Alice Ivy

Annika Schmarsel (born 8 July 1993), better known by her stage name Alice Ivy, is an Australian electronic musician and producer. Alice Ivy was the winner of the 2016 Triple J Unearthed Listen Out competition. She has released three studio albums: I'm Dreaming, Don't Sleep (2020), which reached No. 77 on the ARIA Albums Chart, and Do What Makes You Happy (2024).

Early life Annika Schmarsel was born and raised in Geelong, Victoria to German immigrants who settled there in 1987. "German was my first language. In kindie I was the German girl who couldn't speak a word of English, so I had to learn."

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 at RMIT University, 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. 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.

2019–2020: 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 Paddock the 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. On 27 May, Alice Ivy released the fourth single from her then-forthcoming album titled "Better Man" featuring Safia frontman Benjamin Joseph. A music video was released alongside starring comedian and radio personality Alex Dyson. Don't Sleep peaked at number 77 on the ARIA charts.

2021–present: Do What Makes You Happy On 28 July 2021, Alice Ivy was featured on "Someone Stranger" by Georgia Maq the singer, songwriter and guitarist for Camp Cope. Alice Ivy begun teasing a new single from 8 October, collaborating with Brisbane-based pop artist Sycco and American bassist Nick Movshon. Their single "Weakness" was released on 22 October with an accompanying music video directed by Dom Gould. The single and music video were recorded separately in Brisbane and Melbourne due to COVID-19 lock-down restrictions. Airlock Studios in Brisbane, and XO Studios in Melbourne.

On 23 June 2023, Ivy released "Howlin' At the New Moon" and announced her third studio album, Do What Makes You Happy.

Musical style Alice Ivy lists her influences as Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and Etta James. Other influences include The Avalanches, J Dilla, Onra, Anderson Paak, Mark Ronson. Her sound has also been likened to Gramatik, L'Orange and Curtis Mayfield. She says that soul and Motown music inspired her to explore music production, and these influences particularly shine through on her 2020 single "Weakness".

Discography Studio albums +List of studio albums, with release date, label, and selected chart positions shown Title Album details Peak chart positions AUS I'm Dreaming Released: 9 February 2018 Label: Dew Process, Last Gang Format: LP, digital download, streaming — Don't Sleep Released: 17 July 2020 Label: Dew Process Format: LP, digital download, streaming 77 Do What Makes You Happy Released: 22 November 2024 2018 "Close to You" 2019 "In My Mind" ARIA: Gold Don't Sleep "Sunrise" "Don't Sleep" 2020 "Better Man" "Ticket to Heaven" "Weakness" 2021 "Howlin' At the New Moon" "Wildlife" "Popstar" 2024 "Criminal" "Wave" "Do I Need to Know What Love Is?" Do What Makes You Happy "Smile"

As featured artist +List of singles, with year released and album shown Title Year Album "Someone Stranger" 2021 "Forgetaboutyou" 2025

Remixes +List of official remixes, with year released and original artist(s) shown Title Year Artist(s) Peak chart positions AUS "Float" 2016 Thomston — "Beat the Keeper" 2017 Taj Ralph — "Kate's Bed" Huntly — "West" Lakyn — "Life Goes On" E^ST — "Panopticon" 2018 Cloud Control — "Lady Powers" Vera Blue — "Clothes I Slept In" Luca Brasi — "Real Love" