CAT POWER Rossi poses in a pic by boyfriend Rollin Hunt, who opens her upcoming Schubas show.
Photo: Rollin Hunt
It’s not easy to identify “Living in Danger” as an Ace of Base cover when listening to Anni Rossi’s new album, Rockwell. With little more than her elastic voice over plucked viola strings and thumping snare and bass drums, the singer-songwriter transforms the Swedish pop group’s perverted dance-hall hit into a modest, minimal arrangement. When we reach Rossi on her cell phone, as she drives her parents’ car from Chicago to her native Minnesota, she admits it’s more than an ironic fling: “That was the first record I really got into and listened to over and over again as a little girl.”
It’s not the first familiar cover song from the 24-year-old Chicago transplant. For her first gig, at 17, Rossi performed Radiohead’s breakout “Creep” as part of a competition for charity in Minneapolis. Though the song is no longer part of her live repertoire, the Humboldt Park resident cites the band as an early influence, along with indie-rock standbys like Built to Spill and Modest Mouse.
Her musical education began at age three with classical-violin lessons, followed soon after by piano instruction. “I was writing poppy stuff as early as seven,” she says. By 15, she’d begun composing on acoustic guitar before settling on her trademark viola while attending the Perpich Center for Arts Education, an arts high school in a western suburb of the Twin Cities. There, instructors turned her on to avant-garde pillars like Laurie Anderson and John Cage. After her 2003 graduation, Rossi attended the California Institute of the Arts, where she studied with noted improviser and educator Vinny Golia. She soon found herself immersed in L.A.’s underground, particularly the inclusive DIY punk venue the Smell. “Because the Hollywood industry is so strong,” Rossi says, “there’s this rich backlash of really interesting [noncommercial] music.”
By 2006, Rossi was touring relentlessly. Before long, the violist was opening for England’s Electrelane, which in turn connected her with legendary independent imprint 4AD (Pixies, the Breeders) and revered local engineer Steve Albini. Rossi settled in Chicago in 2007 but hasn’t spent the last two years whittling away on her debut—it was swiftly banged out at Albini’s Electrical Audio studio in just one day.
While it’s common to track instruments individually, Rossi (like Albini) is somewhat of a traditionalist. “I really wanted to record it live because the songs lose something when the viola and vocal performances are separated,” she says. “But there were a few technical barriers I had to overcome.”
Enlisting the notorious analog purist helped Rossi resolve her unique sonic challenges. “The tone of the viola and my voice are so close you can’t isolate them,” she explains. “[The frequency] makes it hard to control the sound, makes it a little less rich.” To compensate, Albini “got creative with the room mikes and amps, and made it a little beefier.”
Despite the hastily executed session, Rockwell (named for her street on the Northwest Side) is evocative and enchanting, showcasing Rossi’s playful approach to melody. Her signature vocal maneuver—a lilting soprano unpredictably lifting to falsetto accents—saturates spare arrangements on catchy originals like “Machine” and “Ecology.” She’s occasionally accompanied live by New York drummer Devin Maxwell, but Rossi typically performs by her lonesome, where she’ll repurpose a suitcase into a makeshift kick drum.
After she picks up her parents in Minnesota, Rossi will turn the car around and drive to D.C. for a brief family reunion (her brother’s a District resident) before beginning yet another touring cycle. Her ambitious circuit sees her supporting the likes of both indie favorites (Camera Obscura) and newcomers (Micachu & The Shapes), with any downtime spent assembling and demo-ing a new batch of songs for a follow-up. Such frequent gigging keeps Rossi out of town for weeks at a time—so much so that it’s easy to overlook her as a local artist. “I’ve been a little slow meeting other musicians in Chicago,” she says with a sigh. “I’m on tour quite often.”
Anni Rossi plays Schubas Saturday 6. She visited our office for a live performance, too. Hear it on the Infinite Loop podcast at timeoutchicago.com/blog.
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