A CONVERSATION WITH... ANNIE TAYLOR
One month after The Great Escape, we look back at the iconic artists we met during that weekend. Like Annie Taylor, the Swiss punk rock band grabbing life by the reins and always on the hunt for more.
A tough question to answer: where do you see yourself in five years?
Of course, no one can predict the future, but it’s a question that stumps you. Especially in a world constantly battling ‘unprecedented times’, someone’s answer can swing from cautiously optimistic to nearing nihilistic.
But I found myself asking rising-star psychedelic rock band Annie Taylor that after one of their gigs at The Great Escape. And while some artists might understandably fear jinxing future successes, it seems like this Swiss quartet doesn’t know fear.
“More. More! I hope we’re doing more of what we’re doing now,” vocalist and guitarist Gini Jungi exclaims. “As long as we’re still together, growing, making music and being happy… I want more of that.”
Gini is joined by Tobias Arn (guitar), Michael Mutter (bassist), and Daniel Bachmann (drums), all huddled together in KOMEDIA’s slightly rainy smoking area. The instant these four walked into that grey brickyard, it transformed the energy into one so similar to before a lightning strike. Their calculatedly chaotic energy paired with a surprising twist. The members pointed out how the (majority industry people) audience came alive during their noon set — giving a partial, yet welcome, flashback to some of their previous U.K. performances.
“I remember playing in Cornwall, and people were dancing on the ceiling. It was insane! People almost knocked into me and crushed my teeth into the microphone. That… that was a crowd,” Gini exclaims to the band’s agreement.
But to understand how Annie Taylor got to The Great Escape (and to near teeth-smashing shows in Cornwall), the tale begins in Zurich where all four of these realised that music was the only way for them.
Gini reminiscences: “I always thought everyone wanted to be a musician. It never occurred to me that some people want to be a doctor or go to space. But for me, for all of us, the only path was being a musician.”
While they had other stops along the road with different jobs and life choices, all four of them joined up to create the garage-rock beachy pop fusion that stands before me today. The band’s 2020 debut release Sweet Mortality solidified them as artists who dip their paintbrushes in different genres to create a masterpiece similar to Paul Klee’s.
After that release, there wasn’t a moment to spare. The seemingly non-stop festivals and performances they had across the UK, Germany, and Switzerland as soon as countries’ COVID-19 restrictions eased are clearly the strong foundation for their 5-year-wish.
As the general excitement builds around their second album Inner Smile that’s coming out on July 7th, the band is clearly relishing each moment they have on and off stage together. The undeniably exuberant energy they have that keeps them on the balls on their feet on stage transforms into one of bubbly camaraderie off stage.
And within that camaraderie comes the truth behind the music and the process behind it.
“You can be struggling with your life, and thinking about everything that can go wrong, but when we’re with the band… it all goes away. Everything is good at that moment. You’re alright, you’re in the right place at the right time,” Gini says.
The day-to-day emotions and struggles they have pour into their music and once the song passes the harshest critics (themselves), they’re ready for the rest of the world to hear it. Their latest single, ‘Ride High’ talks about being disconnected from the ones we love, floating on different life paths and the uncertainty of where the world will take you all.
“Of course, it hurts,” Gini explains, “but it makes me realise how important inspecting our own life paths is and that we make our own luck somehow.”
So what will Annie Taylor’s path hold for them 5 years down the road? Hopefully more as Gini said, but they’ll have plenty of time to wonder and plan in the tour van this summer and on.