Anni Rossi is an American
singer
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
, songwriter and producer from
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
, currently living in Brooklyn, New York. She is notable for playing an electric-viola that was handcrafted from a tree branch by former
Swans
Swans are birds of the family Anatidae within the genus ''Cygnus''. The swans' closest relatives include the geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometim ...
percussionist
Thor Harris
Thor Harris (born February 7, 1965) is an artist, sculptor, musician, painter, carpenter and handyman. He was the percussionist for Swans (2010–2016). He has performed with Shearwater (2001–2010), Bill Callahan, The Angels of Light, Lisa ...
. Rossi adopts modern guitar and bass techniques and applies them to this instrument, as well as traditional viola styles. In recent years her music has evolved to incorporate elements of R&B and electronic music.
Early life
Rossi spent most of her childhood living in rural farming towns throughout the
American Midwest
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...
. At age 4 she began violin lessons and around age 5 or 6 she started learning to play classical piano. Her first public performance was in church with her grandmother, who was a church organist in
Marine on St Croix, MN.
Rossi attended the
Perpich Center for Arts Education
The Perpich Center for Arts Education is an agency of the state of Minnesota that seeks to advance K-12 education throughout the state by teaching in and through the arts. A campus in Golden Valley houses the center's three main components: the ...
in
Golden Valley and graduated in 2004. She went on to study performance and composition at
California Institute of the Arts
The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both ...
(CalArts)
alongside
Julia Holter
Julia Shammas Holter (born December 18, 1984) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, composer, artist and academic, based in Los Angeles. Following three independent album productions, Holter released ''Tragedy'' as her first official ...
,
John Maus
John Maus (born February 23, 1980) is an American musician, composer, singer, and songwriter known for his baritone singing style and his use of vintage synthesizer sounds and Medieval church modes, a combination that often draws comparisons to ...
and
Ariel Pink
Ariel Marcus Rosenberg ( ; born June 24, 1978), professionally known as Ariel Pink, is an American musician, singer, and songwriter whose work draws heavily from the popular music of the 1960s–1980s. His lo-fi music, lo-fi aesthetic and home ...
. After leaving CalArts, Rossi relocated to Chicago and became a member of L.A. artist
Carla Bozulich
Carla Ragin Bozulich (born December 24, 1965) is an American musician based in Los Angeles, known as the lead singer, lyricist and founder of The Geraldine Fibbers and Evangelista as well as a founding member of Ethyl Meatplow and Scarnella. The ...
's touring band.
Rossi currently teaches piano, violin and vocal training in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She also hosts workshops and mini songwriting camps, called ‘Rhymes’, and has been a guest lecturer at
Brown University
Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
and
Montclair State University
Montclair State University (MSU) is a Public university, public research university in Montclair, New Jersey, with parts of the campus extending into Little Falls, New Jersey, Little Falls. As of fall 2018, Montclair State was, by enrollment, ...
speaking about her creative process.
Career
Anni Rossi's debut album ''Scandia'' was released in 2005 by
Folktale Records. It was recorded at various locations in Los Angeles, CA, while Rossi was attending CalArts. John Wood of
The Black Keys
The Black Keys are an American rock duo formed in Akron, Ohio, in 2001. The group consists of Dan Auerbach (guitar, vocals) and Patrick Carney (drums). The duo began as an independent act, recording music in basements and self-producing their ...
played organ and performance artist Corey Fogel played drums on the record. The album is named after
Scandia
Scandza was described as a "great island" by Gothic-Byzantine historian Jordanes in his work ''Getica''. The island was located in the Arctic regions of the sea that surrounded the world. The location is usually identified with Scandinavia.
Jor ...
, the city in Washington County, Minnesota where Rossi lived during her high school years.
After touring with
Electrelane
Electrelane were an English indie rock band, formed in Brighton in 1998 by Verity Susman and Emma Gaze. The band comprised Susman, Gaze, Mia Clarke, and Ros Murray. Their music drew from a wide range of influences including Neu!, Stereolab, Son ...
in 2007, Rossi was signed to London independent record label
Too Pure
Too Pure was a London-based independent record label formed in 1990 by Richard Roberts and Paul Cox. The label gained prominence after the release of PJ Harvey's debut album '' Dry'' in 1992, and subsequently found further success in the late ...
