“I guess I saw the world with eyes closed.” This line from the title track of Slowwalker, the debut EP by the up-and-coming indie folk trio animat, touches on so much: growing up, old emotional barriers, new hope. It also almost feels as if the trio is saying that something essential has entered their lives through forming the band – both in making music and in life in general.
Anna Meier, Tabea Niewerth and Milena Wagner, these are the names of the three animat members. Their multi-layered vocal harmonies define the songs on „Slowwalker“; each musician brings her own vocal timbre, and together they create pure magic. That’s what makes this EP so captivating. Listening to it feels like becoming part of the group and opening your eyes with them. Great music isn’t meant to draw attention to itself – or to the people who created it – but rather to the world around it. That’s exactly what the title track of „Slowwalker“ is about: moving forward with open eyes. Not just hoping, but knowing that tomorrow is a new day. A good day.
Text by Lennart Bauwers
Photos by Nils Wagner
Artwork by Simon Tubbesing
The result is indie-folk songs like the life-affirming highlight “Fertilizer”, where the chorus feels like the sun is rising. Or the melancholic ballad “Blue”: “The writing process is different for each song. For ‚Blue‘, for example, we had a fixed melody, and then each of us started writing lyrics to it. Even though they touch on different things, they always revolve around the same overarching theme. We're really good at responding to each other.” No matter how personal their songs may be, for animat, community comes first. Always.
“Plant a seed to grow,” the band sings in the opener „Cherry Blossom“. That’s exactly what animat are doing on their debut EP: planting the seeds for a promising future. The three musicians confront their insecurities and transform them into confidence. “At its core, it’s about finding a way to deal with your own fears. The three of us tend to panic about certain things. But our songs are actually quite hopeful.” Loneliness is a thing of the past. Now, it’s about togetherness – with animat.
“Indie folk, that sums it up best. I think our music feels warm. You could call it dreamy, though that word has become a bit of a cliché,” says guitarist/vocalist Milena Wagner about the band’s sound. But animat never sounds cliché. Their acoustic guitar arpeggios are original, always finding clever twists, never depending on obvious chord progressions. Also, there are some playful violin touches: “We all originally learned classical string instruments. That’s how we connected. We definitely wanted to incorporate that, without making it the main focus.” That idea runs throughout the „Slowwalker“ EP: it’s modern and elegantly crafted, yet it never strays from the core essence: the melodies and the voicesIt sounds warm, and it creates warmth.
