ANJA STAX
Mike Stax’s wife Anja Stax, who has been with the Loons for their last three albums, has also recorded under several other names – Anja Diabolik, Anja Dixson, and Anja Bungert. Her first band was evidently Thee Cherylinas, an all-female 1960’s-style Beat band from Germany. She has also played with the Diaboliks and, more recently, the Rosalyns.
Mike Stax went in-house but with new musicians for the band’s second album, Paraphernalia (2004) on Ugly Things Records. I haven’t found this album yet, but I am still hunting. Anja Stax is credited for the album design and is also the bass guitarist for the Loons on the album, but under the name Anja Diabolik. Other bandmembers are Mark Schroeder and Chris Marsteller, both on guitar, and Iain Andrew on drums.
The album that I have, Inside Out Your Mind (2015) I mistakenly thought of as their first album, but the band had been around two decades at this point. It wasn’t even the Loons’ first album on Bomp! Records; that was Red Dissolving Rays of Light five years earlier (also on order). After writing this post, I came across an interview with Suzy Shaw who said that they revived Bomp! Records specifically for the Loons; Mike Stax had always wanted to have an album on that label. The band’s new drummer on both of these albums was Mike Kamoo, who had been the drummer for the Shambles; while the line-up of the Loons was otherwise the same as on Paraphernalia. Bass guitar and album design are by Anja Dixson on Red Dissolving Rays Of Light, while the name Anja Stax is shown for both on Inside Out Your Mind. The only other change between the two Bomp! albums is that Chris Marsteller is also shown as playing keyboards on Inside Out Your Mind. The Loons’ original drummer, John Chilson had also previously played with the Shambles.
(June 2017)
