#hideout

Anjimile

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Talk about artists making the most out of not just minimal setups, but the spaciousness of their voices. Last Wednesday at the Hideout, North Carolina's Anjimile and local singer-songwriter Oyeme enraptured the room with mostly guitar, pedals, and vocals. The former, touring his excellent new album You're Free to Go (4AD), presented intimate meditations on family, relationships, and queerness, rife with fingerpicked acoustic lines and deep harmonies with multi-instrumentalist Sinclair Palmer. Given the rich tapestry of sounds that engulfs You're Free to Go, going into the show, I wondered whether I'd miss the drums, strings, and piano. I didn't and instead discovered other elements that shone live, the jaunty riffs of "Afarin", the layered vocals of "Like You Really Mean It". As Anjimile left the stage, yours truly inquired, "One more?" at which point he nonchalantly delivered a stunning cover of Frank Ocean classic "Self Control", whose own outro's echoes proved tailor-made for Anjimile's expansive style.

Oyeme

Oyeme, meanwhile, only has a handful of published recordings to her name, the most recent of which, the resonant "philtrum (kissing ghost)", was a highlight of her set. The majority of what she played were sparse, yet mighty solo versions of songs from an upcoming full-band album, purportedly titled Partscaster, still in the demos stage. Judging by the performances, like that of the reverb-heavy title track, the album should give more oomph to Oyeme's already nicely established bedroom shoegaze sound. She repeatedly remarked throughout her set that she wished we were hearing the full-band versions; while I'm excited to hear them, the solo set effectively reflected the vulnerability prevalent within the songs, which is why her music is overall so captivating and relatable.

Anjimile

BY JORDAN MAINZER

For the better part of his musical career so far, Anjimile Chithambo--who performs under the mononym of his first name--has made records that overcome tumult. His debut album Giver Taker was written while getting sober in a rehab facility and inspired by the experience of him coming out as a nonbinary trans person to his parents. 2023 breakout and 4AD debut The King was a remarkable account of Anjimile's feelings following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, pent up anger due to the bigotry he's faced living as a Black trans person in the United States, finally boiling over. Both of these albums, and all of their associated emotions, inform his third LP, entitled You're Free to Go, released in March, but from a more reflective perspective. After all, this time around, Anjimile's got a lot to celebrate: undergoing hormonal therapy, falling in love with his partner, and discovering that non-monogamy works for them. The last one on the list sparked the verbiage of the album title and title track--like one partner saying to the other to go do their thing--yet the concept of freedom carries a much heavier weight in context of Anjimile's identity increasingly becoming a source of pride.

To find the perfect sound to represent his newfound levity, the Durham-based Anjimile turned to his neighbor, who just so happens to be Brad Cook, one of the most prolific and important indie rock producers of the past decade and a half. From there, Anjimile decided to take advantage of the city's fruitful music scene, recording with the likes of Bon Iver drummer Matt McCaughan and string genius Libby Rodenbough. Nathan Stocker, lead guitarist of Saint Paul rock band Hippo Campus and who makes his solo music as brotherkenzie, lends electric guitar, piano, acoustic guitar, and synthesizers throughout. However, Anjimile also harked back to the music of his teenage years, channeling Modest Mouse on "Turning Away" and "The Store", the latter's gentle guitar layers falling behind whirs and clacks. On "The Store", Anjimile sings, "I asked for a sign / You gave me the store," both toying with your expectations via clever wordplay and beautifully illustrating heartfelt dedication between people. And none other than early influence Sam Beam of Iron & Wine provides backing vocals and harmonies on the final two songs, "Destroying You" and "Enough", and emotional centerpiece "Ready or Not". "Ready or Not" looks transphobia straight on, Anjimile singing, over scraped guitar and delicate piano, "You made a choice / I'm not your kid" and later, "Ready or not, here I come," a phrase long immortalized in music by The Delfonics and the Fugees, that's moved up an echelon even further with Anjimile's declaration of presence. Beam's vocals--ever mighty precisely because of rather than in spite of their softness--sound strikingly similar to Anjimile's on "The Store", a symbolic passing of the torch moment from one powerful songwriter to another.

Anjimile spoke with me over the phone late last month from Durham, as he was getting ready to move to a suburban town an hour west to live with his partner. We talked about the making of You're Free to Go, its salient cover art, and teaching music. Anjimile plays the Hideout this Wednesday, accompanied by multi-instrumentalist Sinclair Palmer, and at the Evanston Folk Festival in September. Tickets are still available at the Hideout at time of publication (doors at 7:30 P.M., show at 8). Below, read our conversation, edited for length and clarity.

