“I Feel Like I’ve Lived So Many Lives” Annika Kilkenny Interviewed

It’s a sunny if bitter morning in Kilkenny city when CLASH meets rising Irish singer-songwriter Annika Kilkenny in the Pennyfeather cafe above the Book Centre on High Street. It’s one of Annika’s first interviews since the release of her debut single ‘Look Mom I Made It’ less than 18 months ago, and she admits herself it’s been busy ever since. 

“It feels like I’ve lived so many lives since ‘Look Mom’ and I’ve learned so many lessons in regards to life and releasing music,” she smiles, after ordering a pot of tea from a eager waiter; “It’s been a fun time learning what works and doesn’t work with music so it feels like now I can be happy and content with what I put out”.

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‘Look Mom I Made It’, released in September 2023, quickly took on a life of its own and was celebrated for its openness and depth of emotion both in Ireland and further afield. “It was surreal seeing your name up there among your favourites,” Annika recalls of seeing the track featured in a host of new music playlists. “It’s really nice getting recognition in Ireland too because the music scene is so amazing, so it’s nice being recognised as a musician and an artist is cool”.

By the time the single was released, she’d been in contact with Tinpot Records (an independent label founded by singer-songwriter Tom Rosenthal) over a year. The label first reached out in April 2022, having found Annika off the back of three videos of her work on Instagram and TikTok. The time wasn’t right for Annika however, and she asked them to get back in touch in July, by which time she would have finished her exams. “I was doing my Leaving Cert at the time so I had to tell them to go away a bit and ignore them for a little while!” Annika laughs, “which was terrifying because I thought I’d blown it, that I’d ruined that opportunity but they told me they’d get back in touch and they actually did. From there we jumped on a call”. 

“I love their ethos, their brand,” she extols of Tinpot. “Their label was centred around authenticity and doing things that are right for you. I felt very connected to the team and very supported which was really important, I was so young, I was 18, 19, I had no knowledge on the industry. It could have gone very badly but they took me in and created a safe space for me as a young musician”.

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In December of 2022, Annika travelled to the UK to spend a couple of days in the studio. Within four days, they have the bulk of Kilkenny’s debut EP completed. “I had no idea what I was doing,” she insists of the sessions. “It was my first time in the studio, first time recording professionally so naturally very daunting but exciting, I was really faking it until I made it”.

Annika grew up in a musical family from the very beginning, with her mother’s side into choirs and her father’s side of a more traditional, instrumental leaning. Annika loved watching them perform growing up and she had dreams growing up of performing in front of crowds, microphone in hand. She first started piano at 6, with her aunt being her first teacher. She started writing lyrics at 16/17, all on the Notes app of her phoner rather than with pen and paper. “My brain works really quickly so I need to type it out really quickly before it disappears” she explains of the decision, which she’s been sticking to ever since.

Heading into 2023 with not only a single but a full project under her belt, Kilkenny was confident of what the year would hold however, naturally, with inexperience came nerves. At the time, she was grasping onto an idea of perfection, which she quickly realised isn’t attainable/ “I told myself whatever happens happened and the response was lovely” she explains, “people getting in touch and talking about their mums, it was lovely”.

Throughout 2023, she continued to travel back and forth between the UK and Ireland, spending weeks at a time in the studio with producee Ant Whiting (Lana Del Rey, Matt Maltese) and co-songwriter Emily Phillips (Florence and the Machine, Matilda Mann, SOAK), whom Annika adores working. “I really just loved how I felt in their presence,” she notes; “they are very comforting and welcoming people, very warm people; and they made me feel very respected as a musician which is so important. In terms of co-writing, I love working from scratch and building something together with other people. I love hearing people’s feedback and have them give their opinion”.

“It’s a daunting thing though,” Annika adds. “With art in general, you are being vulnerable and opening but they’ve created such a comfortable space for me to do that”.

Following the release of ‘Look Mom I Made It’ came a string of singles, ‘The Middle’, ‘Taken Out By The Wind’, ‘Tunnel Vision’, ‘Sentences’ and ‘Stone’s Throw Away’, which in May of this year was wrapped together as Annika’s debut EP ‘Look Mom I Made It’. 

With her debut project in the rearview mirror, attention has already turned to her second effort, ‘Me In The Mud’, which is set for release on February 7th. If ‘Look Mom I Made It’ was about change, ‘Me In The Mud’ is about adapting to change and rolling with it. “I think this EP has a really different sound to the first” Annika explains. “The songs on this project are all relatively newer too which makes me feel a little more connected to this one because the songs are a bit more relevant to my life at the moment. But with that comes nerves too, because I feel like I’m opening myself up that bit more because it is so present and current with the stage I am in my life”.

So far, Annika has released three brand new singles that are set to feature on the project, ‘It’s Shaped You’, ‘Out In The Garden’ and the brilliant ‘Boots For Hiking’, which she released earlier this month. “‘Boots For Hiking’ reflects on the feeling of continuously needing to be one step ahead of where you currently stand. It’s for people who feel older than they are, for whatever reason, and is a reminder for all to exist presently.”

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One particular song on the project she’s excited for listeners to hear is ‘Tango’, an uptempto track completely different to everything Annika has released before. “I loved experimenting with that, a new sonic world I’m not familiar with. Figuring out how to get that song right with the group vocals and the instrumentation, it was interesting but I’m really happy with how it turned out’.

To celebrate the release of the EP, however, Annika has a tour to contend with, including a big Dublin headliner in The Workman’s Cellar on February 19th. It comes off the back of a smaller headline tour in October, which included a hometown show in Cleere’s and a performance at the prestigious Ruby Sessions, which has featured sets from some of the world’s biggest acts including Ed Sheeran, Fred Again, Dermot Kennedy and CMAT. One of the most prestigious live sets she’s played so far has been in support of Icelandic-Chinese pop / jazz artist Laufey for her Earth Hackney show in February. 

A big fan, the shows came after Annika popped Laufey an Instagram DM saying she’d love to support her one day, and within a few months Laufey’s management replied to make it a reality. “She’s just as warm as she is on stage in person,” Annika smiles. “Her audience are very attentive, a lot of them are musicians as well but even those that aren’t just have such respect for music and for art. She for sure has magic laced in her songs. She’s such an interesting musician, trying things that haven’t been done before and every song she writes is so well crafted and there’s so many intricisites in her songs that if you zone out of a moment you miss it, she’s very special”.

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Words: Cailean Coffey
Photography: Dan Hall / Pickpocket Pictures

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