ANNICKE SHIREEN: The wish for a beautiful summer

Dutch musician, artist and fashion designer Annicke Shireen recently released her brand new single Undo, part of the upcoming EP Demonette which will hit the floors at March, 18th. I took the chance to do an interview with her about her solo material, her band and her professional way of becoming a designer. More about Annicke can also be read in an article I wrote for the upcoming issue #14 of German print magazine yeah!.

Otti:
How would you describe the difference between the sound and work of your band Shireen and the solo material you do?

Annicke:
For my solo music I have been exploring different genres and styles that I feel resonate with me. With Shireen I work on songs with multiple, sometimes all band members at the same time. They are all great musicians and every band member is welcome to join in the writing process which creates a very interesting but also sometimes messy and slow style of songwriting. I really love it, but during lockdown I had a lot of time on my hands and needed a little more of a creative outlet than what Shireen could offer me at the time.

"I was a bit of an introverted kid, and being creative made me really happy."

Otti:
For your solo material you collaborate with Koen Herfst. What makes the connection between both of you special?

Annicke:
I really felt the need to explore my own private musical playground, I wanted to write about things that were very intimate and personal and I didn´t want to make concessions. I met Koen Herfst in the beginning of 2020, we match very well on a personal level as well as creative. Koen is very multi-talented and works intuitively. Communication was really easy, I only needed to give him a small hint of what I thought or wanted and he understood what I meant. After one session we decided to co-produce on a regular basis because it was a really rewarding process, and this is how a long term collaboration came to be.

Otti:
During your whole music career, who have been the people that inspired you most?

Annicke:
There are so so many artists that have inspired me, too many to name them all. But the top of my list definitely includes Kate Bush, Bjork, Lisa Gerard, Tori Amos, Freddy Mercury, David Bowie, Steven Wilson, Chelsea Wolfe, and bands too; Deftones, Tool, The Cult and recently All Them Witches.

Otti:
Your current single Undo was just released, including a video, Where and under which circumstances did you record the clip?

Annicke:
It was recorded in the backyard of an old house in the Dutch countryside, only half an hour drive from where I grew up. We shot it in autumn, and it was a pretty grim day. We had a great team and the mood was really good though. At the end of the day we did the shot where I had to be in the grave buried under a blanket and a layer of earth, for the "unearthing the white lady" scene. It was getting dark and it started to rain, and we needed to set up a lamp to fake daylight. Some people of the crew got a little upset about me being in the grave and buried under a layer of dirt, but in the end it wasn´t all too bad. At first I felt a little claustrophobic, but in a way it was also calm and peaceful. The only thing that was really discomforting was that while I was lying there it started raining and mud started to creep into my dress and neck.

Otti:
If I understand Undo right it is the try to find kind of a spiritual connection to your female ancestors. How would you describe it? And how is the outcome of the way you went with the song?

Annicke:
When I wrote Undo, I was inspired by old pictures of my great great grandmothers and aunts from the 19th century, all of them portrayed as stern and unyielding women with great pride and a sense of duty. We have a lot of family heirlooms and while talking with my mother and learning what she knows about them I often wished I could have known them. I believed if I could learn about their passions, strength and faith I might be able to use their wisdom to better myself. I wrote the whole of Demonette during a time where I found myself lost and searching for my own power and belief in worthyness, trying to come to terms with things that hurt me in the past. I pictured channeling my great great grandmothers strength to become the stronger and more powerful version of myself, and as a result I believe they have guided me in some way.

Otti:
How much spirituality is there in general in your life, art and music?

Annicke:
I think for me art and music equals spirituality. Life is all about connection, and I think music and art are a language without words, a language of the heart. Music pulls strings in our hearts that no words can do, and for me this is a deeply spiritual language.

Otti:
The costumes in the clip for Undo are inspired by traditional dutch clothing. What does this design and optical presentation mean to you? And how is it connected to your own fashion design that can be found on your website?

Annicke:
I chose to use the Dutch Folklore style of my great-grandmothers as an inspiration. My mother´s side of the family were flax farmers from Dordrecht. They wore the traditional "Keuvel" or "krullenmuts". The costumes in Undo are an interpretation of their style of dress, but it is not 100% historically accurate. I graduated as a fashion designer in 2011 and I have always been inspired by costume history.

Otti:
In general, how did your design ambitions start and at which point are you with this part of your art/work nowadays?

Annicke:
I started making clothes when I was only twelve, using my mom´s sewing machine and leftover fabrics and old shirts from my dad. I was a bit of an introverted kid, and being creative made me really happy. So I spent a lot of time getting really good at drawing and later sewing. After highschool I studied at the art academy. The last ten years music took over more and more, until I reached a point where I didn´t really knew which should be my main focus, and after two years of Corona lockdown and a lot of changes in my life, I need to reinvent a new balance for myself.

Otti:
Undo is part of your new EP Demonette. What are the backgrounds Demonette are built on?

Annicke:
Demonette is about healing from trauma. It´s a very personal story and the darkest I have ever written so far. I went through a rough time, many difficult things happening at the same time unraveled a lot of unhealed parts of me. Writing it into songs really helped me in the process of healing. I wanted it to sound deep, dark and heavy, it resulted in a very doomy metal sound.

Otti:
The next single already is announced and has the title Prey. What can we expect of this release?

Annicke:
Prey is a loud song, angry but a little faster than Undo. All songs are quite consistent in their genre in this EP, where the old EP differs a lot in this.

Otti:
Regarding the "Shireen Band" - what is the status of this?

Annicke:
We are working on a lot of new things, we have changed a lot in genre and style without losing the Shireen identity. I am really enthusiastic of all the things we are currently writing on. We have a lot of new material in the making, varying from preproduction to nearly finished. I hope to release some interesting things this year.

Otti:
And with a look at the current world´s situation: What are your wishes for the near future?

Annicke:
I think the same as everyone, that viruses lose their potency and countries stop invading other countries. To have a healthy, happy and free and beautiful summer.

Website:
www.annickeshireen.com

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