Nana Yamato releases a new single/video, “Do You Wanna,” from her debut album, Before Sunrise, out February 5th on Dull Tools. It follows lead single “If.” Each song on Before Sunrise is a secret hidden in the late-night glow of a young girl’s bedroom, created in the precious witching hours of the teenage heart, before dawn returns with the tedious demands of adulthood. The self-expression that was not nurtured in school or in her family is finally set free on opening track “Do You Wanna”: “Dreams are gone far away from reality / I climb up the hill, that tumbles to the ground, every time I try.” Dreams, and the language of living inside one’s imagination, are the prevailing theme of Before Sunrise.

From Nana Yamato:

“This is a song about self-transformation, what I felt in the process,” explains Yamato. “When I was younger I thought I was an independent person, but in fact, I was selfish and left it all to others. All the things I thought I don’t like were actually caused by myself. When I realized that, I felt like I was the only one who was left behind in the world. I was ashamed of myself. I had to change myself. It wasn’t easy for me. I’m still in the process. I wonder if this is what it means to become an adult.

This video is about the journey of the polar bear and me. The white bear in this vid is modeled after my treasured old stuffed polar bear. My grandmother gave it to me for the first Christmas (when I was 5 months old!). I’ve been with him ever since. He was the best friend I ever had. I remember the bear disappeared from time to time. I looked and looked, but could not find him anywhere. I was so desperate to find him that my father soothed me by saying, ‘The white bear has gone on a trip.’”

Nana’s debut LP, much like her previous 7” records released under the ANNA moniker. Yamato sings and plays guitar, creates beats and MIDI melodies, in addition to creating the drawings and design of the LP itself. Produced by P.E.’s Jonathan Schenke, who has worked with Parquet Courts, Liars, and Surfbort, among others, Before Sunrise marks the arrival of an artist who has found her voice. She is not just the pupil of the new arrivals bin, but of a life spent as a defiant dreamer, in the secret world that begins after childhood and before sunrise.