Reminiscing About the Artists Who Shaped Me

I am who I am because of these women.

Birthdays are always very random to me. I stopped celebrating them a long time ago. It’s just a day like any other, right? Honestly, the people who deserve to be celebrated are my parents, who truly deserve all the praise for dealing with me on a daily basis for - *checks the calendar* - 35 years.

But birthdays always make me nostalgic. Even more nostalgic than I already am. So today, I’m paying tribute to some of the artists who shaped me as a human being and whose music played a huge part in my life.

Patti Smith

Before I loved Patti Smith as a musician, I loved her as a writer. One day, I picked up “Just Kids,” and it’s been my Roman Empire ever since. I think about that book a lot. She also has to be the coolest person in existence. Much of my fascination with her stems from wanting to be her. The first time I saw her live was in 2014 in Hamburg at an event billed as “an evening of words and music.” That was also the first time I heard “Birdland,” a piece that lies somewhere between a song and a poetry reading. It’s one of those moments and one of those songs you never forget. I saw her live many more times, and Patti Smith was the first concert I attended in Los Angeles after moving here (and also my last before the Covid shutdown). I honestly wish I was just half as cool as her.

But secretly I knew I had been transformed, moved by the revelation that human beings create art, that to be an artist was to see what others could not. - Patti Smith, Just Kids

ANOHNI

Raise your hand if “Hope There’s Someone” makes you cry like no other song. For me, “I Am A Bird Now,” recorded under her old band name Antony & The Johnsons, is one of the best albums in recorded music history. ANOHNI’s music has guided me through two decades now, and whenever I needed a good cry or the feeling of belonging, her music was always there for me. It’s rare to find music that makes you feel all the feels. And I mean literally all of them. It’s exactly what music is supposed to do. In hauntingly beautiful ways, ANOHNI creates an entirely new world with every album she releases. I have yet to see her live in concert, but I know it will be heart-shattering and life-altering.

“We can more easily imagine the collapse of the biosphere than a shift in systems of governance towards more feminine systems. The patriarchy can more easily imagine a fulfillment of apocalyptic fantasies that they wrote about in their religions, that they shove down our throats for 2000 years while burning us at the stake.” - ANOHNI in an interview with Them from 7/6/2023

Cat Power

I was introduced to Cat Power in my early 20s. The vulnerability in her songs and our shared love for Bob Dylan (or, God Dylan, as she calls him) made me susceptible to her music in the first place. She recently covered Dylan’s entire Royal Albert Hall concert from 1966, and I just love her love for him. It’s like we’re the same person. She just happens to be an incredible artist, and I … well, I am not. It was her album “You Are Free” that really sparked my deep admiration for her. It is a true testament to her greatness as a singer and songwriter and it resonated deeply with me. Obviously, her voice plays a big part in that connection as well. I am very grateful to be walking the earth at the same time as Chan Marshall.

Peaches

When I discovered Peaches, a whole new world opened up for me. I wish I remembered exactly where and when I first heard about her, but it was around the release of her album "Fatherfucker" in 2003. At that time, I had never seen or heard anything like her and her music. You have to imagine me, 14 years old, listening to “Fuck the Pain Away” on repeat, alone in my room in front of my PC, chatting with friends on ICQ and coding websites. That’s as rebellious as I would get in my teenage years. Then, when I visited the US for the first time in 2006, my host mom took me to see Peaches at the Wiltern in Los Angeles. We still joke about it today because, unbeknownst to her, she was up for an experience of a lifetime. I guess the huge inflatable penis on stage was the least of her worries. I love Peaches and am excited about everything she releases, from music to films, art exhibitions, and all the other fun stuff she blesses us with.

Blümchen

Blümchen, the Eurodance icon. What can I say? If I ever was a fangirl of someone, it would have been her. Blümchen was my first concert ever, back in 1998. I grew up in a tiny village in Northeast Germany, and my parents drove five hours to another city just so I could see her live. To this day, it’s still one of my most vivid childhood memories. Well, that and the time I performed (lipsynced) one of her songs, “Gib mir noch Zeit”, in front of my whole class at school. As I later learned, the song was about her not being ready for “it,” and she was asking her boyfriend to “give her more time.” 8-year old me had no idea. Aaawkwaaard. But anyway. While my parents shaped my early music taste with Pink Floyd and Queen, Blümchen was the first artist I discovered on my own. She definitely influenced my long-lasting relationship with music. Luckily, I outgrew my Eurodance phase, though.

Listen to a few of my favorite songs here: