Holiday Habits - Annie

Norwegian DJ and electropop starlet Annie talks travel

INTERVIEW: SOPHY GRIMSHAW

“LAST SUMMER THERE WAS SUCH BAD weather in Bergen, where I’m from, that after five weeks of rain I spontaneously bought myself a ticket to Croatia for a holiday. It was a Wednesday when I decided I wanted to go, and I was on a plane out of Norway on the Friday.

I had never been to Croatia before and it was just gorgeous. They have the most beautiful beaches there.

“I haven’t spent as much time in the other Scandinavian countries as I’d like. Stockholm is really beautiful architecturally, and it’s great for shopping and getting a good cup of coffee.

I love Copenhagen because the Danish are good people and really know how to do a big breakfast, with meat, cheese and fish. I’d love to play at the Roskilde Festival there one year. I’ve still never even been to it.

“As a singer I’ve noticed big differences between audiences in different countries. In Norway the crowd are relaxed and don’t tend to go wild at a live show, although when I DJ I find that the club audiences are amazing and really out to have fun.

“A London crowd can be either great or quite tough, it really seems to depend on what venue you play. I love Shepherd’s Bush Empire, where I recently played a gig with Saint Etienne – it’s beautiful and ornate. One of my favourite things about being in London is that you can get such great Asian food there. I always eat a lot of sushi and Thai food when I’m in the city.

“I’ve just moved to Berlin and have a great apartment – my only problem is that I don’t actually spend much time there because I travel so much. But when I’m home I always head to this cool store called Oye Records (4 Oderberger Strasse, tel: +49 (0)30 6664 7821). I shop for music wherever I travel. London is perfect for that, with incredible record shops. I buy MP3s too, but there’s something special about being in the environment of a record store and flicking through stacks of vinyl, looking at the sleeve artwork. I have a huge collection of rare vinyl, but always keep shopping for more. You can never have enough.”

ANNIE’S NEW ALBUM DON’T STOP IS OUT NOW. FOR TOUR DATES, VISIT WWW.MYSPACE.COM/ANNIEMUSIC

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