Anni Rossi, String Theorist

The String Theory Music Festival kicks off Thursday, bringing together artists like Adam Levy, Chris Koza, Owen Pallett (formerly known as Final Fantasy) and members of Dirty Projectors and DeVotchKa in an effort to shift string-based music of all genres into the spotlight. The four-day festival, which includes concerts, a youth recital, workshops and classes, will showcase the cultural strides those oft-sidelined violas, violins and cellos have made, transitioning from stuffy, classical-only accoutrements to staples of modern indie music and culture.

Violist, singer and Minnesota native iTunes in 2010). The new album is poppier yet lyrically darker than anything she's done before, continuing Rossi's experimentation with her instrument and incorporating new musical elements.
Rossi took some time out of her busy rehearsal and teaching schedule to talk to METRO about the album, the status of strings in mainstream music, her new side project and finally ending her “geography tangent.”

METRO: You just moved to Brooklyn, right? How is it going there?

 

ANNI ROSSI: I’ve lived in Brooklyn for about a year…I love it. I am really happy. You know, I have lived in LA, I have lived in Chicago and I never felt quite as happy as I felt here the last year, so I think I will be here for a while.

With the move to Brooklyn, and given that you’ve lived in Chicago and LA and are from Minnesota, do you think the geographical references that are so prevalent in your music [Rockwell and the Afton EP contain multiple references to Las Vegas, the West Coast, Venice and Utah] will remain? Were those references always consciously made or do you think they just came about from moving around?
I think a lot of it had to do with feeling really unsettled in a lot of ways. [My music], at least at this moment when I am writing, what I am working on [now] and even [in] the past year has been more about personal relationships and things that happened in my life. Those are things I think about rather than the geography tangent I have been on for a while. And honestly, you are presenting your work two or three years behind [when it’s written], so even when I was releasing that material, I was writing more about the stuff that I will probably end up presenting in a year.

I don’t think I saw you listed at the 2011 SXSW festival. Did you do go to Austin this year?

No, I did not go this year but I did the last two years. Now that we are playing as a band, it’s harder to coordinate everybody’s schedule.

So are you exclusively playing with the band? You’re not doing solo shows anymore?

I did play a solo show in February. I do a solo show here or there, but all my new songs are really written at least to be played as a duo. I think I have played as a soloist for so long that I am just feeling more inspired and challenged by working with other people at this point. I think I will bring [the solo show] back some day though, as a regular thing, but not right now.

You teach violin and piano to kids—how long have you been doing that?

I did that when I was out in Los Angeles, and when I was in Chicago I kind of took a break from teaching. I’ve been kind of working back into it here, I got a couple students and it just grow from there. Now I have 12. It keeps me on my feet, keeps me thinking about my instruments. I enjoy it.

How did you get involved with the String Theory Festival?

Chris Cunningham [String Theory’s education coordinator] was part of putting the festival together and he got in touch with me. He reminded me that I had babysat one time for [his family] when I was in high school at the Perpich Center for Arts Education [in Golden Valley]. He said, “I’ve been following your work and I think you would be really good for the festival,” and I remembered his family. So that’s kind of how it came about. I think [the festival] is really cool. I am glad that I know about it. I think I will try and come out next year too, it seems like they have a lot of awesome stuff.

It seems like in the last couple years string artists have been brought more to the forefront—maybe not necessarily in mainstream music, but more so independent music. What are your thoughts on that shift?
I think in the last 10 years there has been such a shift toward people having more resources to make music. I think that opens up a lot of different forms and styles of music that normally would have had to go through a label to get funded in order to make a record years ago. Basically, I think the DIY nature and availability has given string players more of a chance to experiment more with writing songs. I think it has always been around; people are now tapping into it. For some reason, I think strings can still grab some attention because they’re still not quite as conventional…but I think they are getting there.

At what point did you decide to combine your more experimental nature, like strumming your viola like a guitar, with your classical background? What sparked that?

Especially when I am talking to someone from Minnesota, I need to give credit to the [Perpich Center for Arts Education] because I will tell you, I was writing songs on the piano when I first got there. I felt so embarrassed about what I was attempting to do with the viola and I was trying to sing. It was awkward. But my teacher there was like, “No, you should stick with this. It might feel goofy for you. It might feel funny. But I think you are on to something that you might enjoy developing.”…The modifying [of the viola] and the electric guitar [style of playing] kind of come about maybe a year-and-a-half ago when I was starting to feel a little exhausted with the solo stuff. I was always having to use a range of sounds with the viola, which is interesting. But I kind of wanted to be more of a singer and focus on my vocals. Strumming [the viola] gives me more freedom to understand my voice as a singer and a songwriter.

How did the writing and recording process differ on Heavy Meadow from Rockwell?

[Heavy Meadow] is my first true studio album. There’s multi-tracking, there was the whole demoing process that I did before I even went to the studio. There are a lot of difficulties with forcing the viola into this guitar role—I spent about half the time keeping my instrument in tune while strumming it, it just goes out of tune on the way. That was frustrating, and different from my last record. The chance to use electronics was also new to me. I feel like it kind of schooled me as a singer, this record. I did identical doubles on top of the main vocals. My voice had to become more accurate than it ever had to, to make it sound OK. I got to work with arranging vocals and harmony, which is also a big part of this record that definitely did not happen on Rockwell.

What are you looking forward to doing when you come back to Minnesota? How long will you stay in town?

I wish I could [be there] longer. We are going to do a mini-tour and go to Iowa to do a Daytrotter session. I am actually going to meet an old friend while I am there and film a video for “Safety of Objects.” I am probably going to try and see my family members if I can.

Are you going to be seeing any of the other artists participating in String Theory?

Definitely. I am excited about a lot of people. Bang On A Can ensemble in New York…I like that String Theory has such a range of new works and compositions alongside songwriters and stuff.

Any plans beyond the tour and Daytrotter session?

I have a [Heavy Meadow] release show in early May. I am also demoing for a side project right now. I have been working on that almost every weekend at a studio in New Jersey. I will continue with that, and I think we are still trying to solidify plans and works to go to Europe this summer as a trio for maybe a week or two. Definitely keeping busy making music.

Any more details you can give on the side project?

It’s still very new. It’s kind of developed over the last nine months, but it’s still more of a… right now its working title is Limo. It’s very, like R&B, kind of ‘90s pop-oriented songs [Rossi covered "Living in Danger" by Swedish pop band Ace of Base on Rockwell]. Honestly, I am excited about making music with the viola, but with the songs that I am writing, I kind of need a break. I don’t feel like including my viola all the time.