A.N.NDIFFERENT CEILINGS
← Back to the libraryBOOK 01 / A.N.N

SONGS. STORIES. THE SPACES BETWEEN.

A story
still unfolding.

Some stories are told in songs.
Some are in what’s left unsaid.

A guitar. The next town. Somewhere to sleep tonight.
Follow ANN’s world, one piece at a time.

Open the first chapter
A.N.N — Different Ceilings album cover
01 / BETWEEN ONE PLACE AND THE NEXT
A LIVING STORY BY WILL WEHIREAD A LITTLE. LISTEN A WHILE.
01THE FIRST CHAPTER

DEAD ENDS — ROADS & BRIDGES

What do you keep?
What do you let go?

There comes a point when the question changes. It stops being “Can I make this work?” and becomes “How much more of myself am I prepared to give it?”

ERIC · THE FOREWORD

Eric spent time with ANN, but never learned her name. His voice opens the door; the songs carry you through.

An illuminated archway above a highway at night
FROM THE WORLD OF DEAD ENDSAFTER DARK
“Stand on the edge,
feel the cold wind blow —
decide what to keep
and what to let go.”
Eric in his cap and sunglasses, drawn in pencil by ANN
Eric, sitting still for once. — ANN

THANKS FOR COMING · A TALE WITHIN THE SONG

Fell Diamond.

“Why Fell Diamond?”
“Neil was already taken.”

Four in the afternoon. A busy shopfront. ANN tunes her guitar and puts out a little bowl. Eric finds a place to sit.

WE ALREADY WON - ERIC & ANN DUET · BEFORE THE GOODBYE

The life they were going to make

“A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.”

— Yoko Ono

They were young, both musicians, both artistic. With her partner, ANN had found someone she felt was her equal. They saw themselves as a power couple. Together, they felt they could make a life from what they loved. The world was theirs to discover.

She had the blueprint. She made plans and wrote songs. There was so much they could become, and ANN was determined to make it happen.

We Already Won - Eric & ANN Duet belongs to that beginning: two people looking at a future they believed they would build together. Her first real love, and a dream big enough for both of them.

WE ALREADY WON · ERIC’S SKETCH

“Are you proposing to me?”

ANN hands Eric a crumpled sheet of lyrics. He starts reading. After a few lines, he gives her a cheeky smile.

“Well, I know I'm good lookin' and all. We just met and… are you proposing to me?”

She's rummaging through her bags, never sitting still. She cuts him short.

“I need you to earn your keep if y'all riding wit me.”

She isn't paying his way.

Eric looks at the lyrics again. He catches on: she wrote this about someone she loved. Someone she had dreams with. Big dreams.

“Who was the man?”

ANN is already walking away, looking for the next good spot to busk. She turns and catches Eric's inquisitive smile.

“Who said it was a man!”

Eric looks back at the paper, confused. It takes a moment to sink in.

“Damn… didn't see that coming.”

HOLD ON TO YOUR HEART · AFTER THE GOODBYE

What she hadn't heard

ANN kept working on the future. The plans, the songs, the next thing that needed doing. She did not realise she was drifting away from the person she meant to share it with.

Her partner called, emailed and tried to reach her, but did not feel heard. While she was building their dream, the relationship was losing the attention it needed.

“I cannot fight for your love no more. It's over.”

It came as a shock to ANN. Her first real love—the person she felt was her equal—was gone. She had been so certain of where they were going that she had not seen how far apart they had become.

Hold On to Your Heart follows that loss. She knows her partner is not coming back. Knowing does not stop her turning to tell her partner something, or reaching for the place where they used to be.

A.N.N · Songs from the unfolding book

Different Ceilings

More written lyrics

Different Ceilings · Alternate takes

Another way to hear it

BETWEEN CHAPTERS

She knows the song.
Her mind is elsewhere.

ANN is twenty-one. She busks, plays clubs and moves between towns. Sometimes a hotel. Sometimes an aunty’s place. She rarely stays long.

Her hands know what to do. Her thoughts might be on tonight, or something a lyric has brought back. She can be capable, guarded and quietly enjoying her music all at once.

FROM WILL’S NOTES ON ANN

THE VOICE AT THE EDGE OF THE STORY

Eric knew her.
Not her name.

A Black American Southerner who spent some time with ANN. His voice frames the story through what he witnessed. There are things about her that even he doesn’t know.

SONGS CARRY THE STORIES. ERIC SETS THE FRAME.

A MOMENT WITH THE GUITAR

PERFORMANCE STUDY

A moving sketch from the developing book.

THE AUTHOR

Will Wehi

I always thought I would write a book. Exactly how, I didn't know.

Writing paragraphs at a time, pages at a time, requires all my focus. I see it as labour. I rush through my handwriting at the best of times. Short notes—I barely understand my own scribble. I lose patience. My mind wanders. By the time I can actually read what's in front of me, there are three incomplete stories. I've jumped from country to country, city to city. It would challenge a jigsaw press: cut up and pieced back together.

Yet place a set of keys in front of me—whether it be strings or ivory—and I can write a song in thirty minutes. Non-stop. Focused. Thumb the nylon, then the second for reassurance, and before I know it, there's a story waiting to be told. Little effort. Cohesive. Meaningful, if only for me. I have accomplished something.

So I write my book through all media: sound, lyrics, poetry that doesn't rhyme, short stories. Moments of my life that have impacted me as a person and made me, for better or worse, the man I am.

I'm not a fan of crowds. Not a fan of the human race in particular. But I am a lover of souls who spend a slice of time understanding the gift of caring, beyond time, beyond distance. Through many mediums, I try to describe the single greatest gift we all possess: to create with love and care.

For now, I’ve put aside the pen, the brush and my guitar. Never for good. I was brought up with those tools, and I will always go back to what I know.

The keyboard is a gateway to new ways of painting my canvas: through sound, through pictures, through words. This is my story, portrayed using the digital tools we can use today.

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This is a world, more than an album.
A piece at a time.

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A.N.N / THE WRITTEN PAGES

LYRICS

A.N.N — A story still unfolding.