, who released her 7” single "Wheelpusher". This was followed by a six track EP titled ''Afton'', consisting of reworked versions of previously released tracks, including
MySpace previews and the 7" single "Wheelpusher". ''Afton'' was released in October 2008 through
4AD Records. The majority of ''Afton'' was recorded at Bomb Shelter Studios in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
by Ben Tierney.
Rossi recorded her debut album ''
Rockwell'' with
Steve Albini
Steve Albini (pronounced ; born July 22, 1962) is an American musician, record producer, audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman and Flour, and is a member of Shellac. He is the founder, owner and principal en ...
at
Electrical Audio
Electrical Audio is a recording studio, recording facility founded in Chicago, Illinois by musician and recording engineer Steve Albini in 1997. Hundreds of independent music projects have been recorded there. Unlike most producers, Albini refuses ...
in Chicago. The album was released in March 2009 through
4AD Records
4AD is a British record label owned by Beggars Group. It was founded in London under the name "Axis" (after the Hendrix album) by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent in 1980 as an imprint of Beggars Banquet Records. The name was changed to 4AD af ...
. The album is named after Rockwell Street in Chicago, where Rossi was living at the time. ''Rockwell'' includes a cover of
Ace of Bases’ "Living In Danger".
An appearance at the
South by Southwest
South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...
(SXSW) music festival and a west coast tour followed in late winter/early spring of 2009. Later that year Rossi toured with
Noah and the Whale
Noah and the Whale were a British indie rock and folk band from Twickenham, formed in 2006. The band's last line-up consisted of Charlie Fink (vocals, guitar), Tom Hobden (violin/keyboards), Matt "Urby Whale" Owens (bass guitar), Fred Abbott (g ...
,
Camera Obscura
A camera obscura (; ) is a darkened room with a aperture, small hole or lens at one side through which an image is 3D projection, projected onto a wall or table opposite the hole.
''Camera obscura'' can also refer to analogous constructions su ...
,
the Ting Tings
The Ting Tings are an English indie pop duo from Salford, Greater Manchester formed in 2007. The band consists of Katie White (vocals, guitar, bass drums, bass guitar, cowbells) and Jules De Martino (drums, lead guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, ...
and
Micachu and the Shapes. Rossi later wrote an essay about her love of
Micachu and the Shapes for
BOMB magazine
''Bomb'' (stylized in all caps as ''BOMB'') is an American arts magazine edited by artists and writers, published quarterly in print and daily online. It is composed primarily of interviews between creative people working in a variety of disciplin ...
.
Rossi's second album ''
Heavy Meadow'' was initially self-released in September 2010, and was later released in May 2011 via UK label
3 Syllables. The song “Land Majestic” later featured in Episode 56 (season 3 episode 6) of the American crime drama ''
The Good Wife
''The Good Wife'' is an American legal and political drama television series that aired on CBS from September 22, 2009, to May 8, 2016. It focuses on Alicia Florrick, the wife of the Cook County State's Attorney, who returns to her career in law ...
.'' “Crushing Limbs” featured in Episode 6 of UK comedy series ''
Sirens
Siren or sirens may refer to:
Common meanings
* Siren (alarm), a loud acoustic alarm used to alert people to emergencies
* Siren (mythology), an enchanting but dangerous monster in Greek mythology
Places
* Siren (town), Wisconsin
* Siren, Wisco ...
.''
On March 5, 2011, MTV Hive posted a streaming link to Anni Rossi performing Rihanna's "Rude Boy". The recording later featured in season 12, episode 1 of the American medical drama ''
Grey's Anatomy
''Grey's Anatomy'' is an American medical drama television series that premiered on March 27, 2005, on ABC as a mid-season replacement. The series focuses on the lives of surgical interns, residents, and attendings as they develop into se ...
.''