You're Free to Go cover art

SILY: You're Free to Go has been out for a couple months. How have you felt the reception has been, and how is your relationship to the record now that it's out in the public and people are listening to it?

Anjimile Chithambo: I'm grateful. I feel like I've received a lot of positive feedback. It seems like the people are digging it, and that's nice, because I dig it, too. It's also nice that it's out because I don't have to think about what people will think about it anymore. It belongs to the world now. I can let it go.

SILY: You're free to go!

AC: Exactly.

SILY: Normally, when you make a record, do you think about how fans or new listeners will receive it?

AC: Not necessarily. It's more a nascent anxiety that will creep up every now and again that I'll swat away like it's a fly when I am making music. That's a fool's errand, to try to make music for an imaginary person, what they might like. I have to push it away.

SILY: This record is more internal and about your immediate surroundings than about the world. It's not quite as wide-reaching as The King. Did that affect your feelings about the record as you were making it?

AC: I guess so. You're Free to Go definitely sounds different than The King, because it's about different stuff. The King was me processing a lot of societal trauma, and as a result, the record was very angular with the potential to cut the listener's ear. This album, I'm just a little less anxious, still processing societal trauma but also experiencing falling in love, processing my gender identity, and focusing on what's around me. It definitely affected the recording process. Brad Cook lives down the street, so he's certainly around me, so that made that part easy.

SILY: If The King is angular, this album is a lot more gentle and rounded, from the guitar tones to the layering. Did you go into it knowing you were going to approach it with a different sound?

AC: I knew that a different sound would be likely just based on the shift in producers. Shawn Everett, the producer of The King, has a very different style, and even within his style, we recorded the album in a very specific, methodical way. Brad Cook, he makes roots-related Americana, and there wasn't a lot of production stuff happening in terms of bells and whistles. I was like, "Here are the songs, let's put some bass and drums and see how that feels, add some keys," as opposed to working with Shawn Everett where I was like, "Okay, now we're going to import this Philip Glass track into the song and change the key and time signature and then record it for a week." This was a different process.

SILY: This one's got a more relaxed feel to it. Also, if I wasn't looking at the credits, I wouldn't always know what instruments were making what sounds. Do you like that ambiguity in music?

AC: I do like that, that sonic textural experimentation, a lot. The King was a lot wackier. We made every sound on that record using the acoustic guitar. We ran it through a lot of stuff and slapped it and did all this stuff to make it sound like drums and bass and keys. It was nice this time to, like, use a Moog synth and just find a cool sound. It's kind of the mark of a true artist like Brad, to find the right little extra sounds to add into the arrangement and have them be both familiar and unique, bringing out the best qualities.

SILY: Did it mean something to you to work with so many local folks on this record, from Brad to Libby Rodenbough?

AC: Yeah. Once it was established that we were recording at Brad's place, it was, "Let's just do it in Durham. I'm not leaving Durham. I don't feel like it." Libby's a local legend. That was easy. [laughs] Libby rules. That was exciting to have her come to the studio and do her thing.

SILY: The scene there seems really conducive to everybody playing on everybody else's records, independent of genre.

AC: Oh yeah. 100%. We like to collab around here. It's fun. I love singing on other people's stuff. It's so fun.

SILY: At what point did you decide the sequencing of the album? How did you go about it?

AC: The sequencing experience and process came towards the end. We had recorded everything, and it was initially challenging to figure out the order. At one point, we kicked one of the songs off, "Auld Lang Syne II", which ended up being a single before the album, a one-off. For whatever reason, removing that song made an arc clear. I really love sequencing and a record having an arc, a sonic narrative. I feel like You're Free to Go starts in this gentle way, we get some drums in there, high-energy, and halfway through the album, it gets super emotional again and stays in that mood. I dig that. [laughs]

SILY: How much have you played these songs live?

AC: Not a ton. Maybe a dozen [times] at this point. I think we finished this record a year and a half ago, so between then and now, I've been able to play them, mostly in Durham. I had a residency at a record store in Durham last month. That was super helpful. I've certainly been rehearsing a lot.

SILY: How are you reimagining the songs for smaller venues? What's the setup going to be like at the Hideout?

AC: It's less rearranging for the room and more working within the constraints we have for tour, which is a small budget. It's me and one other musician. We're making as much sound as possible with our respective toys and instruments.

SILY: You're also playing Evanston Folk Festival in the fall, likely solo. When playing live, does the process of paring back the songs to their original minimal arrangements put you in the same headspace you were in when you wrote them?

AC: Definitely performing puts me in the headspace I was in when I wrote the song. It's always a very immersive experience.

