Anabel Englund (born September 1st, 1992) is an American singer, songwriter and artist from Southern California.Born to a musical family, Englund came of age in the spotlight, walking the red carpet at numerous Hollywood premieres as a child. Her father is American actor and singer Morgan Englund and her grandfather the director-producer George Englund. Her grandmother, Academy Award-winning actress Cloris Leachman, was the matriarch for their family of musicians, actors, and creative personas. Leachman played a pivotal role in inspiring her granddaughter to harness her inner artist. “My grandmother would make me sing in front of her actor friends but I’d be so shy, I’d have to face away,” she recalls. It was a Christian youth group that sparked her interest in singing.
After finding her feet as a performer at the Christian youth group she attended from 16, Anabel Englund got a break as a singer at Disney-owned US TV network ABC Family to write theme songs and other material for television shows. During 2010 and 2011 she wrote and performed delicate, sparsely arranged, piano-led ballads both on her own and as part of a duo named Suburban Nightlife. But things took a wayward turn in late 2012 when she met producers Lee Foss and Jamie Jones. Englund caught the attention of Foss and, together with Mark Kinchen (MK), she collaborated on their song "Electricity." The deep house track was lauded in the electronic music community and added to rotation on BBC Radio 1's Essential Mix playlist in January 2013.
The success of the single brought Englund into the limelight, soon she was jetting to London to take part in the sessions that would become a part of British-American electronic/house super group Hot Natured's 2013 album "Different Sides Of The Sun" as she was asked to supply her vocal and songwriting talents on three tracks: "Reverse Skydiving," "Mercury Rising" and "Emerald City." Popular remixes of these songs have also attracted more attention for Englund. The Frontliner applauded her, saying: "Englund’s lead vocal line and perfectly mixed background harmonies balance perfectly with the group’s funked out, deep sound."
In April 2013, visuals featuring Englund for "Reverse Skydiving" were released as the single also reached number 56 on the official UK singles chart. Englund has performed with Hot Natured at major music festivals around the world including Glastonbury, Sonar, Eastern Electrics, T in the Park, Bestival, Park Life and Stereosonic, among others. Englund also started working with Kinchen and Foss in another electro-house group dubbed Pleasure State, "a dark, sensual combination of pulsing beats, passionate vocals, and uncensored subject matter."
In June 2014, Englund revealed she had signed a solo record deal with Three Six Zero, the company behind such artists as Calvin Harris, Deadmau5 and Nero. She is currently working on her solo debut album. "That [guitar/piano] music is what I did at the beginning, but it is much more fun to perform dance music," she says, "Maybe I can do a little bit of both. It doesn’t have to be one or the other." She also signed a modeling contract with Britain’s leading agency Models 1.
After signing her solo record deal with Three Six Zero just this week, About Time finds out that there is a lot more to Anabel Englund than meets the eye.
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Having recently put pen to paper on her own recording contract, with Three Six Zero – the company behind such artists as Deadmau5, Nero and Calvin Harris – Englund’s immediate focus now lies with developing her catalogue and releasing a solo album. Asked about these plans in the interview, Englund’s eyes light up. It becomes glaringly clear that this is where the real passion lies – for now, at least. ‘Yes, it is something I am working on now,’ she says, ‘I have like 20 songs, all piano, ukelele, guitar that I have written myself. I just need to find the right approach so that the music is just right,’ she adds.
Signing a record deal is a big step in any young artist’s career, but for Englund it particularly important. It is a path out of the electronic music scene, a exit from a genre where her undeniable artistsic talents are easily overlooked in favour of those more aesthetically pleasing ones, and a key stepping stone to a future as a solo artist where she can begin to express herself naturally as the wonderfully talented singer/song writer that she is.
Exciting times lay ahead for Englund and her team. Make no mistake – her music career to date has been an invaluable platform in the launch of her solo career, but Englund has worked hard to earn her musical independence. It must not be forgotten that she has also recently started working with Marc Kinchen (MK) and Lee Foss in another electro-house group ‘Pleasure State,’ something which she is keen to pursue further as a side-project to her solo work. ‘That [guitar/piano] music is what I did at the beginning, but it is much more fun to perform dance music,’ she says. ‘Maybe I can do a little bit of both. It doesn’t have to be one or the other.’
But the real work starts now – or next week, when Englund returns to Los Angeles. The door is finally open for this wonderful 21 year old to return to her roots and show the world what she can really do. It will, no doubt, take some time for both Englund herself and her fans to adjust to the stripped back, raw acoustic sound so present in her solo work, but having had the opportunity to listen to the progress so far, it will be the most pleasant of surprises.