I can´ t remember when exactly I got the idea for Anonymous but I think it has to be some time between the beginning and mid-2000s. It was not part of my «1001 Nights» album so I guess it was created after that. However, it was part of «The Blue Box» collection, which created and re-created both older songs and newer songs so it´s hard to say. But my feeling tells me that it is a song that came along in a little later stage. It was featured on the third disc of the original triple Dreamwork album and did also get included on the double album when it was cut down. I eventually chose to include it in the tracklist on the final configuration of the Dreamwork album.
The song has had the title «Anonymous» all the time but lyric content has changed over the years. I must admit that I have struggled to write good enough lyrics to it but when I had to get down to business and write final lyrics as it was going to be recorded I did land on something I am very happy with. The song is about feeling anonymous and not being seen and that people are just looking right through you, that you are not really there – a subject I believe is recognizable to many people.
The song was, just like all the other songs on the album, first intended to be a regular pop song. However, as the album project moved on and the style changed from pure pop to a pop/electronic direction, the direction of this song also changed completely into a melancholic electronic ballad. I needed to find some song references to give to the producer as to where I wanted the song to go and I listened to a lot of electronic music that I had not listened much to before. I discovered an album by Portishead called «Dummy» that I really liked and I chose the song «Roads» from that album as one of my reference tracks. The other songs is «Playground love» by the group Air. This resulted in that «Anonymous» got a beautiful electronic «trip-hop»-ish sound, which I think really fit the song well. As for the vocals I remember that when we were in the studio to record vocals for it the producer played the song «Hey Joe» by Charlotte Gainsbourg, a Jimi Hendrix cover, to us. She sings the song in a soothing kind of way and the producer suggested that the vocalist could sing Anonymous in a similar way. She did, and it worked perfectly.
The song was presented to the producer on 17th January 2020. First instrumental version was received 5th April and vocal recording was done in the studio on 28th August. Final version with vocal was received on 5th June 2020.