Anika announces new album ‘Abyss’ and shares new single/video ‘Hearsay’

British-born, Berlin-based musician Annika Henderson, better known as Anika, announces her new album, Abyss, out April 4th on Sacred Bones, and shares its lead single/video, “Hearsay.” Abyss was born out of the frustration, anger, and confusion Henderson feels from existing in our contemporary world. Notably heavier than previous releases, the 10-track album is raw, urgent, and fueled by strong emotions. Pulsing with a heavy guitar and rhythm section, Abyss takes Anika on a new sonic journey.

Alongside this, Anika has also announced a full European tour for this spring including shows in London, Bristol, Manchester, Leeds, Belfast, Dublin and Brighton.

The thrashing, driving, lead single and album opener, “Hearsay,” hones in on the extreme divisions between the left and right in contemporary society. Anika sings: “And yesterday’s papers they line my bird cage. / And you’re telling me tales to get your own way. / And you’re making up stories to push your narrative./ And you’re making up tales to be provocative.” In Anika’s words, “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.”

Director Laura Martinova added the following on the visuals, “The ‘Hearsay’ music video is inspired by vampire aesthetics and seeks to connect with the grungy essence of Anika’s new album. We aimed to create a dark yet dynamic and surprising video. My collaboration with contemporary dancers and the use of raw camera movement transcends this imagery, while Zeynep Schilling’s creative direction elevates the video to another level—somewhere between evil and heaven. We worked with stylist Danny Muster and emerging designers to craft a timeless aesthetic.”

“With everything that’s going on right now, I need this rebellion.”

“There’s so much going on in the world, and you have to sit there and watch it through a screen that you’ve allowed into your home, like a vampire who had been preying at your door, then immediately digest it, have an opinion, and publicly comment on it,” Anika says. “The state of the world just feels like an abyss right now.” With this new album, she wants to create a place where people can feel safe to be themselves, and to unite in their diversity. “Abyss is like a call to action,” she says. “To come and figure it out together.”

Abyss was recorded live to tape at the legendary Hansa Studios in Berlin (where the likes of Depeche Mode and David Bowie also recorded) in just a few days. Recording live and with minimal overdubs was an important decision, Anika stresses, in order to capture the raw immediacy of the album. As before, she wrote the songs herself, before fleshing them out with Martin Thulin of Exploded View, and then assembled a live band to join the pair in the studio – comprising of Andrea Belfi on drums, Tomas Nochteff on bass (Mueran Humanos) and Lawrence Goodwin (The Pleasure Majenta) on guitar, with studio engineering done by Nanni Johansson and Frida Claeson Johansson. “I always work with people I respect and admire,” Anika says. “It’s very genuine in that way.”

Pulsing with a heavy guitar and rhythm section, Abyss takes Anika on a new sonic journey that was partly inspired by the sound and attitude of 90s grunge. “I would often listen to Celebrity Skin by Hole,” Anika says. “Courtney Love is always pushing things to the limits and she’s not scared. I think it was that rebellious nature of grunge that appealed to me.” Anika’s influences are and have always been wide-ranging – from Patti Smith to Toni Morrison to Genesis P-Orridge. Working again with her Exploded View comrade, Thulin, for Abyss, Anika explains that she consciously sought to make an album that was inherently physical: to take the listener out of their heads and back into their bodies.

“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.”

The physicality of Abyss is emphasised by the androgynous bodies on the album’s cover, that are from a drawing by a teenage friend of Anika’s whom she recently reconnected with. This feels especially poignant, as teenage angst also plays a part in the album. “These days it feels like you have to have very catered opinions – like language has gone out the window,” Anika says. “It makes you feel very much like a restricted child again.” With Abyss, Anika wanted to feel totally free: “It’s like I’m doing all the things that I never allowed myself to do,” she says.

Much of Abyss explores themes related to Anika’s exasperation with life today. The edgy indie thrum of “One Way Ticket” comments upon the rise of fascism – ‘The city didn’t learn the lessons of its past’ – while a number of tracks hone in on the extreme divisions between the left and right in contemporary society; like the thrashing drive of album opener “Hearsay”, which references fake news, and the erratic beats of “Oxygen”, which gasps for air as we experience increased limits imposed on our bodies, be it reproductive freedoms or restrictions on trans rights.

“It feels like the left are heavily scrutinised and therefore forced to micromanage their media personality,” Anika says, “like editing their biography so they don’t insult anyone, trying to please everyone – which leads to an impression of inconsistency, of untrustworthiness. But the contrast is that a lot of people on the right are getting away with everything: like flaunting their imperfections and rejoicing in the fact that they have felonies. They are consistent with their hate speech and therefore perceived as more trustworthy. I think it’s important to have space on the left for imperfection, for healthy debate and difference, and for all the complexities of being a human.”

While most of the tracks reverberate with a visceral density, the final track, “Buttercups”, is slower, wistful and haunting. But while it might initially feel like a golden-tinted paean to nostalgia, Anika is quick to emphasise that it, like all of the album’s tracks, has multiple meanings: “You can bring flowers to a first date, but you can also bring them to a funeral,” she points out. A core truth of Abyss is that nothing in life is simply black and white.

Anika was determined for Abyss to break free from holding back genuine emotions – even if they might seem uncomfortable or ‘too much’. On the surprisingly jolly 90s alt-rock vibes of “Walk Away”, the lyrics are blatant in their raw honesty: ‘The truth is I don’t really like myself/ And the truth is I don’t really like anyone else’… ‘Sometimes I know, life can just suck’… ‘And the truth is, I’d rather you just go to hell/ And the truth is, I’d rather the whole world did as well’.

“I thought about cutting the verse where I was saying the whole world should go to hell,” Anika says. “I wondered if it was too much. But I just wanted to say the truth of where I was at.” Anika hopes this pure emotion will position the listener to fully immerse themselves in Abyss. “There needs to be room for people to put themselves in this album, and put their own narratives on it,” she says. “This is a space for you.”

Tour dates: 
20.04 – DE Berlin – Volksbühne    
24.04 – DE Cologne – C/O Pop 
25.04 – FR Tourcoing – Le Grand Mix
27.04 – BE Brussels – Ancienne Belgique
28.04 – UK London – Omeara
29.04 – UK Bristol – Strange Brew
30.04 – UK Manchester – YES (Pink Room) 
01.05 – UK Leeds – Brudenell Social Club
02.05 – UK Belfast – Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival 
03.05 – IRE Dublin – Whelans 
05.05 – UK Brighton – DUST
06.05 – FR Paris – Gonzai Night @ Petit Bain
07.05 – FR Strasbourg – La Grenze
08.05 – CH Düdingen – Bad Bonn
09.05 – CH Zürich – Bogen F
10.05 – DE Frankfurt – Mousonturm