Anika Releases New Single/Video “Walk Away”
New Album, Abyss, Out April 4th On Sacred Bones
Photo by Anne Roig
"[‘Hearsay’ is] a rocker brimming with pent-up anxiety." - Stereogum
“Entrancing.” — The Needle Drop on “Hearsay”
"Annika Henderson’s music has always exhibited a raw edge that placed her within the upper echelons of her post-punk peers.” — Uproxx
Anika — the British-born, Berlin-based musician Annika Henderson — releases the new single/video, “Walk Away,” from her new album, Abyss, out April 4th on Sacred Bones. Following the “righteously hypnotic” (Paste) lead single, “Hearsay,” “Walk Away” is a surprisingly jolly 90s alt-rock tinged track with blatantly honest lyrics: “The truth is I don’t really like myself/ And the truth is I don’t really like anyone else… Sometimes I know, life can just suck… And the truth is, I’d rather you just go to hell… And the truth is, I’d rather the whole world did as well.”
On the track, Henderson says: “This song is saying all the things I want to say but am too scared to say or that society doesn’t accept me to say. It is dealing with mental health – the state of poor mental health in these fucked up, divided, isolated, social media, war, pest, rise of the right times. It is the deconstruction of the feminine – of topics considered to be private realm.” As inspiration, Henderson cites “the reckless nature of 90s /2000s Hole / Courtney Love records – of not giving a shit – telling it how it is, not scared to offend, not scared to be cancelled. We have also lost the space for healthy debate, for difference of opinion, shutting down those we don’t agree with, removing them from our social networks.”
The song’s accompanying video directed by Laura Martinova was shot in an ex-brothel in Berlin and “plays with the socially constructed ideas of femininity, of sexuality, of sexual restriction and confronts them,” Henderson explains. “The character is quite sufficient by herself, sexually and socially liberated – and also a bit of a mess, destroying the prim and proper idea of how a good wifey should be. She is a hedonist, she lets herself go, she shows anger, she shows being drunk, she seems to enjoy dusting the pictures of the naked ladies very much, she is independent and breaking out of all the bars imposed by the patriarchy. The guy in the video never finds her, never even gets close, doesn’t in the slightest disrupt her life, he continues to look but she seems to always be a step ahead.”
Watch the video for “Walk Away”
Anika created Abyss out of the frustration, anger, and confusion she feels from existing in our contemporary world. Notably heavier than her previous releases, the 10-track Abyss feels raw, urgent, and fueled by strong emotions. Abyss was recorded live to tape at the legendary Hansa Studios in Berlin (where the likes of Depeche Mode and David Bowie also recorded) in just a few days. Recording live and with minimal overdubs was an important decision, Anika stresses, in order to capture the raw immediacy of the album. As before, she wrote the songs herself, before fleshing them out with Martin Thulin of Exploded View, and then assembled a live band to join the pair in the studio – comprising of Andrea Belfi on drums, Tomas Nochteff on bass (Mueran Humanos) and Lawrence Goodwin (The Pleasure Majenta) on guitar, with studio engineering done by Nanni Johansson and Frida Claeson Johansson.
Anika Tour Dates:
Sun. Apr. 20 - Berlin, DE @ Volksbühne
Thu. Apr. 24 - Cologne, DE @ C/O Pop
Fri. Apr. 25 - Tourcoing, FR @ Le Grand Mix
Sun. Apr. 27 - Brussels, BE @ Ancienne Belgique
Mon. Apr. 28 - London, UK @ Omeara
Tue. Apr. 29 - Bristol, UK @ Strange Brew
Wed. Apr. 30 - Manchester, UK @ YES (Pink Room)
Thu. May 1 - Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
Fri. May 2 - Belfast, UK @ Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival
Sat. May 3 - Dublin, IE @ Whelans
Mon. May 5 - Brighton, UK @ DUST
Tue. May 6 - Paris, FR @ Gonzai Night @ Petit Bain
Wed. May 7 - Strasbourg, FR @ La Grenze
Thu. May 8 - Düdingen, CH @ Bad Bonn
Fri. May 9 - Zürich, CH @ Bogen F
Sat. May 10 - Frankfurt, DE @ Mousonturm
Anika Online:
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