Annie: Don’t Stop

Crackling and popping through a phone line anchored somewhere near the North Sea, Anne Lilia Berge-Strand’s voice sounds like it’s from the mouth of a metallic ice pixie. The words seem partly made from fairy dust and bubbles, partly wrought from steel.

The odd juxtaposition may come as no surprise from a girl who originates from both underground and mainstream pop, having lost her original music partner and boyfriend, Erot (Tore Andreas Kroknes), to an untimely death just as they put their names on the map 10 years ago with “The Greatest Hit.” A siren not in the classic sense of the term, the Norwegian pop princess is as hot as she is shy, aloof as she is completely candid. There’s always been a twist of depth and darkness with Annie’s otherwise candy-like sound, making her one of the more unlikely saviors of pop music today.
 

“With most of my songs, the melodies are quite poppy, but you cannot compare the production to most pop artists. There’s just more going on,” Berge-Strand says. “Quite frankly, I’m just tired of crap pop music. The best music really comes from people who know what they want to say… or an experience they have, rather than a music label just telling them what to say and with whom to work.”

Enough said. Five years ago, Annie wowed dance floors and industry execs alike with Anniemal, churning out salty-sweet hits such as “Heartbeat” and “Chewing Gum.” Today, she’s back with Don’t Stop, an equally infectious yet almost unrelated collection of four-to-the-floor dance anthems, corny ballads and absurdist punk.

“I was definitely going more in the writing side of the project this time than with the first record,” she says, sighing. “The album took quite awhile. I was moving around a lot—Norway, Berlin, Finland—so it represents a long period of my life. The songs are quite vivid. It’s an album that you can be lazy to or dance to. I always ask people which song they like the most and every time I get a different answer. It’s confusing, but also a compliment.”

If you sit down and properly listen to each track, you’ll find there’s always a surprise with Annie—a squawk, a hi-hat, a guitar riff, an acerbic lyric—stuffed secretly into a crevice in each song. Often times, discovering the detail is the best part of the experience. As a stand-alone track, “I Don’t Like Your Band” screams out as the crowning victor of the album. Co-produced by Paul Epworth (Bloc Party, Primal Scream), Annie disses the living hell out of a boy, coolly crooning, “I don’t like your music, I’m just not into it. It’s not you, it’s your tunes.” Then there’s “The Breakfast Song,” where she yells, “What do you want? What do you want for BREAK-FAST?” through the clatter of drums.

“I was hanging out with my ex-boyfriend, Timo, in Finland when we made that song,” Annie says. “I was really tired at the time. Usually in the morning, I’m so tired I can’t speak… but he was being so lazy and I was hungry! I started singing what became the hook at him, and he was like, ‘Get up! We’re going to the studio right now!’ So, we ate breakfast in the studio and made the song.”

Timo Kaukolampi (the aforementioned ex), Alex Kapranos (Franz Ferdinand) and Richard X all appear on Don't Stop, each contributing to the songs’ meticulously produced detail. But Annie isn’t just a pop singer backed by skilled musicians picking up the pieces—she won’t cite the name of her two biggest contemporaries, but anyone with a functioning set of ears immediately draws correlations: Kylie Minogue and Madonna.

A pixie brimming with punk, Annie adds, “I started this whole thing as a girl who wanted to buy records when everyone else bought CDs. I went to rave parties and come from a very underground scene. That will always be quite close to me, and will always define me as an artist. It’s just what I like.”

And to think she almost stopped making music in 2001 when Erot died at the age of 23. “There was a long period of time when I thought I’d never make music again. It’s still difficult,” she says, pausing. “But I feel quite lucky that I went through such heavy things early on. It gives you muscles under your skin even if you can’t always actually see my muscles. It’s made me really strong. I learned so much about music from him, and I keep that in me. It will never go away.”