2024 - USA
Singer-Songwriter, Soul, Slowcore, Chamber Pop
In 1981, Cherrie Moraga and Gloria E. Anzaldua edited and published a collection of essays under the name This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. This feminist anthology became one of the most influential book about intersectionality, analyzing « the complex confluence of identities – race, class, gender, and sexuality - systemic to women of color oppression and liberation ». As noted in the intoduction, this book led to a « greater solidarity with other feminists of color across the country ». This travel from intersectionality to solidarity has a name, it’s what we call the convergence of fights. That idea is about bringing together fights that apparently seem very different but are in fact very much alike. « I do think there’s a wonderful opportunity for queer-bodied, trans and gay people to become soldiers of the earth […] We’re pat of [nature’s] dream of humanity. We’re part of her expression, her vision, the fact that she relentlessly insists that we continue to emerge is a very beautiful kind of affirmation. We are part of nature. » In this interview for Dazed, Anohni expressed something that has been deeply rooted in her music, the convergence of fights between ecology and LGBTQIA+ rights. When Anohni teamed up again with her band the Johnsons for a blue-eyed soul album called My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross, with a photograph of trans Black activist Marsha P. Johnson (who gave her name to the band) on the cover, all of these ideas converge.
Working with Jimmy Hogarth (Duffy, Amy Winehouse, Tina Turner), Anohni asked herself where her voice was coming from. What was the origin of her unique falsetto, and what kind of sound would work best to shape this new album after the heavy electronic textures of her last solo album HOPELESSNESS ? She found the answer in the hands of Marvin Gaye and his classic among the classics, What’s Going On?, an album that was already focusing on ecological and racial issues back in 1971. And Anohni’s new album is an « echo from the future to that album from 50 years ago ». Keeping one question in her mind, « can we forge a space in our collective imagination to do something different ? », Anohni comes back to the world’s center stage for an album embracing the sound of her heroes. « I had fought bitterly for my belief that I should have the right to exist and express my feelings of being alive. These soul singers dignified that belief. I moved towards the voices that set me free » she told Crack Magazine. Anohni multiplies points of view. She becomes the Earth on There Wasn’t Enough, with a very vulnerable falsetto. She turns into her transphobe enemies during the heartrending Scapegoat. She let her soulful heart soar on It Must Change and Can’t. Ten songs, ten characters, ten stands. Anohni and the Johnsons rise and give birth to their most inspirational and incandescent album since her 2005 masterpiece I Am a Bird Now.
“I didn't do it, I didn't do it / But I know that I did something wrong
I didn't ask it, I didn't plan it / But I feel the ache in my heels when I walk
It's my fault, it's my fault, it's my fault / The way I broke the Earth”
On her sublime lampoons, Anohni refuses to leave her own responsbility out of the bigger picture. Just like Björk highlighted it for Interview Magazine, discussing with her longtime friend, « this binary black and white thinking isn’t possible anymore. I felt that way after #MeToo, you have to both see the point of the oppressor and the oppressed, and allow yourself to be more ambiguous. And sometimes the solution is to understand that we are all part of the same system and we all have to change. » This is exactly what Anohni is emphasizing on her album. And multiplying these perspectives enables her to visit various horizons. Back to back, she enters a distorted world on Go Ahead where she recognizes how humans are addicted to self-destruction, « Go ahead, kill your friends / You are an addict / Go ahead, hate yourself ». Then, on Silver Ice she celebrates her long friendship with Lou Reed (who already appeared on I Am a Bird Now), remembering that moment when, on his deathbed, he told her about that miraculous instant where he felt an ice cube melting on his tongue. A very simple beauty for a dying body. « I belong here, as animals might / And the taste of water on my tongue / It was cool and it was good / I never knew it before ».
My Back Was a Bridge For You to Cross sketches out a painting where multiple generations are interconnected. From Marvin Gaye to Marsha P. Johnson and Lou Reed, she understands how her work can participate to a much more inclusive worldview : « I can sing of an awareness that makes others feel less alone ». That’s why the music video for Why Am I Alive Now? was directed by Hunter Schafer, the gifted rising star playing Jules in Euphoria and LGBTQ trans activist. Schafer said how honored she felt when asked to direct the music video, because she « started listening to Anohni in highschool ». This is the bridge we are crossing. For decades now, Anohni’s music has been building a safe and splendid world for soldiers of the Earth and the LGBTQIA+ community. And here, she’s holding the torch high in the light, so everyone can claim it and pursue this fight. On the final track, You Be Free, Anohni forms a prayer for all of her sisters standing next to her to be free, just like Marsha P. Johnson set Anohni free. This might be her biggest wish, a sisterhood that doesn’t meet any border, not time, not space, not sexuality, not race. “I would like us to imagine an entirely female world... That would be my only dream. A world where all governments become female to save what remains of nature. [...] I pray that women will finally take control of their families and communities and insist on feminine values. And as a transgender woman, I feel indebted to this vision and my job is to support it. » And even if where not there yet, Anohni placed another shining stone on the structure of freedom. And this stone is filled with a vitalizing power.