After a six-year absence, Rossi released a mixtape of RnB demos, voice recordings and prank phone calls titled ''HER''. It was self-released on April 1, 2017. Several songs were composed after it was suggested Rossi write music for former
Destiny's Child
Destiny's Child was an American girl group whose final line-up comprised Beyoncé Knowles, Kelly Rowland, and Michelle Williams. The group began their musical career as Girl's Tyme, formed in 1990 in Houston, Texas. After years of limited ...
member
Kelly Rowland
Kelendria Trene Rowland (born February 11, 1981) is an American singer, actress, and television personality. She rose to fame in the late 1990s as a member of Destiny's Child, one of the world's List of best-selling girl groups, best-selling girl ...
. The songs were never used by Rowland and instead became the foundation of Rossi's experimental mixtape. “H.O.R. Remix” is used as the theme song for writer Chelsea Beck's ''Ménage à Mo'' podcast.
In October, 2017, Rossi was a guest speaker and performer at the Monthly Music Hackathon NYC hosted by
Spotify
Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...
. Her talk was tilted ‘Log Lady: Re-wilding the viola as an electric guitar'.
Collaborations
In 2007, Rossi released a CDr with Canadian multi-instrumentalist Ora Cogan''.'' The two track CDr, titled ''Peep Creek,'' was housed in packaging fashioned out of recycled LP jackets, sheets of fancy paper and gold star confetti.
In 2009, Folktale Records released ''Anni Rossi & Whitman'', a collaboration between Rossi and Los Angeles artist and Folktale Records founder Chris Payne. It was released as a pressing of 500 10-inch records (300 on black vinyl and 200 on burgundy vinyl).
In 2013, Rossi collaborated with anthropologist
Michael Taussig
Michael T. Taussig (born 3 April 1940 in Sydney) is an Australian anthropologist and professor at Columbia University. He is best known for his engagement with Karl Marx, Marx's idea of commodity fetishism, especially in terms of the work of Walt ...
for his theater piece titled "The Berlin Sun Theater". Rossi is credited as a composer and performer of the piece. The work premiered at
The Whitney Museum
The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...
on Feb 23, 2013. Later that year Taussig and Rossi performed the work at Berlin's
Haus der Kulturen der Welt
The Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), in English House of the World's Cultures, in Berlin is Germany's national center for the presentation and discussion of international contemporary arts, with a special focus on non-European cultures and so ...
, and in October 2014 they performed the work at
Brown University
Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
.
Rossi offers the female voice for the majority of Simon Doom's record "Babyman", which was released on May 19, 2017.
In 2017, Rossi produced Alex Rose's record ‘Arcadian Pages’ at Dandy Sounds Studio in
Dripping Springs, TX.
Rossi plays with Molly Klauber, Molly Shea, Sam Mason and
MGMT
MGMT () is an American indie rock band formed in 2002 in Middletown, Connecticut. It was founded by multi-instrumentalists Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser. Alongside VanWyngarden and Goldwasser, MGMT's live lineup currently consists of ...
’s Will Berman and James Richardson in the band Acrylics.
Discography
Albums:
* ''
Rockwell'' (2009)
* ''
Heavy Meadow'' (2011)
EPs:
* ''Scandia'' (2005)
* ''My Grandmother Was A Church Organist'' (2007 limited edition tape only)
* ''Afton'' (2008)
Mixtapes:
* ''HER (2017)''
* Yultide x Rossi (2017)
Collaborations:
*''Peep Creek (2007)''
*''Anni Rossi & Whitman'' (2009)
* ''With Anni Rossi'' (2019, Shahzad & Thor (
Shahzad Ismaily
Secret Chiefs 3 (or SC3) is an American avant-garde group led by guitarist/composer Trey Spruance (of Mr. Bungle and formerly, Faith No More). Their studio recordings and tours have featured different lineups, as the group performs a wide rang ...
& Thor Harris), on Joyful Noise Recordings)
Awards
Independent Music Awards 2012: "Crushing Limbs" - Best Film/TV Song
"11th Annual Independent Music Awards Winners Announced!"
Independent Music Awards, 2 May 2012. Retrieved on 4 Sept. 2013.
References
External links
Official blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rossi, Anni
American women singers
Living people
American violists
Women violists
Singers from Minnesota
4AD artists
Year of birth missing (living people)
21st-century American women