‘I Am A Bird Now’: The strange story of Anohni’s breakthrough
In 2005, the Mercury Prize was coveted by music’s most promising new voices.
Stacked against each other were the likes of Bloc Party, Coldplay and Kaiser Chiefs, representing the garage and indie rock explosions of the era; British-Sri-Lankan rapper MIA’s political dance debut; and the experimental jazz stylings of Polar Bear. It was anybody’s game, yet the shock of who actually got to take home the prize reverberated across the UK, Ireland and beyond.
British-born singer-songwriter Anohni grew up within her theatrical, avant-garde performance background in New York City, reimagining her artistry with 2005’s I Am A Bird Now. Released with her band Antony and the Johnsons (now Anohni and the Johnsons), the chamber pop collection presented a radicalised vision of what a ‘pop’ singer could be, a necessary disruption of the mould. I Am A Bird Now is an art piece of trans expression, the culmination of Anohni’s years of introspection and subsequent shaping of her identity, as both a performer and a woman.
In conversation with Billboard, Anohni explains that the songs on I Am A Bird Now were predominantly written in the mid-1990s, when New York City served as her living, breathing canvas. “I’ve always talked about the album as a story about a family living inside me,” she says, “that everyone contains a family of archetypes, and that they’re in conversation.” I Am A Bird Now was born into a world that perhaps was not ready for an artistic work like it, but was open to its concept. Anohni’s image as a trans artist, conversing with her gender and identity, was not wholly unheard of but still sparked a curiosity that set her on a different pedestal from her peers.
The “Johnsons” in her band name is a tribute to Marsha P Johnson, a trans and human-rights activist. I Am A Bird Now’s cover art is a photograph by Peter Hujar of Candy Darling, a trans woman who was one of Andy Warhol’s superstars and muse to Lou Reed. She is shown on her deathbed, just before her premature death at 29 years old. Anohni’s confidence in her identity was not up for debate, and, as she recalls, “People weren’t necessarily perceiving my identity as grounds for not listening to my music. They were just curious about the music.”
Anohni’s recognition in winning the Mercury Prize was an evident acknowledgement of artistic judgment, but her win was still met with criticism. The Kaiser Chiefs bitterly tried to contest Anohni’s win, suggesting a ‘technicality’ with the British-born, though largely US-based, singer. Critics and the public alike were overwhelmingly confused, wondering who Anohni was and not fully understanding her artistic approach.
Thankfully, Anohni had the backing of those who truly mattered: the fellow artists who championed her work from its inception. David Tibet of Current 93 released Anohni’s debut in 2000, prompting her “return” to the UK. She garnered the attention of Lou Reed, who invited her to be a backup singer on his world tour, beginning a creative relationship that she describes as “transformative”. Producer Hal Willner took her under his wing and, in her words, “introduced me to the broader, dare I say, heterosexual music world”.
She credits these mentors with her breakthrough, who allowed her the space to evolve as an artist and open the necessary doors for her to reach wider audiences. Looking back on her Mercury Prize win 20 years later, she describes 2005 as a “Goldilocks zone” for her work to have emerged in: some may have resisted for one reason or another, but most importantly, the album was platformed to reach those who needed it most.
“My experience with I Am A Bird Now has been my lifelong experience,” she concluded, “which is that, as a person like me, your survival depends on the kindness of strangers.”
