A CONVERSATION WITH... ANNIKA ZEE
We caught up with multimedia artist and musician Annika Zee to discuss Emerald Spy, her bold new album that fuses 90s nostalgia with experimental electronic soundscapes and sharp reflections on identity, technology, and the future.
Emerald Spy has been described as your most conceptually daring project yet. How would you introduce the album to someone hearing about it for the first time?
I would describe it as a release of emotions, subjects that I had to get off my chest and naturally that stems from the inequality I have witnessed in the world because of race, socio-economic status, gender, and whatnot.
The album merges 90s pop nostalgia with experimental electronic soundscapes. What drew you to those particular contrasts, and what do they unlock for you creatively?
I was born in the 90s so I have an affinity with 90s aesthetics and music which is nothing new under the sun. It also marks time pre the rapid advancement of technology so trying to re-imagine how to create that home like feeling today seems an impossible accomplishment but something worth imagining. However, when I mention returning to the past I don’t mean it literally, we can never redo something completely but what can we take from the past, the good parts and apply it to the future.
You tackle big ideas, technology, race, and identity through deeply personal and abstract storytelling. Do you see Emerald Spy more as a reflection of our current moment, or as a vision of possible futures?
I see it as a reflection of our current moment and as a vision of possible futures. As a person who has dealt with the ramifications of stereotypes being projected onto them and hitting glass ceilings because of gender and race I would want to envision spaces where people like me, mixed race people and POC have more of a stake in the way the world runs then simply being characters who are props to signify diversity.
What role did nostalgia, particularly 90s pop references, play in shaping Emerald Spy?
Not a lot surprisingly, I was more inspired by the current electronic DJ music scene in New York and taking those sounds and applying it to my own sonic realm. Artists that come to mind include DJ Swisha and Acemo. ‘Puppet’ is a good example of where I took synth sounds inspired by this type of music and applied it to my own, I know they personally draw from the 90s in their work as well being 90s babies too so it all ties back to the 90s. I know they draw from the 2000s too and other eras too but 90s electronic groups like Drexciya and Underground Resistance opened my mind to what modern jazz is (in my personal opinion). I'm a big jazz head - I just finished reading a book on Miles Davis, his biography and there were so many parallels I could draw between the jazz music scene of his time and the current DJ scene in New York.
Could you walk us through a moment in the studio when the album surprised you, when a song took a turn you didn’t expect?
Wondering surprised me because it was all excellent improvisation on Will Smith’s end in the studio, but it reminded me of Nicolas Jaar’s Darkside work - obviously not the same as Jaar is a genius, but in that imaginative realm, which surprised me. I did vocal improvisation over the tune, and the song just wrote itself in complete improvisation fashion, lyrics and all.
As a multimedia artist, how did visual concepts, colour, texture, or design influence the album’s sonic world?
I used a 70s New York child doll toy of a bunny because of the Twee aspect of it - unintentionally I was probably inspired by OPN’s fixation with rabbits and my friend Vancouver artist Marissa Kriangwiwat’s work who has used rabbits before - that it represents but also a darker connotation of how women can be used as these props in society like toys to uphold a glossy shimmery image of our current time when in reality it is much darker and more complicated. I just watched Eddington, which summarises a lot of the issues of technology and the formation of radical viewpoints that lead to violence. I wanted the album to appear innocent and simple like its pop casing, but to have something darker beneath it. I am also talking about multiple people and situations and relations which symbolise a bunny not in a Playboy sense but in movement within a system. The lyrics are abstract; for example, on ‘Can't Hear You’, it could be interpreted as war, but I meant more the idea of youth blowing up on the internet and the ramifications of mass exposure at a young age.
Your production style layers analogue warmth with futuristic textures. How do you know when a track feels “finished”?
A track is done when it feels right, you listen to it, and it hits all the right emotional points within you, and you know it’s done. My friend and great musician, Louie Short, did the mixing and mastering and some production on the album, and he was always helpful in making me realise when a track was done.
Your music merges ambient electronica with lush songwriting. What production choices were most crucial in creating the “sonic tapestry” of Emerald Spy?
