SFist Interviews: Annie
by Moses Namkung
Five long years after she burst onto the indie music scene with Anniemal, a debut universally embraced by indie music critics, Annie is finally releasing her much-delayed sophomore effort, Don't Stop. A lot has changed in the industry and in Annie's music-making process since Pitchfork named "Heartbeat" the best song of 2004, so we sat down with Annie in the lobby of her hotel and chatted about those changes, the process of creating Don't Stop, where her music fits into the spectrum of pop and her substantial magnet collection.
SFist: How do you feel about Don't Stop versus when Anniemal came out? Do you feel as good or do you feel more excited for this? It's been a long time coming.
Annie: Well, I definitely feel much more secure. When I did the first one, I was just sort of making an album, but I didn't really know how to make an album, I was just making a lot of songs. And also for this album, I made so much more music, I wrote probably like 300 to 400 songs and had to pick out the ones that I thought were the best but it was really difficult so I spent probably two months just finding the ones that I thought would fit together and sort of represent where I am now.
SF: Did you do something similar for Anniemal?
Annie: No, there I made like 13 songs and that was it. I remember that some people were saying maybe you should do much more and that would make it easier, but I was just like, these are the songs; this time I wanted to have a lot of stuff to pick out so I could sort of feel like, this is the album. And it was nice, it was different. Also, you learn a lot of stuff. I was touring a lot when the first album came out and also I got to know the business much better.
SF: What are your hopes for the album?
Annie: It's so difficult. When I did the first album... in that way I feel I'm a bit insane because I didn't know what to expect. When Anniemal came out the music business was starting to slowly change. Well, now it's completely changed. I talked about it with this producer a couple weeks ago and he was saying the best selling female artist in England was selling 150,000 copies [in a week] but last year the best selling female artist would sell like 350,000 copies so it's like 50% less. So when it comes to sales, I have no idea, it might sell nothing or it might sell good but the interest seems to be there and I'm really happy about that. I just want to go out and do lots of gigs and travel around. I feel more like I'm living in the moment and just seeing how it goes.
SF: Is there anything in particular you people to get out of your music? Do you want the music to make them happy? Do you want it to make them want to dance? Or do you just want them to listen to it and enjoy it for whatever it is?
Annie: I definitely want people to sort of... I don't know, I guess it's a little bit like when I listen to music myself, I like to listen to stuff that makes me happy but also maybe makes me feel like it means something, even if it doesn't necessarily have to be the lyrics, it could just be the feeling. [It] can be nice as well, that you feel the melody can tell you something, that it doesn't have to be the words. I think the perfect song will sort of be where the melody itself can be without words, that it is so good that it tells the story.
SF: Do you like the label "the Kylie it's cool to like" and do you like being called an indie pop princess?
Annie: I try not to think about it that much... I always liked Kylie, I think she's great, I think she's done a lot of brilliant stuff but I feel very different from her. For me, it's very important, the process of making the record is definitely extremely important. And I'm not saying it's not important for her but we have slightly different backgrounds. I started releasing only vinyl and I was really into more underground music, so I think there will always be a big difference there. At the same time, of course, I take it as a compliment. I think Can't Get You Out of My Mind and Slow and stuff like that are amazing and I play a lot of that myself.
SF: When does the inspiration strike for you to write music?
Annie: It always starts with the melody. I think about melodies basically all the time. That's always been the most important for me. So in that sense it was really great to do this album because I got to work with Xenomania which is more like a songwriting team and they really focus on songwriting... when I did Anniemal I worked with amazing producers but they were always sort of like, you take care of melodies and they didn't really think that much about it so it was all up to myself.
SF: Do you prefer that?
Annie: I don't know if I prefer it but it was very different, it was more challenging. Of course I've been challenging myself but I had somebody sitting there saying, do you really want to say this, do you really want to have this melody there, it can be better, and I really liked that, to have somebody who could point out that you should look at this or change this.
SF: How do you feel that your music fits into the greater scheme of pop? Where do you think your stuff fits in?
Annie: It's been hard to categorize myself. A lot of people have this "I'm goth, I'm rock, I'm this or I'm that." I've always found it really hard to categorize myself as a person but also, that's hard for me as an artist because melody-wise, I always think about pop because I love melodies that are quite melodic, but when it comes to the production, I always like to give it a little twist and make it a bit more interesting than listening to the latest Hillary Duff record that is quite mainstream when you know exactly what's going to come. I find that really boring so I try to do something a little bit different.
SF: I have one more question. Tell me about your magnet collection.
Annie: Oh yeah! [Laughs]
It was quite big, I had loads of magnets. As a child, I was just really fascinated by, what do you call, tape recorders? And I was always taking out... there was always a big magnet...
SF: How many tape recorders did you go through?
Annie: Quite a lot. I remember my mother had one that was really good and I destroyed the whole thing just to get the magnet. I think as a child I was really fascinated by magnets, that they could actually connect things. So I had a big selection of them. I'm not sure where they are now, I think maybe my mother's been hiding it. If you go to the sand and you take the magnets, they pick out certain, I don't know what you call it in English, certain black things in the sand so I was collecting these bits. [Laughs] A bit nerdy.
Don't Stop will be released in the United States on November 17th.