ANNISOKAY: Interview with Christoph Wieczorek
Creating a massive buzz in Europe and rapidly spreading to North
America, ANNISOKAY is working their way onto the rock scene here and abroad. Releasing
their new album, Arms on August 17th their new album is coming just
after their current US tour with I Set My Friends On Fire. We got to catch up
with vocalist/guitarist Christoph Wieczorek and get all the details on how the band got to where they are, what they are up to now and what to expect in the future!
(Be sure to check out their latest video for "Unaware" at the end of the interview)
-C&C: Let’s start from the beginning, how did you all
form ANNISOKAY and how did you come up with the band’s name?
-CW: We started this band
many, many years ago in a small garage in a small town in east Germany. We
wanted to make a mixture between emocore and numetal back then and tried to
sound like all these great US bands we admired. Since then the lineup has
changed a bit, because people change and life goals change, so it took a few
member swaps until we finally got the lineup that made Annisokay what it is
today. Me and Norbert are still the founding members though, and we can’t
really believe what became out of this project we started back then. He was
also the guy who came up with the idea of answering Michael Jacksons question
in ‚Smooth Criminal‘ by saying ‚Anni is okay!“ in our band name. I thought ‚Ann
is okay‘ is a cool name, but still not unique and special enough. So what we
did is get rid of an i and make it one word. Annisokay!
-C&C: ANNISOKAY has toured several times throughout
Europe and the UK and even Eastern Europe. Where has been your favorite stop so
far and where are you looking forward to heading to next?
-CW: We not only toured Europe, UK and Russia, we’re also on our
very first tour around the whole USA right now. This tour is definitely one of
the biggest adventures and craziest experiences so far. It’s a 28 show tour
through all these great cities we wanted to visit someday. We feel like being a
part of a movie the whole time! We’re not as big over here yet though, so the
shows in Europe, especially Germany, are honestly a lot bigger. It’s still fun
to play in front of people that haven’t seen us so far and see how they start
getting into it! The craziest crowds of all are in Eastern Europe though.
Playing Russia is always a crazy experience. You won’t understand what I mean,
until you’ve seen it.
-C&C: You guys are going to release your fourth full
length album titled Arm. I’ve heard there is a deeper meaning behind the name
of the album. Can you explain the meaning behind the name and what this album
means to you?
-CW: There is a lot of crazy and weird political stuff going on
in this crazy weird world. The biggest countries in this world are reign by men
with doubtful purposes. ‚Arms’ is a short word with an even bigger and
ambiguous meaning. With your arms held up high you can call for help or
celebrate a victory. To arm yourself isn’t clearly a sign of strength and power
or anxieties and fears. So you can ask yourself what it is about your arms? Are
you closing them or keeping them wide open? What are your arms? Is it your mind
or something you have to carry with you?
We love to leave things interpretable when it comes to names
or lyrics!
The album of course means a lot to us! It’s not only number
four already, it’s also the first record with a brand new team behind it. We
got a new label with Arising Empire / Sharptone Records which is able to finally
spread our music world wide. The more we wanted to make sure that this record
contains the best songs we’ve ever written!
-C&C: How would you describe your sound and what/who has
influenced it?
-CW: For this new record we tried to get less influenced by current
famous artists. We wanted to sound as much like Annisokay as possible. So the
goal was to write only what comes up in our mind instead of copying stuff from
other songs! Of course it’s impossible to NOT be influenced by others, because
it already happens when you just hear a song on the radio. Our sound became
more and more organic over the years, it is really heavy, deep and low, but
what’s the most important part of our sound is the melody and the harmonies. We
love catchy melodies and we love melancholia. Every Annisokay song will have
these two elements!
-C&C: Where do you get inspiration for your lyrics? Does
it mirror your life experiences?
-CW: Yes, concerning lyrics we simply look for inspiration in our
own lives! What things are in our mind, what makes us feel sad, what happened
to us before, what concerns or worries us. If you write about personal
experiences you have a way better connection with the song and can express your
feelings way better in the musical part. Sea Of Trees for example is about
suicide. A friend of mine took his life and I still don’t exactly know why.
There are many, many songs out there that talk about suicide but this one takes
a different approach to the topic. When you decide to take your own life, you
don’t kill the pain, you pass it to others. So there is not only one person
being affected, it’s always also all the loved ones this person had. People
that struggle with suicidal thoughts should definitely be brave enough to talk
about it with someone and get professional help. You also destroy the lives of
your friends and family, not only your own one. There are also topics that are
not personal but they still were in our mind and concerned us. Innocence was
here for example. I got the idea for 'Innocence was here' when I was watching a
TV show about innocent, imprisoned people especially in the US. When I was
reading a bit more about this topic I noticed how often this actually happens,
and how many lives got destroyed because of wrong judicial decisions!
Especially the cases of Kalief Browder and Steven Avery made me so sad that I
had to write a song about it.
-C&C: What was it like filming your latest video
“Unaware” and how did you come up with the concept for it?
-CW: The shoot was crazy and really exhausting. We shot the whole
video in a dessert like scenery. It was really hot and we weren’t able to drive
into this area so we had to carry all the gear and all the props by foot. We
had a lot of fun though, as I not only directed the video, but the whole band
also took place as actors. So we were running and digging and doing all the
stuff that happens in the video. If you take a closer look you can see all band
members appearing somewhere. We originally had the idea of spreading this story
over more then one video, but I was afraid it would bore people out and it
would also limit our creativity for later videos. The concept is taken from the
idea behind the lyrics. It’s a post apocalyptic scenario, in which every person
has only a limited time left to live. A timer shows how much each person has
left, and the only possibility to fill it up is work. There is a bigger force
that makes people do that and everyone has to be a part of the system. In the
end, you don’t actually die when the time runs out though. You’re healed from
the time pressure and finally free to live. This is what the ending of the
video is about.
-C&C: What is your favorite song off of the new album
and why?
-CW: It’s hard to pick one honestly. We had so much trouble to
actually pick the singles because all songs are so strong for us. So instead of
picking an obvious one, I’d probably choose a song called "One Second!" I love
that song because it’s way different then the rest. It had some crazy harmonies
we’ve never used before, it is really moody and sad and it has some great synth
sounds in it. Also the lyrics are cool! Definitely give that song a listen if
you read this, haha!
-C&C: What’s one
thing that you want fans to take away from this new album?
-CW: That’s something I haven’t thought about yet. Actually all
we do is write the best music possible. We want to make songs that WE think
sound great and that move us. So actually we try not to write for "fans." This
may sound rude, but it actually is the rule of writing more authentic songs. If
they move us, the probability is high, that it moves others as well, and that
is of course amazing for us in the end. Everyone who comes up and says, "this
album is great, it helped me through bad times," or "it makes me happy listening
to it," just makes us proud and motivates us to keep it up!
-C&C: Any last words for fans and C&C viewers? Where
can we find you guys next?
Follow ANNISOKAY here:
Website
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