Since she emerged on the post-rock scene in 2019, British singer-songwriter AA Williams has defied expectations and followed her own path. Whether that’s through performing with experimental Japanese group MONO, reworking her debut EP with a 10-piece string ensemble, or giving Radiohead’s Creep a haunting makeover. Prog catches up with her to discuss her reflective second album, As The Moon Rests, and staying sane.

Words: Dannii Leivers Images: Thomas Williams

A work in progress: AA Williams.

On March 23, 2020, AA Williams uploaded a video to her YouTube channel. Shot in moody black and white at her London home, the musician sat at her piano and performed a skeletal cover of Radiohead’s Creep, silhouetted against the pale light coming through her curtains. It was the first in a series of covers the singer-songwriter uploaded to social media in the early stages of lockdown, putting her own glacial, neoclassical spin on songs requested by her fans, including The Cure’s Lovesong, Into My Arms by Nick Cave and Deftones’ Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away). Looking back, she says the project, which eventually became 2021’s album, Songs From Isolation, gave her “something to do that wasn’t staring at the news and being upset at everything that was happening.