Anika

Anika was who Slowdance opened for. Anika would DJ later on somewhere else that Monday 10 October. I stayed to see how it would hit me. Ms Anika has this weird voice, real deep and kind of...well, off. There is no reason to like this girl's voice, and yet I left Empty Bottle a fan of Anika. She sounds like she's moaning. It's gonna sound like I'm taking the piss but I'm not. It's just that I see these critiques coming, or at least I think I do and I react from there. The very reasons others dislike her music are the very things I find endearing. Anika is from England and is half German. I'm not offering that as the reason why she's so damn stiff on stage, and her voice so deep and moany. Like a female Ian Curtis with a cold. Once I like a performer, I do so for every quirk they got. And for Anika, besides her voice, it was this sort of anti-stage presence, like she got on stage to ask who lost these keys. Near stoic and oblivious to the movement inducing bass guitar as if sinking into herself, not even breaking a sweat, or a smile. It was at least easier to take pictures like that. So Anika's voice does not take right away. Wait a little. These quirks take time. Look into her background. A more interesting image develops that you almost dismissed. Ms Anika was a UK Political Journalist, Science and Education Correspondent. This has the coolness of a local NPR reporter, let's say from Market Place fronting an awesome band. It gets better. In Cardiff, Wales while studying at university, she worked behind the scenes in the music industry as promoter, DJ, something Anika continues to do. Being a journalist means to me that you have this compulsion to document what you see, to provide this narrative for the world to follow. It means that you are a writer. On top of that she is a journalist for which there is no such shelter as escapism not even in her music. Now Anika worked as Political Journalist. That invites a special read into her lyrics. For this live show I remember the bass player. The guy had to sit down he was so good. I like it when they have the bass be in the front. The first language Anika actually learned was German before English. I can understand that. Spanish was my first language. It was the language of home and family. Your first language will affect how you learn and speak every other one you learn after that. Anyway, I sat on this post long enough.

Zig