Anika (musician)

Last updated

Anika
Anika au festival I'll Be Your Mirror.jpg
Anika performing in 2011
Background information
Birth nameAnnika Henderson
Born (1987-02-06) 6 February 1987 (age 38)
Surrey, England
Genres
Occupations
  • Musician
  • songwriter
  • record producer
  • writer
  • journalist
  • poet
  • DJ
Instruments
  • Vocals
  • keys
  • e-guitar
  • acoustic guitar
  • bass
Labels

Anika (born Annika Henderson, 1987) [1] is a British and German singer-songwriter, musician, political journalist and poet.

Contents

Life and career

Anika was born in Surrey, England and grew up speaking English and German. [2] [3] Before she began her singing career, Anika worked as a music promoter in Cardiff and political journalist and UK correspondent for ESNA European Higher Education News in Berlin. [4] During this period, Anika was writing songs but found her lyrics were often drowned out by guitarists when they performed together in bands. [3]

After meeting producer Geoff Barrow, who was looking for a singer to work with his band Beak, [4] they recorded an album in 12 days with no overdubs. [5] The album was titled Anika , with Anika explaining she chose the name by taking out one letter from her real name as a way to distance herself from it personally in case people hated it. [5]

Anika was released in 2010 by Barrow's Invada imprint in Europe and by Stones Throw Records in the US, [1] and received positive reviews from contemporary critics. According to the music review aggregation of Metacritic, it garnered an average score of 65/100. [6] The album included a number of covers, such as "Yang Yang" by Yoko Ono, "Terry" by Twinkle, "End of the World" by Skeeter Davis, "Masters of War" by Bob Dylan, and "I Go to Sleep" by Ray Davies. [7]

Several of the songs on Anika found digital success on iTunes. "End of the World" peaked at number seventy-eight on the iTunes Japan Top 100 Alternative Songs, [8] while "Yang Yang" peaked at number sixty-four on the iTunes Spain Top 100 Alternative Songs. [9]

Anika later formed the band Exploded View, based in Mexico City, along with local musicians / producers, Martin Thulin, Hugo Quezada and Amon Melgarejo, [10] who released their self-titled debut album on Sacred Bones Records in 2016. [11] They later released a follow-up EP on the same label entitled "Summer Came Early," which was said to be a comment on global warming, in November 2017. [12] A second album Obey was released in 2018. [11]

She returned in 2021 with a new Anika album, Change. [2] It received positive reviews from contemporary critics; according to the music review aggregation of Metacritic, it garnered an average score of 79/100. [13] This is to be followed by an album titled Abyss in 2025. [14]

Discography

as Anika

Albums

EPs

  • Anika EP (Stones Throw / Invada April 2013) [15]

Singles

  • "Yang Yang" (Stones Throw / Invada 2010)
  • "No One's There" (Stones Throw / Invada 2011)
  • "99 Red Balloons" Invada Allstars feat. Anika* (2016) *Charity single for the Anti-trident Campaign
  • "No More Parties in the Attic" - Exploded View (Sacred Bones - 2016)
  • "Finger Pies" (Sacred Bones / Invada 2021)
  • "Change" (Sacred Bones / Invada 2021)
  • "Rights" (Sacred Bones / Invada 2021)
  • "Never Coming Back" (Sacred Bones / Invada 2021)
  • "Hearsay" (Sacred Bones 2025)
  • "Walk Away" (Sacred Bones 2025)

Album features

  • Anika & Camera - 2am (Bureau B - 2014)
  • Anika & T.Raumschmiere - Sleeping Pills and Habits (Shitkatapult - 2015)
  • Dave Clarke I’m Not Afraid (Feat Anika) (Skint Records 2017) from the Dave Clarke LP The Desecration Of Desire
  • Tricky - Lonely Dancer (Feat Anika) ([False Idols] 2020) from Tricky 2020 EP
  • I Like Trains - Eyes To The Left (Feat Anika) (Atlantic Curve 2020) from I Like Trains KOMPROMAT

with Exploded View

Albums

EPs

  • Summer Came Early EP - Exploded View (Sacred Bones 2017)

with Shackleton

Albums

  • Behind the Glass - Shackleton with Anika (Woe To The Septic Heart! July 2017)

References

  1. 1 2 "Anika · Biography · Artist ⟋ RA". Resident Advisor. Retrieved 9 March 2025.
  2. 1 2 Jensen, Ingrid (2 August 2021). "ANIKA: the Totally Wired Interview". Totally Wired Magazine. Retrieved 9 March 2025.
  3. 1 2 O’Shaughnessy, Michael P. "The Agit Reader • Feature: Anika". www.agitreader.com. Retrieved 9 March 2025.
  4. 1 2 "Interview: Anika, Working with Portishead's Geoff Barrow, Makes an Album You Don't Have to Like". CDM Create Digital Music. 4 March 2011. Retrieved 9 March 2025.
  5. 1 2 Valen, Violet (12 December 2010). "Buddy Society Blog". Archived from the original on 12 December 2010. Retrieved 9 March 2025.
  6. ↑ "Anika Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". Metacritic . Retrieved 5 March 2011.
  7. ↑ Phares, Heather (2010). "Anika – Anika". Allmusic . Rovi Corporation . Retrieved 5 March 2011.
  8. ↑ "End of the World by Anika – Song Analysis". Music-chart.info. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 5 March 2011.
  9. ↑ "Yang Yang by Anika – Song Analysis". Music-chart.info. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 5 March 2011.
  10. ↑ Troyano, Maxime (1 October 2018). "Exploded View - 'Obey'". Mowno (in French). Retrieved 9 March 2025.
  11. 1 2 "Anika returned to music by accidentally forming Exploded View". Loud And Quiet. 11 July 2016. Retrieved 9 March 2025.
  12. ↑ McBride, Cathal (14 November 2017). "Exploded View – Summer Came Early". The Thin Air. Retrieved 9 March 2025.
  13. ↑ "Critic Reviews "Change" by Anika". Metacritic. Retrieved 9 March 2025.
  14. ↑ "Anika Shares "Hearsay" From New Album: Listen". Stereogum. 4 February 2025. Retrieved 9 March 2025.
  15. ↑ "Anika | Anika EP | Stones Throw Records". Stonesthrow.com. Retrieved 13 October 2013.
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