Evanston-based musician and former creative director at the Kellogg School of Management Lindsay Anderson is releasing her newest album, “Forgiving,” on Nov. 7, celebrating the release with a performance at the Epiphany Center for the Arts in Chicago.

Formerly of Chicago indie rock band L’Altra, Anderson released her first solo record, “If,” in 2007. Since then, she has created two group albums, making “Forgiving” her first independent endeavor in almost 20 years.

The Daily spoke to Anderson about her journey as a singer-songwriter and the process of creating her new album.

This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

The Daily: How did you become involved with L’Altra?

Lindsay Anderson: I met Joe, who’s the other half of L’Altra, the first week of college, and we became romantic partners. He had the dream to be a rock star, and he was a self-taught guitar player. 

I was a classically-trained pianist. My mom’s a singer, my dad’s a drummer, so I had always been around music my whole life, but I had never really considered doing it in a contemporary rock ‘n’ roll way until I met Joe. 

Once we graduated from college, we moved to Chicago, when the indie rock scene was starting to get really hot, we formed a band, and that became L’Altra.

The Daily: What made you decide to step out on your own as a solo artist?

Anderson: Joe and I broke up on the first record. We had been touring a lot in Europe, and our second album was getting a lot of attention. But it was really difficult emotionally and personally for us.

I wanted to not give up this thing that I loved so much, but it was intertwined with a relationship that was very painful. I didn’t know how to handle it, and I had this feeling that I needed to go off and do my own thing.

I had started playing with some other musicians — I toured with Will Oldham for a bit that summer. I was trying to find my own voice and connect with other musicians that were doing different types of music. I felt like I had a little more in me that I wanted to explore. So I went off and did my first solo record in 2007.

The Daily: Tell me how you got from that first solo record to your upcoming album, “Forgiving.”

Anderson: I went back to L’Altra after my first album and did another record with Joe. That came out in 2012, but I was a new mom, and I had a full-time job at Northwestern. As the sole provider for my son, I had to focus on creating security for my family. But the whole time, music was my true calling. I don’t have a choice not to do it because when I don’t, I’m not in alignment with myself. 

I sat every night when my son went to bed and I wrote songs. In 2015, I decided to go back into the studio. I started working with an engineer in Chicago, and we formed a group called Same Waves. I released a record in 2018 with him as Same Waves. It started off as a solo record, but it turned into a partnership.

But I still wanted to use my voice and do my own thing, and that was always eating at me. My life got tumultuous — it fell apart again — and I had to really refocus. That’s what this new album is about. It is about returning back to myself again, finding that voice that has always been within me and forgiving harms done to partners.

The Daily: What inspired the album’s title?

Anderson: My life has been a pursuit of trying to understand relationships. It hasn’t been very easy for me. These relationships, they’re creative, they’re intense, but they always fall apart. There’s been harm done, too. I haven’t done a very good job, but I’ve certainly tried. I have learned over the last few years of doing deep, personal work that forgiving is a process. 

This is a deeply psychological album, and it’s reflecting that inner work. This album is that process of taking stock of the past for me. It’s trying to understand what my role has been as an artist and in relationships with partners, as a creative collaborator and as a woman being objectified as a muse. 

It’s also inspired by a tumultuous love affair between two surrealist painters. Leonora Carrington was 19 when she met Max Ernst, who was 47, and they fell in love, so there was a huge power dynamic. This album has much to do with the way that women show up in the artistic world of men.

The Daily: How would you describe the sound or mood of “Forgiving”?

Anderson: It’s a surrealist landscape. It’s a fairy tale. There’s a fantasy portion of it — I imagine this is an entire theatrical dance production. I don’t see this just as an album, and, in fact, I’m working now to produce this on a larger stage. I want to create this whole world that Leonora Carrington has created through her painting. 

It’s a very visual record. We use sparse piano and voice a lot of times. There is soundscapes and sound design, electronic synth work, and then just rhythm, something a little more straightforward rock ‘n’ roll, so it has a taste of a lot of different things.

Email: [email protected] 

Related Stories:

— Student band Moon Age wants to keep playing even when the sun comes up

— Nico Segal & The Social Experiment unite Chicago’s rap scene for 10-year anniversary of ‘Surf’

— Q&A: Guitarist Tommy Emmanuel breaks down upcoming album ‘Living in the Light’