Photo by Sven Gutjahr
Just before the pandemic took hold of the world, when retreating away from society felt like a choice, Berlin-based, British singer-songwriter Anika decided she needed a break from her hectic city lifestyle. “I was touring so much in 2019,” she explains over Zoom. “I toured four times in the States and I was kind of exhausted.” Looking for a space where she could live and write a new album, Anika packed up and moved an hour outside Berlin to a small studio in the countryside. “I just moved here thinking it will be a nice contrast with touring and then lockdown happened and I was like, ‘oh man, 24/7 in the countryside is a little bit extreme’. But there is a new album, so it was it worked in its own way.”
The result of that year spent sequestered in the German countryside is the new album Change, a propulsive collective of fidgety, paranoid post punk. Hypnotic, looping electronic patches sit tightly next to warm, inviting organs and tight beats as Anika annotates the world around her in her singular British/German monotoned drawl. The texturally sparse lead single ‘Finger Pies’ creates a tense but danceable atmosphere with its dub inspired bass line and interruptions of wah guitar licks as Anika mulls over the central problems with the worst of society: “Some may say that you are interested in one thing / that’s to get your own way”.
Anika’s style has always been a daring mix of genres, from experimental electronic beats to sixties pop and folk. This pick and mix attitude is reflected in her Baker’s Dozen. Her choices take us on a journey from her early years in Woking overhearing the smooth sounds of Jazzmatazz from her sister’s workout tape, the Durutti Column record that got her though the early, difficult years when she first moved to Berlin a decade ago, or her past year spent driving around the countryside blasting Hole’s Live Through This from the stereo speakers. Every record is connected to a specific memory that opens up the world of Anika.
Anika’s new album Change is out on July 23 via Invada/Sacred Bones. To begin reading her Baker’s Dozen, click the picture of her below
