The latest album from British-born, Berlin-based musician Annika Henderson, who records as Anika, is a treatise on how we let the world invade our private lives, how we invite the corruption of corporate malfeasance to spend hours with us through various devices and programs. Abyss is a statement of rage, of bitter realizations. Nerves are exposed, and muscles and sinew are peeled back to reveal the warped skeletal structure underneath. Abyss is rebellion.
Recorded over a few days at Hansa Studios in Berlin, the album also functions as a place where people can gather in safety, away from prying ears and eyes. Our strength is in our diversity, and Abyss highlights the solidarity that is derived when likeminded individuals are allowed to share their thoughts and work out solutions without the weight of social conventions pressing down on them. The album is more dense and possesses a greater emphasis on heavy guitar work, splitting the difference between her lyrical devastation and the scorched earth movements of the music. We reach for catharsis, for a loosening of the pressures that bear down on us everyday, and Anika is there to help us find that sought-after release, to lift us up when the world tries to push us down.
“I feel like everyone’s holding their breath about these things that are going on in the world, and a lot of the frustration comes from your brain being overly engaged and your body being unable to release it,” Anika says. “That’s what live shows and music are for. I wanted to make an album that would be fun to play live, to bring people back into reality. Hopefully this album and the live show can give people a release – to be able to let go.”
This newfound sonic adventurism lays a solid foundation for her observations on social inequities and the lack of personal agency. And for a better understanding of how these songs underscore her own personal beliefs and a glimpse at the fury that is building in her heart, Anika has seen fit to provide us with a guide to Abyss, a track by track explanation of the experiences and thoughts that sit at the center of its creation.
- “Hearsay”
This song is about media moguls – about the power of the media, whether social, tv or beyond – we are as much under its spell as we ever were and some nasties are exploiting it for their own gains. Parasites feeding off the blood of the public.
PJ Harvey inspired for sure. The schizophrenic vox treated using Hansa’s Space Echo.
It was important to only use guitars for this album – I didn’t want any synths, so there is normally an acoustic layered under an e guitar. This was done for even more raw energy, a sense of immediacy, confrontation, physicality and also with the live show in mind – so it would be extra loud, in your face. Guitars have a certain way to be totally unleashed, let out the cage to roam where they please. This is also why I asked Tomas and Loz to play live on the album, because both have a total wild and free spirit, and could interpret this perfectly.
- “Abyss”
We let politicians, technology, phones, into our house, we grant them power, we become addicted, dependent, but why? If we were shown this situation 50 years ago, we’d think it was a sci-fi apocalyptic movie. On this level, I invite the listener in to revel in this apocalyptic abyss and make it their home, their comfort, I lead you in, as the salesman does, til he has you on his hook and it’s too late. Drenched in religious iconography – influenced by the fact that I went to a convent school as a kid. The sense of story-telling, of narratives, of imagery, of the elements, morals, of sin, all of it churned together. We find ourselves in increasingly religious times where violence is justified on the grounds of religion – not a new phenomenon. Ironic because most religions call for peace, so power wielders exploit the loopholes in the teachings, to increase their own power, their riches, their lands. Abuse of power is the common denominator, not the ideology itself. This one is slightly Shocking Blue and Jefferson Airplane inspired – the little guitar riff before the chorus.
- “Honey”
This song is about an ex-lover who I felt caught me in their web. I was brain-washed for a time, unable to see. This one is also full on rock – I guess because of the frustration that comes with this narrative – also full of religious iconography – I want a secularism – I want to be freed from this cult – from this co-dependency. Drunk from your persuasion – you intoxicate me – your scent, your mind games – you are pretending to be someone you are not. I see you. This one is also influenced by that period of late 60s psych rock, as well as 90s grunge – the dirty guitars, distorted, the shaker piercing through it all.
- “Walk Away”
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 truth. 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. The song is inspired by 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 find ourselves in a time where the right can do whatever they want and revel in it, whereas the left get scrutinised so hard and expected to live up to impossible standards, getting cancelled after the hint of even the slightest misstep– we have become obsessed with judging and in doing so, it can be abused as a distraction tool of the right, a way to destroy and smear the reputations of their competition. 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. This album tries to reopen that space and also remind of the importance of live indie shows as a safe space for physical and emotional venting, for coming together, for community, for exchange, for difference.
The video plays with the socially constructed ideas of femineity, of sexuality, of sexual restriction and confronts them. 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. Filmed in an ex-brothel in Berlin, the paintings were actually found in the basement of the property after sale – depicting naked women, in an empowering way – they are not lying there to be consumed, but lying there in all their strength and glory, as a beauty of nature, in their true form, exposed for all to admire. I don’t need to marry a rich man, I am the rich man (h/t Cher).
