studios in LA with producers Jason Lader, Andrew Lappin, and Aaron Liao — and guests like aja monet and Obongjayar — Tether captures emotional intimacy with lush or stripped-down arrangements. “I’ve come into the power of my voice as a medium,” she says.

On opener “Be Kind,” her bare vocals and minimal instrumentation reflect on the beauty of the everyday. With “Villian,” swelling brass and gospel-like energy underscore lyrics about embracing our contradictions: “We are all made of both shadow and light.”

The centerpiece “Slow” was co-written with Obongjayar in an Airbnb in London, voices and guitar entwined around themes of surrender and cosmic timing. Later, the pair reunited to finish the song during the Tether sessions — a powerful convergence of two Nigerian artists defying genre.

In “All is. Will Be. As it Was.,” surrealist poet aja monet contributes impromptu verses born from the prompt “open air,” recorded live with guitar and piano — a breezy, spiritual interlude.

On “Silk and Velvet,” she channels punk minimalism to explore ideological contradictions: “revolutionary ideologies but consumerist tendencies.” The tension explodes on “Believer,” a long-gestating song finally realized — with huge drums, wild guitars, and her fantasy of rock stardom blazing at full volume. “Now I blast it, play air guitar, and pretend I’m performing for 100,000 people.”

Tether is a testament to growth, creative freedom, and emotional truth — a bold arrival forged through patience, intention, and a belief in love’s enduring force.