By Rich Monetti****When Annie Nirschel moved from Connecticut to Brooklyn, it was a bit of a culture shock. The moment that crystallized her transition took place as a frenetic man was pacing back and forth in front of her apartment with a fax machine. But instead of recoiling, Nirschel took the eclectics in and simply joined the fray.
“I’ve never seen so many people with so much purpose,” says the singer-songwriter. “They are determined to do whatever random thing they have to do, and I quickly became one of these people.” Thus, she had an opening line for the title track to her single, “(It’s not) a Bad Time”—“This is the last sweatshop in Brooklyn with a fax machine.”
But emerging as a singer who has now played in “so, so many sports bars and basements in Bushwick,” required a long coming out party. “Music just always felt very personal—like a way to be expressive without being judged,” she says. This point of view had Nirschel learning the guitar in high school, but keeping the chords to herself. She eventually majored in animation at the University of Connecticut and has enjoyed this profession as the “day job” ever since.
At one point, though, Nirschel realized she was avoiding music, and a mounting fear began to erode the state of denial that was silencing her audio. Fortunately, Nirschel had an awakening. “Music is my strongest skill, and it is when I’m happiest,” she says. “So I was, like I should leave my bedroom and do this on a stage.”
Her affinity for Bob Dylan initially led her to pick up her guitar and head down the road as a folk singer; but settling in with her acoustics led her on a very unlikely path. “The more comfortable I felt, the more hysterically I could sing, and I sort of became manic,” she reveals. “So my producers put a punk angle on the music.” Soon enough, Nirschel was being booked at punk shows, and even she isn’t so sure about her manic delivery. “It’s like Stevie Nicks on fire,” she deadpans.
You might also get lit up if you see her trying to manage the subway or the checkout line at Target. “I’m confused by so many things,” she jokes. The same goes for her ability to navigate relationships, so she writes about unromantic love and the subway lines. She thinks there are enough people writing better love songs but has some pretty good insight on the subject nonetheless. “I’m more than the man I am involved with and try to keep it out of my music,” Nirschel asserts.
The finances of a NYC artist aren’t concepts so easy to assimilate, though. “Even if you’re working full time,”she sighs, “the compromise of living in NY is you will he broke.” So another ah-ha moment resulted in a song called “Woo-Hoo.” “I wrote the song on a napkin after a panic attack outside the Barclays Center,” she said. “I was too overdrawn on my bank account to buy toilet paper and a couple of stray cats were fighting.”
“I don’t have any money, you don’t have any money, so let’s run around like two switchblade cats,” goes her raspy voice opening the song. But despite the lyrics, she has a mindset that always keeps her above the bottom line. “The key to not getting frustrated is making things for yourself and making them to share,” Nirshel reveals. So no matter how it goes, music will always have her right at home “It just feels correct,” shel says with finality.
Click for Annie’s music at https://soundcloud.com/annienirschel
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