Photo by Adam Kennedy
Newton Aycliffe singer-songwriter Annis Rallis draws on her British-Greek heritage for her debut EP Eyes Wide Open, which blends cinematic pop, rich storytelling and Mediterranean influences, resulting in a collection of songs that feels both personal and ambitious.
Opening track Stay shimmers with Mediterranean warmth, its playful rhythms and intertwining harmonies carried by Annis’ commanding vocal. Rise shifts the mood, trading sun-drenched grooves for sharper beats and intricate guitar flourishes, steadily gathering momentum towards an exhilarating crescendo. Meanwhile, Over and Over begins in reflective fashion with glistening guitar lines and wistful keys before unfurling into a sweeping, string-laden country-pop rush, its soaring vocal performance growing ever more impassioned. Rich in atmosphere and elevated by crisp production, the EP showcases Annis’ flair for melody, texture and emotional resonance.
To launch the EP, Annis will be holding a special full-band launch night at The Forum, Darlington on Wednesday 21st October.
Here, Annis tells us about some of the inspirations on Eyes Wide Open…
Eyes Wide Open is my debut EP, set for release on 16th October, my 30th birthday.
The biggest inspiration behind Eyes Wide Open is honesty. Honest experiences, honest emotions and, ultimately, learning to be honest with myself.
I’ve spent most of my adult life working professionally in musical theatre, an industry filled with incredible highs but also a lot of rejection. At the same time, I went through periods of heartbreak and found myself questioning what I actually wanted from my life.
A huge turning point came when I went to Bali to train as a yoga teacher. It had been years since I’d properly picked up my guitar, but in Bali something changed. Suddenly I never wanted to put my guitar or ukulele down. I was constantly playing, writing and feeling drawn back towards music.
From there, songwriting started following me everywhere. Auditions, flights, trains, buses — honestly, some of the best writing spots in my opinion!
While touring in Germany I started performing at my first open mics in Berlin, then London, and eventually when I returned home to the North East I decided to take my music more seriously. The open mic and cover gig scene here has given me the opportunity to develop my craft as a musician as well as a performer.
And somewhere throughout all of that, Eyes Wide Open started to take shape.
EYES WIDE OPEN
2026 is the year I turn 30, and I made a promise to myself that I wanted to enter this next chapter with my eyes wide open.
For me, that means filtering out bad energy — friendships, relationships and anything that doesn’t feel right anymore. It means recognising what feeds my doubts or dims my light and having the confidence to let it go.
This EP has become a journey through self-love, with each song representing a different part of that journey.
STAY (MEÍNE EDÓ)
Stay represents romanticism, playfulness and that carefree beginning of something. I’m a romantic person, and when I look back at my relationships, I think that’s often how things started for me — light-hearted, exciting and fun. But I can also see now how often I wanted the wrong people to stay.
There’s something quite beautiful about being able to look back at that version of yourself without regretting it. She loved, she experienced things and she learnt from them.
Musically, Stay introduced the Mediterranean world of the EP: bossa nova and Latin influences mixed with Greek bouzouki and the Greek phrase “Meíne Edó” — “stay here”.
RISE
Then comes Rise. Rise is where the energy changes. It’s about no longer accepting disrespect or allowing somebody else to dim your light or feed your doubts. There will always be knockbacks, but I don’t want them to make me smaller. I want to learn from difficult experiences, grow through them and come out the other side stronger, more independent and more sure of who I am.
The “Let Them” idea became a big inspiration: let people make their choices rather than exhausting yourself trying to control or change them. Let them misunderstand you. Let them leave. Let them show you who they are. What matters is what you choose to do next.
This also comes from Greek philosophy, particularly Stoicism, the idea that while we can’t always control what happens to us, we can control how we respond.
That philosophy found its way into the music too. There’s a whole section inspired by Zorba the Greek. I love what Zorba represents to me — when life knocks you down, you get back up, you dance and you keep living. The track then builds into a huge cinematic pop-rock finale, so the music almost physically follows the message of the song: rise.
Visually, the styling for Rise and the character I play in the music video were heavily inspired by Audrey Hepburn, but with a modern twist. I’ve always been inspired by strong, successful women — seeing women confident in who they are and what they’ve achieved genuinely fuels me. Audrey represents so many qualities I admire: elegance, confidence, femininity and strength.
I wanted to reinterpret that timeless elegance in a way that feels current, playful and true to me, while portraying a woman who knows her worth. I hope that one day I can inspire younger women in the same way — to believe in themselves, be ambitious, stay true to who they are and never make themselves smaller for anybody else.
OVER & OVER
The final chapter, Over & Over, will be released on 16th October — my 30th birthday.
The song looks at the pressure we put on ourselves as we get older, particularly this idea that by 30 we should somehow have everything figured out. Career, relationships, home, family, success. There’s this invisible checklist that can really affect your mental health and leave you trapped in the same thoughts over and over.
But every day is also a new beginning. Every day we have a choice: do we look towards the light, or allow the darkness to consume us?
That’s why Over & Over has this mixture of melancholy and joy. There’s sadness underneath it, but ultimately it’s a song of hope. I can’t wait for people to hear it because I think so many of us experience that same pressure without necessarily talking about it.
Musically, it starts to reveal more of my country influences while still holding onto the Mediterranean warmth running through the project. I love blending genres rather than feeling like I have to fit neatly into one box, and as the EP unfolds, you begin to hear more of the different sides of me as an artist.
I’m planning a big launch celebration around its release and my 30th birthday, which feels like the perfect way to complete this chapter.
FINDING MY GREEK SOUND
My Greek heritage has always been part of who I am, but this project encouraged me to explore how it could become part of my musical identity too.
I remember one of the moments that sparked it really clearly. I was in London, just before an audition for Hamilton, when I heard Endless by Mark Eliyahu. I was completely drawn to the instrumentation. It isn’t Greek music, but there were sounds and influences that reminded me of music I’d grown up around and made me want to explore my own heritage within my songwriting.
It planted this little seed in my head: what would my heritage sound like in my own music?
That curiosity eventually led me towards bringing bouzouki into my songs, exploring Mediterranean influences and incorporating words from the Greek language. It became less about deliberately trying to make “Greek music” and more about allowing that part of my identity to naturally find its way into my sound.
I think that’s one of the most interesting things about inspiration, we collect sounds, places, people and experiences without necessarily realising how they’re influencing us, and sometimes they resurface years later in something we create.
Looking back, hearing that song on the way to a musical theatre audition feels strangely full circle. At the time I had no idea it would eventually inspire me to explore another part of myself as an artist.
THE ARTWORK
The artwork represents that too.
My grandma painted the original artwork for the project, inspired by the Greek evil eye, something I’ve always loved to keep with me and which has inspired me in so many ways.
The painting is filled with small acts of kindness, love and human connection. With every release, another section is revealed, but you won’t see how all of those individual moments connect until the complete Eyes Wide Open artwork is unveiled alongside the full EP.
The artwork for Stay (Meíne Edó) and Rise each reveals another part of my grandma’s original painting, with more still to be revealed. I love that as you hear more of the story, you also physically see more of the picture, your eyes are quite literally being opened to it.
I genuinely think it’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen, and I can’t wait for everybody else to finally see it.
There’s an element of the law of attraction within all of this too. What are we choosing to give our attention to? What energy are we putting into the world? What are we allowing into our lives?
In a world where we can be so many things, we can choose to be kind. We can give love. We can share our gifts and our art.
So, here’s to 2026. Here’s to the year I turn 30 with my Eyes Wide Open.
No regrets — only learning, growing, living and sharing my music.