I was listening to a lot of Scottish music, which seemed adjacent to British Music - Aztec Camera and the Blue Nile - these things influenced the pop take on that home like sounding lick on Hell No. I went to an all girls school in high school - Bishop Strachan School - that was quite British in its founding so that is why it feels home like to me or a homage to my youth. So I pay homage to these things and feelings but also propose ways to move beyond these structures. I feel in a way an affinity to Dev Hynes because he grew up in Britain and grapples with his youth in his music. Living in NYC I was exposed to a lot of African American electronic music which was highly sophisticated and opened my consciousness in a new way so I introduce the clashing of these ways of thinking on the record with ‘Can You’ and ‘Puppet’.
Can you walk us through your process of weaving together global sounds and perspectives for this record?
I think I summarised that as best I could in the previous question, but it’s always something I could take further. I understand my pop interpretation of such styles is amateur at best, and I could refine it in a much deeper way. I hope to one day work with a lot of producers coming out of New York and go for a Björk-type style.
You’ve composed music for Broad City and worked with brands like Anna Sui and American Eagle. Did any lessons from those collaborations feed into how you approached this personal project?
I am always learning when making soundscapes or tracks, matching music to images. I think what I learned is how to create music for moving images, so when I write, I’m always imagining visuals that go with it. Image is married to music to me.
Having studied at both NYU’s Clive Davis Institute and OCAD, how have those academic experiences shaped your practice as an independent artist?
Yes, living in two different cities has shaped who I am today. I lived in nyc for nine years so I was very steeped in the culture of New York and met many people having gone to Clive including Arca and Maggie Rogers. Emily Warren the pop songwriter was my best friend in school and I was in the same grade as Take a Daytrip who produced for Lil Nas X and Topaz Jones. I lived at SUNY purchase for a year where my past partner went to - I met many different musicians and people of different socio economic statuses and wealth to the extremes swinging both ways. I would see musicians play shows in the Stood before they were indie royalty such as Mitski and Alex G. Toronto is steeped in family for me and nature, a place for more reflective quiet moments. I am currently deferring from OCAD right now but it taught me more of what Toronto youth is like - curious, polite and inclusive. I’ve learned a lot from my peers Eliza Niemi, Kyla Marlena, and Maryam Said who are all excellent musicians in their own right but are all distinctly Canadian.
What role do printmaking and design play in how you think about building an album from start to finish?
I am always considering design in terms of relationships to people; who do I want to refer to? What ecosystem do I want to belong to? What time period, aesthetics am I referencing? I think all these questions come into play when I am making a body of work. Printmaking to me is a bit like pop art which is adjacent to making pop music. When you have a catchy hook it is like a repetitive image that you could see over and over again.
With Emerald Spy out in the world, what conversations do you hope it sparks?
Racial prejudice and hyper sexuality of Asian women, the inherent violence of this, expanding consciousness to learning the African American consciousness learned through their excellent music, art, and culture, expanding perspectives instead of shunning differences - something I have learnt being Scandinavian and Asian - they fundamentally are different outlooks but both have valid strengths while opposing one another. The value in duality and multiplicity.
In an era where technology both connects and fragments us, what role do you see music playing in fostering collective empowerment?
Musicians should connect more with one another instead of compete and pit one another against each other - they are entitled to different viewpoints but there should be more community building between artists. This is something me and my husband Mitchell Todorov, who is a filmmaker and scriptwriter, wish to do - bring artists together. How can we form a collective to challenge fascist ideals?
With Emerald Spy pushing your artistry forward, where do you see your practice heading next, musically, visually, or conceptually?
I want to make a more organic sounding record with lush guitars and more direct specific expansive lyricism. Storytelling. Right now, I’m heavily inspired by the 90s band Copper introduced to me through my husband’s friend Pat O’Connor and Broadcast. Pine, Azalea Downs, and Snowflakes and Cigarettes are standout tracks. I want to make music that is adjacent to something David Lynch would approve of. My husband is a scriptwriter so I’m more focused on movies these days and writing music that would sound nice for film seems like a step forward for me. I'm currently reading Kubrick's biography. On the other hand, I want to make a futuristic record with musicians from New York which would be a totally different project but interesting nonetheless. I liked DJ Swisha and Jesse Lanza’s collaboration - something like that. Obviously, his work with Kelela was top-notch.