SILY: Do you have a favorite song to play live from this record?

AC: Maybe right now "You're Free to Go" because the fingerpicking is fun to play. They're all pretty fun to play, which is exciting. "Like You Really Mean It" is really fun to play as well.

SILY: I like on the latter how the plea you're singing is tangled within the guitar parts.

AC: Yeah!

SILY: At the Hideout, the other musician you're playing with, Sinclair Palmer, is going to be doing backing vocals. That's cool to hear, because guest vocals and vocal layering are such an integral part to the sound of this record.

AC: I think that's the one thing I felt like I needed if I was gonna bring another musician.

SILY: Can you tell me about the cover art?

AC: Have you ever heard of video synth? If a keyboard synth [that] processes sounds and makes them sound different, and there are different settings. Sometimes it's a pad, sometimes it's a "whoop whoop" sound. You can do that for video footage as well. Brad has these two analog RCA units. He's got a setup in his garage where there's a projector. I filmed myself watching a video and we ran that through the video synth and were able to distort the image, add different colors, make it wavy, make it upside down, add kaleidoscopic stuff. The cover art is pulled from one of those video sessions where we were manipulating the bass image of me looking into the camera. We sent a bunch of stills to the designer, and he sent the album cover back. I was like, "Yes!" It's simple, it's clear. I love the green line at the top. I think it's as direct as the album itself.

SILY: For sure, but it also has an Easter Egg-type story behind it where it's literally connected to the music. Kind of like how the MIDI notation to "Laura Palmer's Theme" from Angelo Badalamenti's Twin Peaks score is shaped like twin peaks.

AC: What?!?

SILY: I know.

AC: Insane.

SILY: Are you the type of songwriter who is always writing, or do you need to set aside time to sit down and write music?

AC: I'm not the type of songwriter who is always writing. It's quite often. It's somewhere in between--I don't usually sit down and say, "Time to write a song now." I tend to have a lightning strike of inspiration. In order for that to take shape, I need to be playing guitar regularly. When I'm in the practice of playing guitar regularly, the songs flow out once a month. If I'm focused on my day job, I'm writing less.

SILY: Do you know it's time for a new record when the things you've been writing start to coalesce around a theme?

AC: I think it's finding the theme in the collection of music, and also doing that in the context of the label saying, "Hey! Time for another record!" On the one hand, it's less romantic because it's capitalism-informed, but it's a creative process to choose the collection and making the connection between songs, [deciding] what songs group together in what ways. I think the grouping of the songs on [this] album makes a lot of sense.

SILY: It's always a delicate balance. The album finished almost two years ago and came out when it did because of the record release cycle, but it's its own artistic statement and a snapshot of a time and place for you.

AC: Totally.

SILY: Do you have anything else on the horizon?

AC: I'm trying to get a job as a music teacher. I did [it] a bunch in Durham, but now I'm moving. I'm trying to get a gig for the 2026-27 academic school year.

SILY: How does that job, where you're intimately involved with others' creativity, affect your own creativity?

AC: It tends to be super inspiring. I like working with youth and music because there tends to be less fear because of the lack of self-awareness that kids have. It makes them less afraid to try new things and explore creatively musically, do something silly, and try stuff even if it doesn't work...I love teaching workshops for kids involving songwriting.

SILY: Is there anything you've been listening to, watching, or reading that's inspired you?

AC: I've been listening to a lot of Parliament. I already like Parliament, but I've gotten to the point where I decided to listen to another Parliament album. I feel like once you listen to two, you're in there. You're a fan. I've been bumping The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein by them. I'm particularly inspired by the groove and the gang vocals. They're so cool and kind of eerie. I'm interested in the eeriness of the gang vocals. I find it arresting.

I've been listening to this podcast called Otherworld where people talk about their supernatural experiences. It ends up landing on musings on these individuals' spiritual beliefs as a result of their experiences, and I always find that very interesting to listen to.

SILY: Was there something you took away from working on this record that you already know you're going to apply to making music in the future?

AC: I learned the power of being relaxed in the studio. From the technical aspect, I prefer the way my voice sounds when it's relaxed, and that will only happen if I'm actually relaxed. [laughs] Recording is not necessarily a relaxing environment. I've never had a bad recording experience, but it feels like work...I don't have to be and it benefits me if I am not wound up. It actually behooves me as a vocalist and instrumentalist to let go and release. That helps me dig into the music and the mood and the feeling and the point of what I'm doing even more.

Brad smokes so much weed, it's impossible not to be relaxed around him...I was just dog-sitting at his house. It was a delight.

One fresh horror story coming up!

It's still warm:))

Word count: 929

TW: mild gore