Stephen Steinbrink removes the muddle with ‘Anagrams’

Sometimes the ‘songwriter’ tag seems a bit naff, too lofty for musicians who keep the process simple. Anyone who avoids unnecessary earnestness is good in our book, and Stephen Steinbrink ticks every box with the sweet, no-frills gorgeousness of ‘Anagrams’.

According to Steinbrink, for his new record he tried “to be nothing”, to avoid any tradition or lineage of songwriters. His output doesn’t identity as one thing or the other, apparently.

“I always wonder if my most recent song is the last one I’ll ever write. I try to be more concerned with being open, to imagine myself as a rock or a wrapper or nothing at all. Whenever I can get close to that state of mind the songs come easy, but it seems arbitrary, almost like they would’ve existed with or without me,” he says in a statement about the new record.

Open-ended, there to be interpreted from any angle, ‘Anagrams’ is an ambiguous dream. We’re premiering the title track, below.

‘Anagrams’ is out 1st July via Melodic.