Annalie Prime sets her sight on love, light and legacy

Singer/songwriter Annalie Prime isn’t just singing to her audience, though she does that beautifully. She is having a conversation with them, sharing her point of view, encouraging discussions about life, love and the lessons learned.

The 26-year-old musician from Chase Village has recently emerged from what she says is a transformative period in her life, and now she’s focused on what she describes as legacy-building, love, light and an impact she intends to be everlasting.

This is evidenced by her latest single Set Your Sight, a song which evokes the immortelle tree, trunk strong and rooted, vibrant vermilion flowers impossible to ignore and branches that provide shade.

“Set your Sight is the beginning of a theme I am introducing for this year, which is feminine energy and understanding cycles, and trying to connect the human journey. It sounds like the typical love song and a nice rockers, but the chorus has a deeper meaning behind it,” Prime said in an interview.

“The immortelle tree is known in the Caribbean as the everlasting tree and so the street that I name in the chorus, Everlane Street, is a play on the meaning of the tree. So basically I am talking about young people trying to navigate love in a time where we are not able to touch or see each other or engage in ways we are familiar with."

When Prime uses the imagery of the everlasting tree in Set Your Sight, she wants her listeners to know this song is about love that lasts and embracing that type of love, during a time when everything seems a bit fragile.

“Set your Sight is kind of like a suggestion to meet each other with the intent of something that is lasting, not just, 'I need to go to a zess,' not just temporary pleasures, but asking young people to meet at this cornerstone which is immortelle tree and understand their needs and wants on a bigger scale: if it is we want to be back out in the open, what it will take or if you want something lasting from life.”

Meeting by the immortelle tree, Prime says, also has a meditative aspect, something she is familiar with because of not being able to perform in front of live audiences during the pandemic.

“It is frustrating. In the past two days I have done way more breathing exercises than I have done in my life."

While live performances are impossible because of covid19 regulations, she recently performed at soca artiste Nessa Preppy's virtual concert and has performed at True Talk No Lie and opened for Freetown Collective.

She’s also very familiar with meditation and contemplation, thanks to the two years before she started work on her new album.

“I was doing music, putting out singles, two years before, and experimenting. The early work was a true representation of the word 'experimental,' but it was necessary so the work now could be intention-driven with an overall goal of inspiration and providing perspective for the audience on navigating the human experience."

She said before navigating her own life and music in a new direction, she had a sort of "sunken-place" moment, and went into hibernation for about two years.

She is open about that "sunken place."

“It is what I speak about on Moko (a song on her debut album), and that was drinking and alcoholism and being lost in moments, instead of studying longevity and legacy.”

Prime, who studied music in secondary school and has a certificate in music production and sound recording, took a break from music after recognising she needed to change direction. During that time she sought therapy and actively educated herself on her spiritual development.

“It was initially supposed to be until I felt well enough to return to music, but it ended up being two years.

When she returned to music she released her debut album, I Think Too Much and is working on her second project.

“Around that time I was learning about affirmations and setting intentions, and because this time around I wanted my music to be reflective of what I was learning and how I was feeling when I wrote Moko, I wanted that song to be an affirmation for West Indians.

“Moko is a West African spirit hovering over the people below it and able to see evil coming from afar. This spirit would alert people that evil was coming.

"That moko crossed the Atlantic with the slaves and came to the Caribbean, and we turned it into moko jumbie, because jumbie is spirit and so I was just trying to extract that greatness and put it into an affirmation for West Indian people saying to themselves, ‘I am before slavery, I am a history that has been here for a while and still stands to this day.’”

When it comes to her values and the intentions she sets for her songs, Prime says she moves with love and light.

“I know that is a cliché thing to say at this point, but my transformation really pushed me towards that, because you know, you can never have too much love and light, because I feel whenever things are presenting itself as chaos, it is because there is an imbalance. And there are so many chaotic things happening right now I feel as though presenting love and light is essential especially to these times. Those are the two biggest energies I move with.”

She feels comfortable describing her music as "new calypso," a genre named by fellow artiste Jimmy October.

“When I was growing up listening to David Rudder and Ella Andall I didn’t think that was calypso. I thought calypso was ‘tent calypso,’ not recognising that I was very heavily influenced by calypso. I hear my music there, I hear my music in Harry Belafonte – and that is mind-blowing. So I like the concept that Jimmy is coming with, I feel like this is a new generation of calypso.”

That “new calypso” sound is part of the brand she is building.

“My main goal was to begin building this solid brand and the brand isn’t even something made up, it is just who I really am. The goal is building this version of Annalie Prime all over again.”

Part of building the brand has been launching annalieprimemusic.com and focusing on completing an album to release soon.

“At the beginning of the year I set intentions based on goals and so I decided that where I wanted to go in terms of building legacy was, I would need courage, love and discipline and wealth, 'cause yeah, I need money this year.”