Anna Oxygen

Anna Oxygen, the offbeat purveyor of electro-dance sounds, first gained notice during the late 1990s through her involvement with the Space Ballerinas. That keytar-led synth-pop outfit enjoyed brief local favor in its Olympia, Washington birthplace, issuing a pair of Yoyo EPs, making its initial appearance as a three-piece at Ladyfest Olympia, and sharing a single bill with Peaches before the group dissolved in 2001. An Evergreen State College music graduate, she then produced a self-recorded EP and readied herself for an independent career.

Prior to her arrival amid the West Coast indie-rock milieu, Oxygen attended high school in Tacoma, where she sang in multiple choirs and took part in school stage productions. Alongside an appreciation for area folk performers, she developed strong admiration for Joni Mitchell, Donovan, Jonathan Richman, and Leonard Cohen. Regular visits to the town library’s varied music collection broadened her awareness of numerous styles; one discovery that proved especially formative was Klaus Nomi’s new-wave standard “Total Eclipse,” featured on the 1981 soundtrack Urgh! A Music War. Thereafter she resolved to devote herself to music.

In 2002 Oxygen relocated to Seattle, where Murder City Devils bassist Derek Fudesco expressed enthusiasm for her home-recorded EP. Several months afterward she collaborated with engineer Justin Trosper (Replikants, Unwound) to refine her new-wave material into All Your Faded Things. The playfully irreverent debut appeared on Cold Crush in August 2003. She subsequently joined Kill Rock Stars for the follow-up This Is an Exercise, issued in early 2006.