Interview: Anya Turner & Robert Grusecki's New Album SECRET LOVERS Honors Trailblazers

Singer-songwriters Anya Turner and Robert Grusecki are back at it again with a new album releasing on Monday September 16, 2024. The ASCAP Foundation and Bistro Award-winning off-Broadway composer/lyricist and performer duo are releasing their tenth studio album, Secret Lovers. This group of ten new songs are inspired by their own life experience and the artistry of poet Emily Dickinson, novelist Virginia Woolf, essayist Joan Didion; Impressionist painter Mary Cassatt, New Zealand-born street artist Deborah Wood; Harlem blues singer Gladys Bentley, transgender jazz pianist Billy Tipton, and British jazz singer/pianist Liane Carroll. The pair has already composed an impressive slew of music, including last year’s Mid-Century Modern.

To get a sample of the new album, you can listen to the just-dropped music video for the title track on the album, “Secret Lovers,” inspired by impressionist painter Mary Cassatt.
 

We spoke with Turner and Grusecki about the new album and the inspiration behind it.

What are you most looking forward to about your Secret Lovers release?

We are excited to bring this new work that we wrote and recorded over the last year into the world. Thank you, Rebecca, for giving us the opportunity to share news of this project with your readers.

Where did the idea for this album come from?

We were reading about Mary Cassatt, the American Impressionist painter living in Paris, and how she struggled to have her work exhibited, in part because she wanted to paint the way she wanted to paint and not in the conventional style of the time. In the words of a 21st-century art critic, she was one of those artists "who are doing good work that the world can't see, who are the secret lovers of their time." This got us thinking about all kinds of people, trailblazers, who had such a strong passion for their art that they were willing to follow it wherever it took them, whether it was accepted or not. In this group of ten songs we drew inspiration from our own life experience and from the artistry of poet Emily Dickinson, novelist Virginia Woolf, essayist Joan Didion, New Zealand-born street artist Deborah Wood, Harlem blues singer Gladys Bentley, transgender jazz pianist Billy Tipton and British jazz singer/pianist Liane Carroll.

Who should listen to this album?

We write smart, sexy, finger-on-the-pulse songs for grownups of all ages and perform them at a decibel level that feels good. In this album we are offering a 36-minute transporting audio experience of new piano/vocal music. This album is dedicated to all the passionate artists out there who are doing good work even if the world can't see or hear it; they are the secret lovers of our time.

What music have you been listening to lately?

We listen to music constantly. The last couple of weeks we've listened to John Wallowitch, Dory Previn, Tom Waits, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Burt Bacharach, Sarah Vaughan, Sergio Mendez, Jacques Brel, Charles Aznavour, Jule Styne, Dave Brubeck, Marc Blitzstein, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt and Barbara Cook.

Aside from this album release, what projects or shows do you have coming up next?

In the coming weeks we will be releasing a series of ten music videos of the songs from Secret Lovers on our YouTube channel (YouTube.com/anyarobert). Later this fall we will be publishing a companion Secret Lovers Songbook. And to top it all off, we will be presenting a live concert of all the songs from the album at a venue TBA before the end of the year.

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Learn more about Anya and Robert on their website.

SECRET LOVERS physical CDs and digital downloads are available at AnyaRobertMusic.com and all digital music platforms.

You can also follow them on Youtube at @AnyaRobert and on Facebook @AnyaRobertMusic.

Album cover photo, pictured above, is by Peter James Zielinski, with graphic design by Frank Dain

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