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How did your journey with music start? I really didn't have any idea that I could sing particularly well, when I was a bit younger I wanted to be a visual artist really more than anything and I kind of begrudgingly accepted that I was just naturally better at singing. But I think it was when I was in my first year of secondary school and there was a rock concert, and I got up to sing 'Don't Speak' by No Doubt, and everyone was clapping loads, and I got loads of great feedback, more than I ever expected, and I realised okay, I am really good at this! I also had dyslexia all the way through school so for me it was really amazing, to find something finally that I was naturally really very good at, because I had found it so hard in school. So your new album CHALK/FLINT is coming out on the 2nd of June, what can we expect? Well it's got a lot of new textures, in comparison to my other albums before, so it's got quite a lot of electronic influences in it. But the songwriting is still very much characteristically me, it's just now I have expanded my sound quite a lot and so the subject matter is a lot more political, than ever before. There's one song about abortion rights in Ireland and another song about abusive relationships, another song about gentrification and another song about political apathy so it's quite varied. The first single to be released off the album 'Flint/Shingle' is about Abortion Rights, why is this issue so important for you? I have lived in Belfast for 8 years now and when I first moved over here I was completely shocked to find out that abortion was illegal over here and I really had no idea! It's something that I have always wanted to be changed and then just over the years different new stories have come out of women having to go abroad, and paying thousands of pounds or women not being able to do that and therefore taking their own life, or having dodgy abortions. There's just been so many new stories over the last two years as well that I just think that it is such an important issue, but thankfully it is being talked about a bit more now. How did having tendinitis affect the recording of the album this time round? I have still got tendinitis unfortunately, I have better periods and worse periods, so when I was beginning this album I had only just developed it so I couldn't use a guitar, and I couldn't use a computer. So I had to start by writing the songs in my head, and then I was able to use the computer a little bit. But still not play guitar at all so then I started demoing songs up on the computer, and then there was a phase when I could play the guitar again so a couple of songs do have me playing the guitar, but then my wrists got worse again and I couldn't play guitar again so there's only two tracks that I am playing guitar on and the for the rest of them I am playing keys. However, in terms of writing I wrote everything in my head including all the drum beats, the bass lines, and the key board parts and then when I had periods where my wrists were a little bit better I would sit down in front of a computer and demo it all up. So how did you push through despite the pain? I have lived with chronic pain now for six years, so I have got chronic pain in other parts of my body, as well as my wrists and I have learnt that the only way through that is to focus on what you can do. For my PHD I wrote all of my thesis's with voice recognition software, cause I couldn't type with both my hands cause I had a shoulder injury but before that I had to start standing up when I was writing cause I had really bad pelvic nerve pain so I had become really used to just focusing on things I could this other way. So it's just focusing on what you can do and also just because the alternative is to do nothing and there's no sense in that, that's just a road to depression and feeling pretty crap. If there was a message you would like to get across in your music- what would it be? I think that it would definitely be if you have any kind of limitation in your life, especially due to some kind of debilitating chronic health condition, you have so much potential and so much to offer, and never give up on yourself. What is the first law would you change if you where prime minister? If I had the power to change the abortion rights in Northern Ireland I would change that! Like many great stories adversity only makes the end result that much better, Isobel Anderson is no exception to this rule. Ahead of her politically themed album CHALK/FLINT coming out on June the 2nd, the songstress lets us know how she overcame chronic pain & tendinitis, to create an LP that has been described as 'beautiful, shimmering and wonderful'. "SO I HAVE GOT CHRONIC PAIN IN OTHER PARTS OF MY BODY, AS WELL AS MY WRISTS AND I HAVE LEARNT THAT THE ONLY WAY THROUGH THAT IS TO FOCUS ON WHAT YOU CAN DO." Follow@isobelanderson_ 2017 / ISSUE 99 INDIE 45 Patience Takyuka | Guestlist