Crack

Crack is in Fat Paul’s lair. Red paint adorns the walls and it’s comfortably the coldest night of the year.

Sounding more like a scene from a Scorsese film than anything else, the venue, owned by Fat Paul who runs The Croft, is a underground gem just off King’s Square. Crack is not fraternising with gangsters this evening. Though the atmosphere in the air is tense, we here to witness the debut of Anika – Invada Records' latest protégé and front woman.

Geoff Barrow’s Invada label has become the staple leftfield music brand in Bristol and a refreshingly different direction for the Portishead man, clear of Bristol cliché and stereotype. An essential label for fans of boundary bending music with a DIY ethos, Invada’s roster might not provide you with a quick fix easy listen, but there are plenty of places you can get that. Their output is a consistently engaging and interesting listening experience.

Anika’s showcase gig tonight is sparse, off-kilter and dark. Musically not far removed from Joy Division at their most inward, she is a powerhouse of a front woman. Mid-twenties, blonde, tall and moody, Anika gives away little emotion, but what she withholds in terms of outward expression, she wraps up in a dense layer of intrigue and tension. The setting resonates with the music.

Bristol’s musical luminaries are in attendance and the room looks on as politically charged songs collide with slow lo-fi plods, thuds and hits. The Krautrock minimalism of the whole thing is unmistakable. Mood is set as Crack talks to Anika deep in the lair.



Are you feeling Christmassy?

Well they’ve had the German market up in Bristol but no one seems to ever buy anything. They are actually German people running it as well. Most of the time German markets are full of people that aren’t German. I often order in German and they don’t know what I’m on about. The ones running this martket are definitely Germans. They sound like they are from Munich.

So are you German?

My mother is German, but my accent has been re-branded in the last few years because I haven’t been living there. I learned German before I learned English. I lived in Berlin for a while.

How has Germany influenced you as a person?

Well people say there is my scary, German efficient side and my nice side. I think it comes through in me when people get on the wrong side of me. All my family are massive musicians and lots of my family are German. I’ve was always been brought up with German music. My aunty and her friends actually started this festival in Germany called Haldern Open Air and it's got bigger and bigger. They keep it to a certain amount of people, but they get big names. It’s run by shareholders and only shareholders of which there are 100 and I’m one
of them.

You went to university in Cardiff not so long ago, was that an inspirational time for you musically?

At uni I didn’t do so much music, I was more of a journalist. Before then I was more inspired by my brother who was a DJ. He taught me how to mix and I used to be fascinated by his vinyls and his white label records. Musicially I was more creative post-uni. Because I was working 18 hours a day and writing in my spare time, I played my cheap guitar as a creative outlet whenever I could.

You were working 18 hours a day? Not conducive to a comfortable lifestyle I can imagine?

I swear I didn’t sleep for two years. I’d do my shifts, get home, play guitar for a couple of hours and then go back to work again.

Were you involved with the music scene in Cardiff, as there are a number of great bands and people there?

It’s definitely got a scene there, it just took me a while to be accepted as it’s a very Welsh clique. I started booking shows for Bethan Elfyn (Radio 1’s Welsh music honcho) and eventually ended up doing some graphic design and marketing too and learning other aspects. I was booking bands across three venues. It was a great experience and gave me some real insight.

What is the story behind the development as Anika as an artist?

I went to university with a Swede who used to go out with Mig - the guy who runs the Louisiana and we used to come over every weekend and watch bands. This was when I was booking bands in Cardiff, so we’ve always helped each other out. He first taught me how to book bands when I was working at Buffalo (bar/venue in Cardiff). I was jamming with him in a studio in Cardiff with a couple of friends and they asked if I wanted to do my lyrics over the top. Mig mentioned a friend of his called Geoff was looking for a female artist and did I mind him giving Geoff my phone number. He rang me and asked if I fancied trying out some lyrics for a new musical project they had going on.

Did you not know who it was on the other end of the phone then?

Mig had mentioned he was in a band called Beak>, but I couldn’t find their MySpace, so when I met them I had no idea who Geoff was. I just thought the people I met were all really good musicians. I liked the style of music they were making and they invited me to work with them. Eventually I went home and did a bit more research and was like, "oh fuck! That’s who he is!

So was it quite a quick process to recording after that initial meeting?

I was in the middle of moving from Bristol to Cardiff, so it took a while. The initial meeting wasn’t like ‘oh let’s make a record’, it was a more a case of I’ve got all this material and we’ll see if it works. Essentially it’s just poetry.

What kind of subject matter influences your writing?

It’s not a conscious process of writing. The most I would consciously think about a topic would be if I come across a word I like. I like words and the way they sound. I like the way someone like Stephen Fry pronounces his words. I love language, which is probably why I over-pronounce words in the songs.

Has this all been a bit of a whirlwind for you?

It’s a bit of an experiment really. Personally I wanted to do something that was going to piss some people off. I wanted to do something that was going to take risks, as I don’t think people take risks in music anymore.

Surely it’s cool you find yourself here though? Your plans must have changed?

Well I was all set to go into politics when I was living in Berlin. I wanted to go and work in Brussels as a policy maker and do something I believe in, but that didn’t happen and this did. The people have helped me out along the way are great though. From Mig to Geoff, there is a really nice family here. If it doesn’t work out I’ll go back to politics.”


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Tune: Yang Yang

http://www.myspace.com/anikainvada

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