Anohni and the Johnsons Perform ‘Hopelessness’ on NPR Tiny Desk

Anohni and the Johnsons brought their big questions about humanity and purpose to NPR Tiny Desk.

Led by Anohini, the ensemble complete with Gael Rakotondrabe, Jimmy Hogarth, Leo Abrahams, Sam Dixon, Doug Wieselman, and Christopher Vatalaro delivered their debut performance with three songs.

The set opened with “Why Am I Alive Now?” from their fifth studio album My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross. The group continued with “Hopelessness,” a deep cut from Anohni‘s 2017 debut album of the same name. To close out, they returned to My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross with “It Must Change.” Anohni and the Johnsons stretched their three-song set across over 20 minutes.

“I want the record to be useful. I learned with HOPELESSNESS that I can provide a soundtrack that might fortify people in their work, in their activism, in their dreaming and decision-making. I can sing of an awareness that makes others feel less alone, people for whom the frank articulation of these frightening times is not a source of discomfort but a cause for identification and relief,” Anohni said ahead of the album in 2023. “We are each moving through massive impersonal systems that we feel powerless to change. And yet we’re being asked in this moment to pull back the curtain and recognize these systems for what they are – not the preordained will of a god, but something we created over centuries.”

She continued, “If we can’t do this collectively, we will forfeit our remaining ability to influence our trajectory. We have to dismantle systems that are destructive, and yet upon which many of us are dependent. Whether it’s because of malevolence, or fear, or addiction… ultimately it’s been one big survival strategy. We’ve never been faced with a challenge this consequential before as a species.”