- “Into the Fire”
This song is a sweet lullaby about the journey and cycle of life. It is inspired by many books, by the English and Welsh sea, crashing, lapping, the white noise soothing, by safe spaces, by imaginary places, by real beauty. It is a play on words in every way. A journey into the depths of the rabbit’s lair. I wrote it on acoustic guitar, playing the same finger picking loop, as a way to lull myself into a state of calm, unpicking the deepest subconscious.
- “Oxygen”
This song is about feeling trapped in your own body, in your own narrative, in your own society, within the norms and expected behaviours of this claustrophobic socially constructed world. It wants to break out of this cage, it wants to breathe, it wants to be in tune with its true self, its true feelings, sensations and desires – without restriction: is it really that extreme to live outside of these claustrophobic norms? Why does society forbid it, outlaw, punish it? Why is it even any of society’s business? My body my choice – In solidarity with the trans, FLINTA and queer communities who are increasingly restricted worldwide, hidden from view, attacked, murdered by a suffocating and paranoid society that does not allow for difference, instead it restricts or in extreme cases destroys it. In solidarity for Abortion Rights and the woman’s right to choose. The song was inspired by Breeders and Pixies, the way it creeps in slowly and then crashes with this weird chorus/cpart that only comes in once. I didn’t want to write things too rigidly, or by the book, more let them flow as they wished.
- “Out of the Shadows”
It’s a lot about saying no – breaking out of these conforming boxes that we find ourself in. The song is massively inspired by X Ray Spex. I definitely had someone in mind when singing it, which i can’t admit but perhaps they know. It’s definitely a song against the patriarchy, as a woman in this world, in this music industry, where men, often less qualified than you, give you their advice or tell you what’s wrong with something. This pisses me off. This song is about that. It was so much fun writing this one in Mexico with Martin, we really had a lot of fun writing this record – that was very important. I overdubbed the vocals singing them in my thin-walled flat in Berlin – luckily no one called the cops after 4 takes. I want my own Room is definitely a nod at Virginia Wolf, ‘A Room of One’s Own’ – also the teenage desire to have your own room when you have to share with siblings – that desire to carve out your own space in this world never ceases, to have your voice heard, especially as a woman in the music industry and world.
My inspirations are as ever, Patti Smith, Björk, Toni Morrison, Simone de Beauvoir, Peaches, Maya Angelou, Nina Simone, Cookie Mueller, Genesis P-Orridge, Ulrike Ottinger, Silvia Federici, Virginia Wolf and so many more.
- “One Way Ticket”
This song is about Berlin – I live between 3 railway bridges – right by where the checkpoint used to be between East and West Berlin – it used to be a danger point where you’d get shot for crossing. Now those walls are gone but others exist and new powers are swallowing the city, new deals are being made, there seems to be little care for protecting the people of Berlin, easily led, easily sold. And me, I’ve been here 15 years now, always thinking I’ll be leaving soon but I’m still here. It’s a one-way ticket and I’m still on it. The drum beat mimics a train, chugging along. The e guitar line on top I originally overdubbed on the demo – it’s a wild loose train careering all over the place. Loz did a great job interpreting this on the live recording.
- “Last Song”
This song I wrote with Martin from scratch in Mexico City – we were recording in his cute flat in Mexico, which feels more like a botanical garden, because it’s filled with plants and we were both sat there in our vests and shorts giggling. He’s like my brother from another mother. The lyrics I wrote later in Berlin – I guess that’s where the darkness comes in. It exposes the complexity of humans; we have so many sides, so many emotions, the external need to be consistent and binary is contradictory to our very nature. The lyrics of this song show all our sides, the grey zones. More brings us together than divides us.
- “Buttercups”
It’s a song about craving for the naivety of youth, when things were simple and you could lie in the green grassy fields (of England where I grew up) and pull your fingers through the yellow, soft-bellied buttercups, without worrying about the harsh reality of life. The only thing is, youth wasn’t always so idyllic or trouble free – it’s all relative anyway – perhaps it’s all a construct. Regardless of whether you’re an adult or a child, it’s important to rest the nerves sometimes, to lie in a field and give yourself a break or else you break. That’s why this one comes after the end – to offer hope to the new beginnings that come out of the ashes, even when it seems all has gone to shit, like the phoenix rising. The production was a special choice, to make it sound like a tune played in the distance yet nearby, like lying on a boat in Xochimilco, staring at the sky, the clouds, searching for shapes and meaning, when on the neighbouring boat, there is a band playing.
This song also has a whole other meaning. Come buy merch from me at a live show and maybe I’ll tell you.
Abyss is out today on Sacred Bones Records. You can order the album here. Follow Anika on Facebook, X, and Instagram.
