Brun-eyed girl

Bright-eyed and bubbly, in person Ane Brun couldn’t be further removed from the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo stereotype of the introverted Scandinavian. “I’m a very social person,” says the Norway-born, Sweden-based singer. “Songwriting is probably the only element of my life in which I have to act like an introvert. And after two days on my own I get really bored. I need to go hang out with people. Spend a lot of time in your own head and you start to go crazy!”

Such vivaciousness, it must be said, is at odds with her music, which proceeds from dark to dolorous and back again. Her latest album, It All Starts With One is perhaps her most intense yet. It certainly had a dramatic gestation. Two years ago Brun was set to go into the studio when she received one of those life-changing phone calls: Peter Gabriel wanted her to duet with him on his cover of Kate Bush’s ‘Don’t Give Up’ and to tour the accompanying LP as his backing singer. Her schedule would be thrown into turmoil. She said 'yes' anyway.
“I’d met him at an event in Norway some years before. He came over and told me he liked what I did. Five years later, he thought of me for his live shows. I had set aside that period for recording the new album. I decided I would record with Peter instead. It would give me more time to write my record, to get into the zone."
She left Norway in her early 20s, following a Swedish boyfriend to Stockholm. With It All Starts With One topping the charts across Scandinavia, both Stockholm and Oslo have claimed her as their own. Brun doesn’t wish to be drawn on whether she feels Swedish or Norwegian, diplomatically saying that it’s just nice to be liked.
“Sweden and Norway have two very different histories,” she adds “Norway has been like the little brother for a long time. It’s a loving relationship. There isn’t much antagonism. The only time people start shouting at each other is when sport is involved.”
Because Sweden is relatively small (in population terms if not geography), it feels like she knows practically every musician in the country. When looking for someone to duet with on her new single ‘Worship’, it followed that she didn’t have to search too hard.
“Jose Gonzalez and I have been playing and recording at exactly the same time,” she says. “Our careers have almost paralleled one another. We’ve known each other for a long time. I’m in the video to one of his first songs, ‘Crosses’. That’s me sitting in the car. I’ve always wanted to do something with him. We were thinking of someone for ‘Worship’. And then it occurred. Jose… of course… Jose…”.
Brun just released a special edition of It All Starts With One, to coincide with her European tour. Amongst the bonus tracks is a cover of Arcade Fire’s ‘Neighbourhood Number One’. She’s a fan of the Canadians, albeit something of a late convert.
“I only started listening to them a year ago. I fell in love straight away. And then I saw them live which made me like them even more. With a cover version it’s a challenge to bring something of yourself to what you do. If you can’t do something that’s different from the original, there isn’t any point. You’re better off leaving it alone.”