NANNA to Drop Debut Solo Album 'How To Start A Garden' in May

Nanna announced today the upcoming release of her debut solo album How To Start A Garden out May 5 via Republic Records.

Produced by Nanna alongside collaborators Aaron Dessner (The National, Taylor Swift) and Josh Kaufman (​Bonny Light Horseman, War on Drugs, Hiss Golden Messenger), How To Start A Garden features 11 tracks including "Crybaby," the second release from the collection, available now.

Like the album's first released track "Godzilla," "Crybaby" was written by Nanna in a small cabin outside of her hometown of Reykjavík, Iceland, a place where she found profound inspiration. The song made its journey back-and-forth across the pond as it was recorded in producer Aaron Dessner's famous New York-based Long Pond Studio before heading back to Iceland where Nanna added finishing touches.

"I wrote the song in my cabin. I had gone there to spend some time alone, and I remember lying on my floor playing the guitar and feeling sorry for myself. It felt dramatic and a bit funny, so I called the song 'Crybaby' as a way of making fun of myself," said Nanna. "This influenced a lot of the record, this thing of not taking yourself so seriously when you feel very serious."

The video accompanying the track, directed by Icelandic director Thora Hilmarsdóttir, finds Nanna dancing on her own under a static mirror ball at a sparsely attended party. While Nanna tries to connect and be noticed by the people there, she seemingly exists alone in her thoughts and actions as the world carries on around her.

After a childhood in a tiny town in rural Iceland, Nanna spent most of her twenties in recording studios and on global tours with her multi-platinum band, Of Monsters and Men, which arrived in 2011 to almost immediate ubiquity as their first album, My Head Is An Animal, topped charts worldwide.

Their live prowess landed them headlining festival spots around the world. With three impressive and globally successful albums under their belt, Nanna found herself writing an album she felt needed to be delivered in her very own way. Like most of us, the years since 2020 have necessitated changes both mundane and enormous; like few of us, Nanna, as at home on a festival stage as in a rural cabin, is fluent in polarity.

In her cabin outside of Reykjavik, in the company of her dog named Vofa - the Icelandic word for ghost - Nanna reveled in the quiet, a liminal period between lives. The result is an absolute snowstorm of an album-chilling and crystalline, almost terrifying in moments, while achingly calm in others.

"A lot of things had to end for this album to become what it is," said Nanna. A long term relationship, my prior sense of home and belonging. But it's also an ode to the joy of new beginnings: new relationships, a new home, new friendships, a new sense of self. The album takes place in this in-between state.

It captures a very specific time in my life of curiosity and reflection, when I felt very much in the middle of a surreal new reality and didn't have a clear path in my direction-like how a snowstorm is somehow chaotic but calm at the same time."

"Crybaby," alongside Nanna's debut single "Godzilla," provides fans with a first look at what's to come from the singer/songwriter/producer's debut solo album.

Pre-save the album HERE

In addition to announcing her debut album today, Nanna also announced her forthcoming Disaster Master Tour and two shows at Iceland Airwaves Festival in November. Australian singer/songwriter Indigo Sparke will be direct support on all US tour dates.

With additional dates to be added, artist pre-sale begins tomorrow, February 23, and general on-sale begins on Friday, February 24, at 10 a.m. local time. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit https://www.nannanannananna.com/.

Tour Dates

July 18 - Burlington, VT / Higher Ground

July 20 - Washington, DC / Howard Theatre

July 21 - Philadelphia, PA / Union Transfer

July 22 - Woodstock, NY / Colony

July 26 - New York, NY / Bowery Ballroom

July 31 - Ann Arbor, MI / The Ark

August 1 - Chicago, IL / Thalia Hall

August 3 - Minneapolis, MN / Fine Line

August 5 - Denver, CO / Bluebird Theater

August 8 - West Hollywood, CA / Troubadour

August 10 - Pioneertown, CA / Pappy and Harriet's

August 15 - Portland, OR / Wonder Ballroom

August 16 - Seattle, WA / Neptune Theatre

November 2-4 - Reykjavík, Iceland / Iceland Airwaves Festival

Photo credit - Angela Ricciardi