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‘ When I was sixteen, I left my home and my family in Zagreb, Croatia, almost by accident – I had an opportunity to study in Italy and since then I've been on the move, so sadly I never went back to live at home again.’

Andreja was born in Zagreb but has since lived in Italy, the UK, the US and Ireland. In her youth, she played in a mandolin band. Later, she performed with a choir in Italy, Vienna and Budapest. In Chicago, she played guitar in a Bulgarian ensemble. It was also in Chicago, where she was doing research to understand how antidepressants work (‘depressingly, I failed’, says Andreja), that she began to develop ideas for her first songs. She started writing in earnest when she returned to the UK.

Andreja has studied guitar and singing at three well-known music schools: the Old Town School in Chicago, and Vocaltech and The Guitar Institute in London.

‘ My background and experiences have been instrumental in shaping my music and lyrics: leaving home at an early age; being a foreigner away from home; being unable to share my language and cultural background with others; experiencing the tragedy and divisions of the Yugoslav war both remotely and first-hand; witnessing the dissolution of the country I grew up in, and with it a large part of my own identity. ’

Andreja’s songs draw from her own experiences and those of others ‘on the outside’, as well as from a fascination with nature’s laws and patterns. Themes have included emigration, displacement, identity and belonging, loneliness and old age, war, transience, hope and aspirations, acceptance of change, and the human struggle and search for meaning.