On tour with "Pikant"

Ankathie Koi: “The untameable wild sow is still here”

Release your inner harlequin - that's what Ankathie Koi does on her new album "Pikant", with which she can be seen live throughout Austria in the near future.

(Bild: Faszinator Music, Carola Schmidt, Krone KREATIV)

Five years after her last album "Prominent Libido", Ankathie Koi is currently delighting us with her new album "Pikant". In an interview with Krone, she reveals how motherhood has changed her life, why she performs in a harlequin costume and why she now mainly sings in German.

If you're missing a hefty dose of offensive and exalted in the local music scene, you haven't looked hard enough yet. Ankathie Koi, originally from Bavaria by choice, is literally what you would call a "crazy hen" and practices her music with the energy output of a medium-sized small town. Her solo career has now lasted exactly ten years and she is now releasing her third studio album "Pikant" - unknowingly on the occasion of her anniversary - which, with its mixture of 80s party vibes, boundless electronics and the necessary flair for a memorable pop melody, once again nestles perfectly into the soon to be warmer spring. Although at least the musical approach on the current album has been tightened up a little, as she tells us in the "Krone" talk.

Everything set to zero
"The 80s influences are still there, of course, but no longer as rampant. With the last album 'Prominent Libido', I paid more attention to the voices and the sounds and too little to what was actually happening with the songs. I still like the album very much, but many of the songs were insanely difficult to perform live. I wanted to write pop songs again with a clear structure that burrow into the ear canals." The urge for musical lightness came to Koi during the protracted coronavirus pandemic. The artist suffered a temporary burnout in 2019 and "slept through two weeks at the beginning of the pandemic. After that, concerts were canceled and postponed and we had to get creative." Koi bought a 1984 Ibanez jazz guitar and discovered a dignified, "fancy" side to himself.

"We already had other working titles for the new album," she laughs, "the very first one was 'Angry suits you', but I'm not that angry. Then we thought of 'So much drama (doesn't suit you)', because we were playing very jazzy compositions for a while. In the end we ended up with 'Parapikant', where my team objected that it sounded too much like 'The X-Files'. But that's the best series!" The final title "Pikant" could be seen as perfect for both the person Ankathie Koi and her music. "Spicy is pleasantly hot, but doesn't hurt," she laughs, "it's like a good spread, but not the bad chicken tikka masala with five different types of chili." With Ankathie Koi, the spice is in the offensive display of physicality and lyrics, which are rarely used in this country and which have always revolved freely around sexuality, holding up a mirror to the pseudo-prudery.

Making the subject their own
Songs such as "Tiefer", "Amour Fou", the two-part "Du bist heiß" and "Baby Boy" leave few questions unanswered. In the latter song, the singer conveys the message that it is also okay for mature women to have toyboys. "I was actually asked in an interview whether I was afraid of negative feedback. It feels like there are 80,000 sugar daddy songs with disgusting lyrics, where naked girls loll around on cars and the guys rap subterranean lyrics to them - and it's even on the radio every day. I also wanted to deal with this topic, but in a beautiful, aesthetic and cool way. In my songs there is always consensus between two parties, whereas women are objectified and devalued in gangster rap. My 'Baby Boy' is treated well by me."

For Koi, the last few years have also been associated with personal change. Three years ago, she became a mother to her daughter Olivia, which meant a significant change to her usual life. "The 2018 and 2019 tours were not only hard because we were playing a lot and I was working on the side," she recalls, "but because we were really hard on the road. On one tour, we didn't actually need a hotel room at all because I never saw the inside of one. It wasn't healthy, but it was fun." In an increasingly standardized society, Koi is an outspoken advocate of excess and licentiousness - without forgetting responsibility. "Today, I don't just have to look after the child, I also have to look after myself so that I can look after the child. But the 'untameable wild sow' still exists. She no longer flies around the pubs until early in the morning, but goes to bed at 1.30 a.m. so that she at least gets her five and a half hours of sleep. I'm still not the first to leave the backstage, but I'm no longer the last either."

Hedonism and motherhood
Reconciling rock'n'roll and motherhood required a certain amount of adaptation, which led to interesting insights for Koi. "I'm not the super cool mom I've always seen myself as. I tend to be strict in the playground, whereas my husband Dominik or other mothers with their children are pretty relaxed. I've never been afraid on stage, which is why my shows are energetic to the point of falling over. My hedonism has always led to a lot of good art and a certain lack of compromise. I've never cared whether something goes down well or not - I do my thing. In my role as a mother, however, fears have suddenly arisen and now I'm still in the discovery phase between mommy rock star and mommy helicopter." To visualize this nebulous existence, Koi stages herself on "Pikant" in a harlequin costume borrowed from the Berlin State Ballet.

"Even though the press release says horror clown and I found it so funny that I left it in: The Harlequin helps me to float between worlds. I also feel comfortable in it because it's much more comfortable than the latex costumes I used to wear on stage. I had corsets and I couldn't even bend over. Music is a job that involves sweat and tears." Ankathie Koi has also undergone a fundamental change in her lyrics. For the first time, she sings primarily in German and only uses English terms when they are part of everyday usage or complete the rhyme. "It wasn't that easy to get Ankathie Koi from English into German. I like simplicity, but nothing banal. I like kitsch, but not cliché. The German language allows me to sing out some parts and the consonant richness is very hard and percussive. It makes everything seem a bit more aggressive and that sometimes fits the themes very well."

Genetic swaps
The German-language journey began with the song "Du bist heiß", and in the single "Tiefer" Koi becomes more explicit as usual. "I like to be very direct without being too direct. In 'Tiefer', I wanted to describe a very banal scene of how I imagine penetrating a man as a woman. You should be able to read the song on a sexual and emotional level. I also believe that a lot of men would be interested in being a woman for a day. This genetic change should actually be anchored in our DNA because it would probably promote mutual understanding immensely." On her upcoming tour, the new mom invites you back into a world of debauchery and escapism. A counterpoint to the never-ending social problems and difficulties of the present. "I wanted to free myself from the heaviness of the last few years with this album. I'm in the mood for disco again."

Live throughout Austria
Ankathie Koi is now going on a major tour of Austria with "Pikant". She will be performing at the Mozartsaal of the Wiener Konzerthaus on April 27, at the Festspielhaus St. Pölten on May 16, at the ARGE Salzburg on May 29, at the Harder Kammgarn on May 30, at the Kino Ebensee on May 31, at the Posthof in Linz on June 6 and at the Donaubühne in Tulln on July 20. You can find all the dates, information and ticket sales details for the concerts at www.spoon-agency.at.