Music

INTERVIEW: Animalia embraces her dualities

by Chaka V. Grier

“People often say, ‘You’ve done “See,” so are you just heading into this electronic direction now?” says Australian singer-songwriter Animalia (aka Jill Krasnicki). “Some mornings I wake up and I’m in the mood for electronic music. Other days, I’m in the mood for something subtle and folky. I feel like we’re different people every day.”

The now-Toronto-based singer’s latest single began as a “scratchy home-recording” for her EP, A Wave to Wash the World Away. Prior to “See,” the former bass player’s only exploration with electronic music was a short stint that preceded her incarnation as Animalia. Now she’s working on a half-electronic, half-acoustic full-length, a move that surprises even Animalia herself.

“It’s been people’s reactions to ‘See’ that opened me up to this new direction,” she says. “Some people are really into the dark singer-songwriter stuff that I do, but a lot of people are like, ‘Are you doing more stuff like this?’ It’s been a bit of a push to keep working away at the electronic side of things.”

While exploring both sounds, she’s discovered that the two genres require a very different state of mind. “With the acoustic guitar, I’m really purging an emotion,” explains Animalia. “With electronic stuff, it usually comes to me when I’m walking around the city. I get the rhythm in my head and it’s more of a process of sitting down with that one very small idea and building on top of it. It’s a little less emotion driven.’

It also marks a happier sounding space for the artist—or at least a perceived one. “‘See’ confuses people because it has hand claps in it. Everyone’s like, ‘Hand claps. It must be happy!’” she laughs. “I like the Knife and their stuff is quite dark but their beats are sort of happy. It’s very similar to that.”

When asked if any songs from her first two EP’s will get an electronic makeover, Animalia says there’s a possibility. “There are songs on my first EP [To the Waking, the Shaking & the Volatile] in particular that I still really like but weren’t executed very well because I did it myself,” she laughs. “Those songs still have a lot of potential.”

“I definitely have to start incorporating my electronic music live because at the moment I’m still just doing my acoustic stuff,” she says when talking about her next steps. “I’ll probably expand my set up quite a bit in the next year.” She also hopes to tour England and Scotland in 2014.

Top 3 albums

1. Björk—Vespertine: “I discovered Vespertine when I was 15 years old. It’s the most beautiful album in existence. It’s just completely strange. It was kind of that shocking realization of what music can actually be.”

2. Kate Bush—The Dreaming: “My housemate in Ireland introduced me to The Dreaming. It’s so crazy. It’s so insane. And it’s just so perfect. The way she just uses her voice in that album is mind blowing.”

3. Radiohead—Hail to the Thief:“I’m going to say Radiohead’s Hail to the Thief. I didn’t want to be that obvious. [Laughs] but they really do that half band/ half electronic thing really well. That’s really inspiring because it shows that you don’t have to be a genre. You can just be yourself and do what you want to do. And make the sounds you want to make.”

First song I made

“It was a song called “Fire Me Up.” That is a song that I actually want to pull up and rework and put on the album. “

My native instrument

“Bass.”

Most underrated music scene in Canada

“Probably the entire thing! I feel like we all have to help each other out and then we make the scene. We build it up. And then people will come in and be a part of that.”