Interview | Anie Valentine

Anie Valentine is an alt pop artist based in Dublin. Influenced by The Pixies, Halsey and Nirvana, Anie fuses modern pop and grunge pastiches into her sonic palette, bringing a refreshing sound to the scene.

With the return of live music, Anie is lined up to perform at The Grand Social’s new event ‘BOOM’. Alison caught up with her to chat about the gig, as well as her debut single “Water Bottle” and her plans for the rest of 2021.

Hi Anie, thanks for taking the time to talk to us! Congratulations on the release of your debut single “Water Bottle.” What made you decide to release an acoustic track as your debut single?

When I started my songwriting course in BIMM after many years of pursuing music as just a hobby, there were a lot of skills I had not yet developed with regards to recording, production, and arrangement; I found myself very lost, as I was nowhere near being the self sufficient artist that everyone around me seemed to be. Throughout my first few months in college, I received a lot of help from a lot of friends, and my partner who had graduated the year before I enrolled, and who supported me in beginning my journey as a musician. I wrote Water Bottle as a sort of a love letter to him and to those around me who helped me take the first steps. I wanted to surprise everyone by recording it, producing it, and arranging it all on my own – and it was a challenge I set for myself as well, to do all of those things to show myself that I could. It’s by no means a perfect song, and I released it before I really gave any thought to who Anie Valentine was really going to be, but it was a very worthwhile journey for me and I learned a lot about the process of releasing music, which I know will benefit me with future releases.

It sure will. I understand some of your musical influences are The Pixies, Hole, Nirvana and Halsey. Will we hear more of them in your future releases?

Yes, yes and yes! I’ve been a fan of alternative music since my first encounter with Green Day, and although my tastes and influences have broadened to a variety of artists and genres, I think that grunge punk rock edge will always be a feature of my music. Going forward, you’ll be hearing a lot more songs like “Ending Things” for sure. I will say that I really don’t like putting myself in a box, so there might be some outliers with regards to genre – I guess it all really depends on how I feel and the music that I want to create at the moment.

You’ve just announced you’ll be playing at The Grand Social on August 14th! You must be so excited to get back to gigging?

Oh, you have no idea! I’ve been gigging since I was sixteen, so not even being able to see a gig for over a year has been painful. I’ve gigged with a variety of bands, often fulfilling various roles – I started out as a vocalist and lead guitarist for an indie band called the dandelions, and I used to book our under 16’s gigs, and although I remember the booking process to be excruciating, I even grew to miss that aspect of it all throughout the lockdown. The band that I was in until the start of 2020 was a punk band called “The Lord Reverend Mongo Joans and The Coathanger Solution” (A bit of a mouthful, I’ll admit) and I did drums and backing vocals for them before leaving due to a change in location. I’ve only got to gig once so far as Anie Valentine, and that was to an audience of camera men and a sound engineer, so I do really look forward to being on a stage again and playing to a real life audience.

Water Bottle is a very sweet, personal-sounding song. Would you say you draw most of your lyric inspiration from real life experiences?

I would say that’s mostly true; I like to convey emotion and experience more so than narrative, if that makes sense, and sometimes that may be through the retelling of my own personal experiences while others it will be through storytelling that brings together a variety of experiences that I have had. “Ending Things” is the perfect example of that, as it’s a song about my experiences with my relationships with male musicians, both romantic and platonic. I had always felt left out of the music scene, even when I was a part of it, as it had really felt like a “Boys Club” to me. This song garnered all of my frustration towards that, and is now essentially my personal mantra and anthem any time I feel like I don’t belong.

Have you any more exciting plans to share with MNÁSOME readers?”

There are a lot of exciting things that I’m planning on for all of 2021! I’m very excited to be getting back into rehearsal rooms, recording studios, and out in front of the camera, so I can guarantee that before christmas you’ll be hearing some new songs, catching some gigs, and there’s even a music video in the making – you’ll be hearing the name Anie Valentine more often, and you can be certain of that!