Meet The Band: Animalia

Last night at the Press Club, Jill Krasnicki — who we'll all soon be knowing better as Animalia — launched her debut EP. To the waking, the shaking and the volatile is full of quiet folk tunes. In fact, when we asked her how she describes her music to people who haven't heard it before, she called it "melancholy acoustic". But that might be misleading. "People tend to look really depressed after that," she added. "So then I go into the reassuring spiel about how it’s very pleasant and soothing and quite pretty, even. It’s the question all musicians hate — I try to avoid it at all costs." So maybe it's best if you just check out her music yourself. You'll find the EP below all ready to stream, along with the rest of the questions she was kind enough to answer for us. And you can buy it on Bandcamp for $5 here or like Animalia on Facebook right over here.

If you could open for one current band that you haven't played with before, who would it be? 

Fever Ray. Our music ain’t nothing alike but I’d be into it.



If you could play one venue you've never played before, what would it be?

I’m from Australia and when I was growing up the cool thing was this big festival that plays around the country called the Big Day Out. It’s not really a venue as such but I’ve always fancied that one day, maybe one day, I might play that show.



What's the worst album you own?

I’m not very adventurous in my album listening and tend to listen to the same stuff over and over again so everything I have now I like. BUT — when I was a kid my mum bought me the Hanson CD. It was fine — I was about eleven or something. But as I grew older I felt haunted by it. I was 15 and I still had it, hidden in my drawers, afraid it would resurface and my reputation as the “alternative one” would crumble. I tried to sell it at second hand stores – no one would take it! It was a dark presence looming over my insecure teenage self. One day I panicked and threw it in the bin and hoped my mum wouldn’t find it. I felt bad because she’d bought it for me as a present and CDs weren’t cheap back then like they are now. Everything turned out OK and the Hanson CD was never talked about and I moved on with my life. Sort of. 

If you absolutely had to get a face tattoo of album art from one record, which record would you want to have on your face for the rest of your life?

It’d probably the cover of Never for Ever by Kate Bush. It’s a drawing of Kate standing with her hands behind her head wearing a dress with cloud print. A stream of monsters and animals are coming out from underneath her dress. It’s a cool piece of artwork and kind of creepy. I feel like if I’m going to the effort of getting a face tattoo, it may as well be a little strange!


Say, for some strange reason, all the music in the world is going to be destroyed, but you can save all the songs from one decade. Which decade's records would you save?


This is a really tough question. I’d have to say the '80s. I don’t think I could live without Hounds of Love by Kate Bush. Actually, all my favourite albums of hers were made in the '80s. Plus The Smiths, Peter Gabriel, Talking Heads, Zappa... A lot of great music was happening in the '80s – OK, yeah, and a lot of bad music but at least we could still have '80s themed dance parties.


Who was your favourite band (or artist) when you were 12 years old? Do you still like them?

I think it was Blink 182 when Dude Ranch came out. Oh, I had the biggest crush on Tom! I thought they were all so cool. Do I like the band now? No, I’d rather pull out my own teeth than listen their songs.



If you could switch places with another musician in some type of "Freaky Friday" type incident, who would you want it to be?


Bjork! Definitely Bjork. I would love to see what her recording process is like. She really just makes the coolest art and music — I think it’d be fascinating. I’d only want to swap for a day though. I bet her life can get pretty crazy and I like being me and doing what I do.


If you could have one musical superpower, what would you want it to be?

If I found someone being mean or cruel or nasty to a person or animal, I’d sing one line of lyrics of a song, and then the person it’s directed at would have no control over their own body and start singing and acting out the song like the original artist. For example, if I sang “It’s not natural, normal or kind...” the person would then start swaying around like Morrissey singing “Meat is Murder” in an incredibly dramatic tone.

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Meet The Band is a regular feature where we introduce you to bands we like. You can find all of the rest of them here.