Working with Jimmy Hogarth (Duffy, Amy Winehouse, Tina Turner), Anohni asked herself where her voice was coming from. What was the origin of her unique falsetto, and what kind of sound would work best to shape this new album after the heavy electronic textures of her last solo album HOPELESSNESS ? She found the answer in the hands of Marvin Gaye and his classic among the classics, What’s Going On?, an album that was already focusing on ecological and racial issues back in 1971. And Anohni’s new album is an « echo from the future to that album from 50 years ago ». Keeping one question in her mind, « can we forge a space in our collective imagination to do something different ? », Anohni comes back to the world’s center stage for an album embracing the sound of her heroes. « I had fought bitterly for my belief that I should have the right to exist and express my feelings of being alive. These soul singers dignified that belief. I moved towards the voices that set me free » she told Crack Magazine. Anohni multiplies points of view. She becomes the Earth on There Wasn’t Enough, with a very vulnerable falsetto. She turns into her transphobe enemies during the heartrending Scapegoat. She let her soulful heart soar on It Must Change and Can’t. Ten songs, ten characters, ten stands. Anohni and the Johnsons rise and give birth to their most inspirational and incandescent album since her 2005 masterpiece I Am a Bird Now.
“I didn't do it, I didn't do it / But I know that I did something wrong
I didn't ask it, I didn't plan it / But I feel the ache in my heels when I walk
It's my fault, it's my fault, it's my fault / The way I broke the Earth”
On her sublime lampoons, Anohni refuses to leave her own responsbility out of the bigger picture. Just like Björk highlighted it for Interview Magazine, discussing with her longtime friend, « this binary black and white thinking isn’t possible anymore. I felt that way after #MeToo, you have to both see the point of the oppressor and the oppressed, and allow yourself to be more ambiguous. And sometimes the solution is to understand that we are all part of the same system and we all have to change. » This is exactly what Anohni is emphasizing on her album. And multiplying these perspectives enables her to visit various horizons. Back to back, she enters a distorted world on Go Ahead where she recognizes how humans are addicted to self-destruction, « Go ahead, kill your friends / You are an addict / Go ahead, hate yourself ». Then, on Silver Ice she celebrates her long friendship with Lou Reed (who already appeared on I Am a Bird Now), remembering that moment when, on his deathbed, he told her about that miraculous instant where he felt an ice cube melting on his tongue. A very simple beauty for a dying body. « I belong here, as animals might / And the taste of water on my tongue / It was cool and it was good / I never knew it before ».
My Back Was a Bridge For You to Cross sketches out a painting where multiple generations are interconnected. From Marvin Gaye to Marsha P. Johnson and Lou Reed, she understands how her work can participate to a much more inclusive worldview : « I can sing of an awareness that makes others feel less alone ». That’s why the music video for Why Am I Alive Now? was directed by Hunter Schafer, the gifted rising star playing Jules in Euphoria and LGBTQ trans activist. Schafer said how honored she felt when asked to direct the music video, because she « started listening to Anohni in highschool ». This is the bridge we are crossing. For decades now, Anohni’s music has been building a safe and splendid world for soldiers of the Earth and the LGBTQIA+ community. And here, she’s holding the torch high in the light, so everyone can claim it and pursue this fight. On the final track, You Be Free, Anohni forms a prayer for all of her sisters standing next to her to be free, just like Marsha P. Johnson set Anohni free. This might be her biggest wish, a sisterhood that doesn’t meet any border, not time, not space, not sexuality, not race. “I would like us to imagine an entirely female world... That would be my only dream. A world where all governments become female to save what remains of nature. [...] I pray that women will finally take control of their families and communities and insist on feminine values. And as a transgender woman, I feel indebted to this vision and my job is to support it. » And even if where not there yet, Anohni placed another shining stone on the structure of freedom. And this stone is filled with a vitalizing power.