Beat My Distance

Where you go, I want be / A hole inside your head,” sings Chloé Soldevila on Daffodils, the second track from Anemone’s debut album Beat My Distance. The line acts as both a promise and a threat—this is music that will stick with you, that will live inside your brain, that will become a part of you forever. This is music that refuses to be ignored. Anemone is the brainchild of Soldevila, a Montreal native. Raised in the classical music tradition and formally educated in jazz music, Soldevila came to rock music late, at the tail end of high school, when she discovered krautrock mainstays like Neu! and Can. Traveling as a photographer and filmmaker throughout her early twenties, Soldevila rebelled against her strict musical upbringing, immersing herself into the psychedelic tradition in California, and punk and new wave music in France. Anemone officially began when Soldevila met Zachary Irving at a show. Around the same time, Soldevila and Miles Dupire-Gagnon met at a bar, and he introduced her to Gabriel Lambert. The musical connection was immediate, and the four began working on songs together soon after. Samuel Gemme was a friend and sound engineer who worked on their recordings, spending so much time in the studio with them that he eventually joined the band. The final lineup of Anemone was set. “The focus of the live show is to make people loose, getting them to dance, breaking people out of their shyness,” says Lambert “Making people go crazier and crazier every night. Our mission was to capture that feeling on the record.” The resulting album Beat My Distance is a dreamy psychedelic ride, hopping through genres and moods with exuberance. In the midst of all the swirly shoegaze guitars and krautrock beats, Anemone’s songs are anchored by Soldevila’s voice, always catchy and direct, powerful enough to cut through the mix and carry the song. The record has an experimental feel, but never at the expense of melody or hooks. Memory Lane is a standout track, with a wistful, melancholic song with strong beat and a power-pop feel. “I wanted to write something simple and direct,” says Soldevila. “Sometimes the simplest songs can be the most powerful.

LP - Limited Blue Vinyl.