Singer, poet, painter, performer, New York City underground legend Annie Anxiety (aka Little Annie) has released With, an album composed of collaborations she made with iconic names over the years, including Swans, COIL, Marc Almond, Kid Congo Powers, and more. We reached out to Little Annie via mail to ask a few questions on our mind.
I just love the collection of songs on With. A lot of stories with the collaborating artists must be attached to the recordings. Can you name three songs on this collection that have the most cherished memories in your mind and elaborate on those stories?
Little Annie: Hello Deniz! Lovely to meet you. I see we’re starting with an easy question. (laughs)
With these collaborations, as well as the ones not on With with the exception of Paul Wallfisch & Baby Dee tracks which were on albums that were co-created under our names, the actual recording sessions I’ve been blessed to be invited too are a matter of getting in studio and doing it as quick as possible as the clock is ticking and studio time is a clock with no mercy, enjoyable as it is. On the tracks where I wrote lyrics, well that’s a whole other subject and process and a lone one, but the actual sessions are about focus, so the cherished part comes in the non recording times, the love I have for everyone I’ve worked with.
Making music with others is an intimate, vulnerable experience which lends itself by forming bonds. The track with Marc Almond was recorded live on the first run of shows I did with him, which is a different experience where on stage I go into -for want of a better word- a ‘trance’, a state of losing self and becoming one with the audience. Anyway, maybe the third or fourth show in, mid duet as Marc and I were trading lines on “Heir Encore”, Marc sang his line and I got so blown away and lost in that voice of his, I almost blew my lines, blown out of my trance into enchantment! I’ve got cherished memories around all I’ve worked with but no time in actual studio sessions work. There’s no time for anything but focus.
To what extent do your dreams inspire your art -whether music, painting, or poetry? Are you a person who likes to keep dream journals? And what is your last dream that you remember?
I don’t keep dream journals, though sometimes I jot stuff down on random papers with the idea of painting it and was attempting a series of dream paintings but yet to do one as vivid or interesting as a dream. That’s not to say they’re not seeping into work, dreams are so emorphic and mysterious, who knows? I’ve often been unable to determine whether or not I’ve actually been somewhere or dreamt it. For example while on tour in Canada with Baby Dee, we stopped for coffee. I recognized the landscape, building, every detail- for years I had a memory of this place I assumed was a dream. Turns out I had been there when I was 5 years old. It was nothing especially memorable. Other times I recognized places I knew for a fact had never been.
Last dream I remember? Was desperately trying to get into the Japanese baths in Bangkok with a friend from here in Miami.
Can you elaborate on how the NYC underground scene has transformed since you initially started making your art?
It’s hard for me to say as I left the country for 14 years when I was 17 and have been living in Miami for the past 11 years. Everything in the NYC changed so dramatically. As a teenager NYC had officially gone bankrupt and people were fleeing, which gave room for artists and misfits to live and create. Hyper gentrification bulldozed whole communities -it’s all about money. It’s literally unrecognizable to the city I knew.
Oftentimes, the underground scene of a city has unsung heroes that complete the puzzle, people who have inspired so many people in that whole diaspora, yet still go underappreciated on actual documentations. Who are a few unsung heroes in NYC for you, and would you like to share any of their stories?
There was an elderly woman in my neighborhood who swept the streets in my neighborhood day after day for years because she wanted to make it right. That’s pretty heroic. And of course, the great bands when I was a teenager in NYC, ie The Student Teachers, David Scharff, The Blessed. But they were sung and heroes to me. When I came back in the 90s there was the great Jackie 60 club and its crew: Hattie Hathaway, Sweetie, Cissy Fit, James F Murphy, Page, Walter Cessna… So many talents. And of course the whole La Mamma’s crew: Augusto Machado, Bill Rice, Taylor Meade, Charles Alcroft, Jim Nue, Keith McDermott… So much talent.I wouldn’t say they are unsung, but definitely heroes.
Can you name a few newer generation artists that get you excited and inspired?
Beyonce , Richard Vergez, of goodness so many!
We are going through an especially shitty time in the world where right-wing governments threaten everything and everyone beautiful. Turkey is also struggling a lot with that reality for some time now. If you wouldn’t mind, can you share a message of solidarity for freedom fighters in both Turkey and around the world?
Yes, this is happening everywhere. It would seem the devil be having a day in this mass ‘dark night of the soul’ and it’s hard to find a balance between not getting disempowered by despair -by the noise, yet keeping eyes open. It ain’t easy and the rhetoric is designed to wear us down.. But I believe in goodness. The kindness of our bruised but not broken humanity is the majority. We were made so strong and tough and loving. Separation is an illusion. We are one. One love.
My love to you Deniz. ❤️
You can check out Little Annie’s Bandcamp profile here.
