Annie Hardy and I sat down with a cuppa and a packet of Jammy Dodgers to discuss her EP The Cross Bearer.
Hello Annie, how are you?
Oh I’ve been better. But I’ve also been worse. I’m good. I’ve decided to be, so I’m good. Thanks for asking.
Congratulations on the release of the Cross Bearer EP how does it feel?
Doesn’t feel like much to be honest. These days releasing music is similar to tossing a message in a bottle into the sea, you’re like “well maybe someone will actually hear this but regardless I just had to write it down to get it out of me”. There’s also an element of cheating because of the way I go about making music these days. I’m like “are people going to consider this legitimate music despite it being totally improvised and not possessing classic song structure most the time? F it, just add some harmonies then they’ll never know!”
What’s your favourite song from it?
I think I go through favorites one at a time. but probably IDK2 which was in-part inspired in part by this older woman who plays guitar and sings on the sidewalk outside of the Silverlake Trader Joe’s (a grocery store) and has this haunting voice and similar guitar tone as on that track.
It’s a five track project, what was the easiest and hardest part of putting it together?
It was all easy to be honest. I operate full time out of the flow state, which renders most creative efforts of mine fairly easy feeling. It all just sort of was there already. The hardest part was recovering songs I didn’t even remember recording. I’ve learned to work in a way that facilitates my improvisational nature so I can record one song, bounce it down and email it to myself. in times of turmoil my email’s Sent folder overfloweth and some songs fall through the cracks. I have a series of IDK songs cuz I don’t know what the song is and can’t listen to it cuz I’m about to shart out a new one and have to bounce the last. I’m at idk8 now. Hah.
It’s your second EP, what have you learned since recording the first one?
I’ve learned that the less instrumentation I attempt to record, the easier it is to have something I can do all the jobs on. I don’t think this is a good thing whatsoever. I had Ryan Rapsys mix and play aftermarket drums on Saves and it sounds great because of that. This one is definitely stripped back and raw. Collin Deatherage who also drums in Giant Drag and has his own band The War Toys worked on Saves with me too. This EP finds me once again epically alone doing everything myself. Not what I prefer but… I finish a lot more stuff this way.
You are an artist from California, how did all begin for you?
It all began when a friend asked me to play a show and I put together Giant Drag with Micah Calabrese real quick just to play. Lightning speed after that really. there was a radio station at that time called Indie103 & this DJ Mark Sovel who really championed us, which helped lots.
What did you listen to growing up?
Well it was the 1990s so y’know I listened to a lot of the fare from back then. But then also loved The Gun Club, Holly Golightly, Neil Young, The Beatles… I mean nothing too groundbreaking.
You started playing the guitar at the age of 9, was there any particular catalyst for this?
I saw one of the actors in my mom’s play playing that song “Black” by Pearl Jam at one of the rehearsals and I was like dang, I want to play the guitar. My parents got me lessons and I wasn’t really passable until they sent me to boarding school for tenth grade. In the absence of anything to do with my spare time I finally figured it out and started writing songs.
It seems you have a love for weird and wonderful instruments as evidenced in your track “Lord Cum Into My Life” and the theremin like tone on “Agency”, how does a typical writing session begin for you?
What you’re hearing on those songs is an old Yamaha keyboard accompaniment track. I have tons of shitty old keyboards but this one’s great. I traded the guy who owns my local witch store a microphone for it.
But a typical session begins with me feeling the itch to make song, I step into my music room, set up guitar or keyboard depending on the mood, press record on the computer and let it rip. I remember recording “Lord Cum into my Life” after a stagnant period and that just ripped out take one as you hear it. Straight from the ether into the computer and I was like “hell yeah”. Recorded some harmonies. Song done. Sometimes I don’t get it on take one and then I’ll do additional takes but always channeling it in, for the most part. Then I bounce it down and send it to myself so I have music to listen to in the car. Usually releasing it to my Patreon at least, if not to the world. Cuz F it.
You haven’t watched TV or a film in 12 years, do you feel that has had an impact on your creativity?
It’s impacted not only my creativity but my overall sense of happiness and well being. We don’t realize how we’re being subconsciously programmed by TV and film. We are also opting to be entertained instead of create and we all suffer for it. We didn’t incarnate to watch TV. We came to speak our creative truth out into the world. No wonder everyone’s so miserable.
What are you listening to at the moment?
I don’t listen to music either. People take personal offense to this one but I stopped it about 13 years ago with tv and movies. I highly recommend especially for fellow musicians. It helps you clear your field of self-comparisons after awhile, you become this condensed version of you that’s only inspired by you. Like, only my own songs get stuck in my head. That’s pretty dope.
What are you looking forward to most in 2024?
I’m certain it’ll be an exciting year of watching people get upset over the world stage performances of things like USA’s presidential elections. I’ve also have a new Giant Drag album being finished. I’m most excited about a full length album I did with my friend Thomas Hunter. He made this beautiful instrumental LP about falling in love with my friend Maggie (my third matchmake to result in marriage in the past half decade) called Falling in Love in Slow Motion (which he just released) and when I was in acute heartbreak so bad I couldn’t even play an instrument, Maggie sent me one of the instrumentals and suggested I sing over it. What came out in one take was the most purifying and vulnerable transmission of song of my life and so I did almost every song on his album. Literally saved my life and is my favorite thing I’ve ever done. So I’m hoping an actual record label might put it out but… idk. Mine’s called Falling Out of Love in Slow Motion.
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