Anoki grows up in the nineties between Dutch red facades and Bavarian small town, as the son of an Indonesian father and a German mother. While the father is always somewhere, the single mother shows her son how music on the radio can be transferred to cassette. He starts playing guitar, experiencing punk and politics in alternative youth centers in a conservative small-town community of values. From there, he moves on to hip-hop and its pioneers.
Via detours, Anoki arrives in Berlin. His intense and special way of telling stories and finding the right words for them stands out. He signs a publishing contract with Neubau Music / BMG, plays support shows for Dendemann and Neufundland. OK KID take him on tour. On his debut EP „Irgendwann wird alles leichter“, produced by Tim Tautorat (Provinz, Annenmaykantereit) and Dennis Borger (Fibel), Anoki processes his own story and puts it into a cultural context. Anoki does spoken word, not rap. Somewhere between indie, soul and pop, the songwriter positions himself with a softly crackling and comfortingly scratchy version of modern German-language poetry that tells of resignation and departure. It’s not all good, but maybe it’s easier at some point.
©: Janos Götze