Name: Rosa Anschütz
Nationality: German
Occupation: Multi-instrumentalist, composer, sound artist, songwriter, vocalist
Current Release: Rosa Anschütz's new album Sabbatical is out via Heartworm. Order the album from the EU via Rough Trade and from the UK using the vendor of your choice.
Topic I am passionate about but rarely get to talk about: I love to do my sequin works, in which I continuously do the same movements with my hands, stitching sequins to styrofoam. Friends of mine have expressed how they would never be able to find the mental capacity to do something like that for hours, though when it comes to me, it calms me down so much.

If you enjoyed this Rosa Anschütz interview and would like to know more about her music and upcoming live dates, visit her official homepage. She is also on Instagram, Facebook, Soundcloud, and bandcamp.  
 


Do you think that some of your earliest musical experiences planted a seed for your interest in writing lyrics or poetry? How and when did you start writing?

My first memory from striking lyricism was brought to me through spoken word mostly - early CDs by The Streets, such as Original Pirate Material, which we'd listen to in the car.



That is my first memory of really listening to it, other than in pop music at the time.

When I would improvise, usually on the house piano, I would just come up with something in English. Writing, however, such as short stories and keeping journals began very early on.

Entering new worlds and escapism through music and literature have always exerted a very strong pull on me. What do you think you are drawn to most when it comes to writing?

I can relate to that notion, also in relation to writing my own stories, making up my own worlds, in a sort of escapism I guess.

Also, when growing up on the countryside for some time, I would listen to music in my room. It was a dream of something bigger.

Escapism, for me, always meant being able to get lost in a wider perspective.

What were some of the artists and albums which inspired you early on purely on the strength of their lyrics? What moves you in the lyrics of other artists?

As mentioned before, I think the album Original Pirate Material was important. I always try to understand lyrics, as I guess the artist in most cases, ideally in my opinion, tries to convey a message.

But sometimes, it is not important to understand the language. I have had so many other experiences where I felt a certain emotion for someone's music and in talking about it with them, I discovered, that my intuition was correct and that they indeed wished to express a similar or familiar emotion.

Music makes something very special. It creates a language by itself or draws an image. In that, it is incomparable.

Have there been song lyrics which actually made you change (aspects of) your life? If so, what do you think, leant them that power?

Recently I was very taken by the lyrics of “Sorrow” by The National.



The loving relationship to the notion of sorrow, its power to turn someone's character into a surrendering, ungiving personality made me rethink certain aspects not only about myself, but some people very dear to me.

It is sometimes said that “music begins where words end.” What do you make of that?

I could relate to the idea that, sometimes, my feelings are greater than any words I could speak. But when I sing them, it allows me to capture something for eternity.

It works like an archive of emotions. Sometimes I like to think of music as a project of memory, this can be the music I write or also music I have listened to at a certain time.

I get to collect it every month in my radio show Total Care on the Hong Kong Community Radio, you can find the latest episodes here.

I have always considered many forms of music to be a form of poetry as well. Where do you personally see similarities? What can music express which may be out of reach for poetry?

Continuing on from my response to the previous questions, something I also find a similarity in, is the melodious aspect of both written forms. A poem very much leans into a composition itself and in music, this is even more pronounced.

Many of my lyrics start as a poem initially and given the way I write them, they float very easily along any musical instrumentation I record later on.

The relationship between words and music has always intrigued me. How do you see it? In how far can music take you to places with your writing you would possibly not have visited without it?

I have a very intuitive access to writing music. It doesn’t happen to me that often, that I'll record something specific to a text I have written. Maybe I'll start with a certain mood, and then I want these lyrics to fall into it.

On the other hand, when it comes to writing music to a screenplay – scoring - that is very different.

I take an observing perspective many times, I like to reflect on my surrounding and also my own behaviour in it.

On the basis of a piece off Sabbatical, tell me about how the lyrics grew into their final form and what points of consideration were.

In Sabbatical I have collected tracks from very different stages of my life. What unites them is their approach to becoming something positive, driving and also a motif of letting go.

I understood Sabbatical as this journey through the past with a strong vision to create a more beautiful, healthy and nourishing future for yourself - which you couldn’t, if you wouldn’t clean up a little before. Otherwise you will always return to the same issues.



“Follow the dice, the dice is rolling. Don’t hold it on.
Sometimes it hasn’t the best numbers, don’t hold it on.”
(“Watch me disappear,” from Sabbatical)

When you're writing song lyrics, do you sense or see a connection between your voice and the text? Does it need to feel and sound “good” or “right” to sing certain words? What's your perspective in this regard of singing someone else's songs versus your own?

Yes, I often think about the sound of the words in my own writing.

It doesn’t happen anywhere else but a karaoke bar, that I'll sing someone else’s songs. And when I do, I never think about the sound of my own voice.

It’s not been long, that I got to enjoy karaoke. A friend I was with in Iceland introduced it to me as something more performative than musical. Previously, I felt too much of a seriousness around it. Now I really like watching people singing karaoke, there is something so tender in it.

My tracks for karaoke are most of the time “Goodbye Horses” by Q Lazarus or “Pretty Colors” by Frank Sinatra.



I would love to know a little about the feedback you've received from listeners or critics about what they thought some of your songs are about – have there been “misunderstandings” or did you perhaps even gain new “insights?”

I think the strongest reaction and sharing of perspectives came from Rigid.



It was overwhelming at times, because I would get all these DMs on Instagram with listeners emptying their hearts out in them. A similar thing happened with “Like Oxblood” recently.



I have to be open to different interpretations, so I can’t really say there is a misunderstanding. At an earlier stage I was sometimes afraid to be misunderstood, but now I very much believe in the possibility of conversation as something not ending.

I have faith in always being able to speak.