© Morrigan Rawson
After several years away from the London music scene, ĀNJÍ has risen from the ashes.
ĀNJÍ is a Chinese-Australian queer musician and artist based in London. They create ethereal, lamenting ballads and faster-paced pop. It is surreal, catchy, powerful and steeped in mythology and ancestry. ĀNJÍ started putting out music in 2021, with three singles and an EP. The most recent music video, for Wade, came out earlier this year. They played a fantastic debut show, SILK + SILT, in late November at The Glove That Fits, and have a sophomore EP on the way. ĀNJÍ’s music explores themes including the underworld, mythology, and identity. Their songs carry you along a journey, driven by ĀNJÍ’s hypnotic voice. ĀNJÍ sounds like a mix of Sylvan Esso and Lana Del Ray, but their music is distinctly unique. The single for the new EP is called First Breath. The EP, Return from the Underworld, dances with the notion of reemergence, renaissance and rebirth.
So you are based in London currently?
Yes, but I’m half-Chinese, through my mother. Mum is from Xi’an - home of the Terracotta Army. And I grew up in Perth, Australia, the most isolated major city in the world! And I also lived in Melbourne. And now I’m in London.
You’ve released one EP and several singles, and a new EP, Return From the Underworld, is in the works. Why the three-year hiatus and why the return to music?
Well I didn’t really take a hiatus, there was never a point where I stopped making music and creating, I just shifted how I wanted to express myself. Sometimes it takes time for the deeper truths to be unearthed and uncoiled. But now, it is time to reemerge. That’s what this whole new body of work is about, I’m reemerging from the mud, the soil, the deep sea.
The new music video for Wade is fantastic. Could you tell me a little about it?
I shot it in Australia, years ago. Just one of those projects that got shoved to the back of the cupboard. I had to shut that door, I think, to carry on with my new EP. Wade won’t be in the new EP, it’s just a single I wanted to put out, and thought I should do it before the new EP comes out, as it’s such a different style. Wade is a stripped-back, folk-leaning side of myself and not at all reflective of the new stuff. The song is so old as well! That’s a big reason why I wanted to put it out before the new album.
What's the new album going to be like?
All the new stuff is quite electronic-heavy, with a muffled piano. A lot of muted drums, and distorted, gritty sounds. I wanted to know, what do things sound like in the soil, or below sea level? I guess I wanted it to sound like it’s under the surface.
Boring question but do you have any key influences?
I really tried to suppress Lana [Del Ray] as a core influence, because she was such an integral piece of my music. But I think melodically it’s Lana. Then Björk, and Kate Bush [they hadn’t heard of Sylvan Esso but I assured them the comparison was a compliment].
©Ava Eliza Smith
Were you classically trained or self-taught?
A bit of both. I didn’t have any classical training. I did do loosely structured piano lessons that I couldn’t commit to - too much ADHD there, I could never sit still. I used to pretend I was practising piano when I heard my mum coming home. I have some musician friends who are so amazing because their parents forced them to as kids, I wish that was me. But there is a different sense of intimacy you can create as an adult by learning a new skill, and I’m enjoying discovering new ways to express myself. It’s different with singing, though. I don’t like when people say they ‘can’t’ sing. Everyone can sing, and everyone has a voice, it’s how we express ourselves.
You seem to have a deep interest in mythology, and the underworld, especially in the latest single and music video. Where did this come from?
I guess it’s just a feeling, it goes back to the beginning and my ‘hiatus’. What I feel about my experience in the past few years, it feels like I was in a void. In many ways, I do feel like I'm reemerging from this very subterranean space for the first time in a long time. Yeah. It started as a feeling and the idea kind of evolved. Persephone’s return. You have to experience the grit and the underworld with the spring.
©Morrigan Rawson
Do you think having ancestry from different places, and having lived in different continents helps you with your artistic inspiration? For instance, drawing on all these different mythologies?
In the past, I would draw a lot from my direct ancestral roots. At the moment I am in a space of letting all of that go, finding a more transcendent truth that’s centred in reality. I really like connecting with alternate realities, parallel to Earth. That’s when I feel the most free. When I don't need to identify with my roots, with one ancestry, one identity. But I am also very influenced by them [laughs]. And I've drawn so much from the nature and culture of Australia. And then I love the UK countryside. And obviously China. I think we take a lot from our mothers, and Chinese was my first language, so I think I perceive things through my mum’s perceptions as well. Those things are very heavily etched into how I process the world. I have been guided by Chinese mythologies and stories. But I guess being able to exist in the space of both is what I’m looking for with this new album. We are human and we have roots and we are also esoteric, ethereal beings that transcend this human form.
You mention in your Spotify bio you have heretic messages revealed to you. Can you tell me a little about what you meant by that?
I guess I perceive most things, everything really, through energy these days. So I feel like it’s more being in a space, where I'm open to the cosmic web. It feels like there is a lot more energy flowing through me than there was in the past.
Do you have a date for the new EP and any potential shows and gigs?
So the EP single out this February, with a video. I haven’t been home to Australia in a couple of years, so I'm going to spend the holidays there, then when I come back I’ll be back working on the music. As for shows, you’ll have to wait and see. The recent show was a bit of a tester, calibrating how I want to perform, and testing out the more immersive spaces.
© Ava Eliza Smith
The new single and music video for First Breath will be out sometime in the new year. ĀNJÍ plans to conquer 2025, bringing new life into the London music scene. Finally unearthed from the underworld, ĀNJÍ is ready to reemerge.
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