We caught up with Christoph Wieczorek, the clean vocalist and rhythm guitarist of Annisokay.

So, please explain to our readers, who are Annisokay?

Annisokay are a German band that plays metal music with pop influences! Some call it metalcore, some call it post-hardcore and some pop metal. We actually don’t care about genre names and just try to write heavy guitar and drum driven music that touches and moves people. 

Where are you guys from?

We’re from eastern Germany. More specifically, from two cities called Halle and Leipzig. 

How long have you been together? How did you meet?

It was in 2007 when we first had the idea of forming a band called Annisokay –which was quite a while ago! It was quite a long time before we played our very first show in 2009, so we feel that these first years don’t really count. It all actually started when our first album The Lucid Dream[er] came out in 2012! We also went through a few line-up changes over the years, but since our drummer, Nico [Vaeen] joined a few years ago, we finally feel “complete”. 

How long have you been playing music?

Each one of us besides Dave [Grunewald] started out very young. I started playing the piano when I was six years old – my parents pushed me to do this and nowadays I’m pretty happy they did that! When I was 15 years old I swapped my piano for an electric guitar because I thought it was way cooler, haha. The singing part started a few years later, when I noticed that it’s way too hard to find a good singer for a band. I just thought I should try it myself.

Why should people listen to Annisokay?

We’re a band that – no matter what genre it is – try to write good songs! The topics, the melodies, rhythm and harmony are what matters to us the most. We put a lot of work into every single detail of these songs and if you listen to them a few times, you can still discover new little things. We’re also all about emotion. We love melancholic songs and try to express our lyrics through emotional screams and clean vocals. So if you’re into that, definitely check us out!

What is your ideal touring line-up?

Annisokay, Underoath, Slipknot, and Linkin Park (with Chester Bennington). It’s a shame that this is never gonna happen. 

What does music mean to you personally?

It’s the best thing we have. I work with music all day long as I’m a music producer. I love to write songs, create new sounds or mix and master music. Then there is my band which offers us the opportunity of touring the world at the moment. I think that without music I would probably be nothing!

What was the first record you bought when you were younger?

Significant Other by Limp Bizkit. Their guitarist Wes Borland was the reason I started learning guitar!

What artists first inspired you to start playing music?

See above! 😉

What’s the most aesthetically pleasing album cover that you have in your collection?

Probably all Northlane albums! I love the artistic approach that they have and how they design their artwork and shoot their music videos. Even though this style would never fit with Annisokay, I really look up to these guys. 

What kind of movie genre do you think your music would best be the soundtrack for?

Probably a depressing psycho thriller! That’s my favourite movie genre anyway, so I guess it also inspires me for our music and vice versa. 

Recommend us a book, and a movie…

I just read the book by Christian “Flake” Lorenz, the keyboardist of Rammstein, called It’s The World’s Birthday Today. It’s such a funny book, especially when you’re a musician. All of us in the band have read it, and we love to talk about it.

A great movie is Memento – it’s about a guy that constantly loses his memory. As the story is told backwards, you can really start to imagine how he feels, as you also don’t know what happened before.

Any last words for the readers of Highwire Magazine?

If you haven’t heard of Annisokay before, don’t hesitate to check us out on YouTube or Spotify! If you have heard of us and like what we do, thank you for supporting us in what we do! We will hopefully see you at one of our shows someday!