Annika Schmarsel known by her stage nameAlice Ivy, is an Australian electronic musician and producer. Alice Ivy was the winner of the 2016 Triple J UnearthedListen Out competition. She released her debut studio album I'm Dreaming in 2018; her second, Don't Sleep, was released in 2020.
Early life
Annika Schmarsel was born in 1993 to West German immigrants who settled in Geelong in 1987. Annika also has a younger brother. At the age of twelve, on a family trip to Germany, Schmarsel's grandmother taught her guitar chords while her uncle taught her how to play "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple. During high school a year later, she was a member of a 25-member soul big band and on-going music project, The Sweethearts. In 2014, Schmarsel moved to Melbourne to study for a music industry degree, and was introduced to the music software Ableton. She learnt about influential electronic producers including the late J Dilla.
Music career
2015–2018: Early years and ''I'm Dreaming''
On 3 January 2015, Annika Schmarsel under the alias 'Alice Ivy', released her debut single "Charlie". On 14 April, she released her next single "Mean Man's Bite" featuring guest vocals from Chloe Beckwith. On 26 June, Alice Ivy released her single "Paint Me Blue" again featuring vocals by Chloe Beckwith. On 13 November, Alice Ivy released the single "Walk On" featuring Indigo Fly. On 25 January 2016, Alice Ivy released her single "Touch" featuring guest vocals by Georgia van Etten, a music video was released on 8 February animated by James Thompson and Bill Presser. On 23 June, she released "Almost Here" featuring vocals by RaRa. The two singles quickly became her most popular, having collectively amassed over 3,000,000 streams on Spotify. Alice Ivy then performed a five-date tour to promote the two singles in July. On 2 September, Alice Ivy remixed "Float" by Thomston. In March 2017, she released her single "Get Me a Drink" featuring E^ST and Charlie Threads, it became her first track to be added to high rotation on Triple J. The Age placed the track at #8 in their "Best Songs Of 2017". On 21 April, she remixed "Beat the Keeper" by Taj Ralph. On 26 May, Alice Ivy remixed "Kate's Bed" by Huntly. In September, after signing a deal with Australian record label Dew Process she released "Be Friends" featuring guest vocals from Tim de Cotta and Caseaux O.S.L.O. On 22 September, Alice Ivy released a remix of "West" by Lakyn. On 10 November, Alice Ivy remixed the track "Life Goes On" by E^ST. On 12 December, a music video was released for her track "Be Friends". On 12 January 2018, she released the single "Chasing Stars" featuring ARIA award winning singer-songwriter, Bertie Blackman. Both "Be Friends", and "Chasing Stars" were also added to high rotation as well. Later that month, Alice Ivy signed onto Last Gang Records for international releases. In the middle of that year, "Chasing Stars" became the eleventh most played track on Triple J. On 9 February, her debut album I'm Dreaming was released. It contained most her previously released singles including "Charlie". To promote her debut album, Ivy performed an eight-date national headlining tour ranging from 16 February until 29 March and performing in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Panama Festival in Tasmania, The Hills are Alive in Victoria, and Bendigo. On 30 March, Alice Ivy covered Estelle's track "American Boy" with E^ST and Miss Blanks for Triple J's Like a Version. On 6 April, Ivy remixed the track "Panopticon" by Cloud Control. On 13 April, Alice Ivy along with other remixers TOKiMONSTA, Maria Marcus, and Maya Jane Coles, all made their own remixes of "Lady Powers" by Vera Blue featuring Kodi Shane, released on Lady Powers | Power Ladies Remix EP. On 8 August, she released a remix of "Clothes I Slept In" by Luca Brasi. On 7 September, Alice Ivy remixed the track "Real Love" by Flint Eastwood.
2019–present: ''Don't Sleep''
On 9 February 2019, rain damaged Alice Ivy's equipment and she was unable to play at the Tasmanian music festival Party In The Paddockthe day after as planned. The rain damaged her laptop, guitar pedals and drum pad. Ivy stated she would play in Tasmania again as soon as she was able to. On 15 February, Alice Ivy released a remix of Amwin's track "DeLorean". On 22 February, Alice Ivy released a new single entitled "Close to You" featuring Flint Eastwood. She also announced a "Close to You" tour starting in May with Miss Blanks, who previously collaborated with Alice Ivy for Triple J's Like a Version. The tour is slated to start in Adelaide, and then go on to Wollongong, Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, Fremantle, Brisbane and the Gold Coast. On 22 March, a remix of "Fooling Around" by Japanese Wallpaper was released. On 30 April, a music video for "Close to You" was released. The video featured Ivy's dog "Lexie". On 10 July, Ivy released the single "In My Mind" featuring Ecca Vandal alongside an accompanying music video. On 6 November, Alice Ivy released the single "Sunrise" featuring Cadence Weapon alongside an accompanying music video. On 1 April 2020, Alice Ivy released "Don't Sleep" the titular single of her upcoming second studio album Don't Sleep, set to release on 17 July. The single featured Imbi the Girl and Boi. She also released an accompanying music video for the single.
