Anna Schulze - Break Your Heart, Keep It Open (2021)

Minnesota-bred singer-songwriter and producer Anna Schulze made a strong statement this spring when she released “La La La,” a riffy single that was a departure from her 2016 album “Pickford Market” and her work with Maia Sharp in the folk duo Roscoe & Etta.

Since then, there have been a couple you-ain’t-seen-nothin’-yet moments: the release of the sleek pop romp “A New Way” and then, earlier this month, “Let This Be OK,” a road trip-worthy rocker with shimmering modern production that feels like a quarantine-breaker all by itself. Schulze’s video for the song, premiering here, flashes from outside-world to inside-world moments as she sings her hopes that the chains of isolation be broken.

The past two singles will appear on Schulze’s next album, “Break Your Heart, Keep It Open,” which she plans to release in 2021. Notably, the album is a totally DIY affair, as Schulze wrote, played, produced and mixed everything.

“This was the first song I wrote shortly after we all went into quarantine,” she says of “Let This Be OK,” part of which appeared in the trailer for the HBO series “Veneno.” “I shut myself in my studio, opened up a session and let my instincts lead — my goal was to break any rules I’d been trained to follow and work almost linearly, seeing how the song would unfold. I think my day-of bounce was pretty close to the final, just unmixed. I wanted to embrace the challenge of being the only one in the room and see the whole process through, start to finish. … This mentality and song became the impetus for my upcoming album ‘Break Your Heart, Keep It Open’ set to release early next year.”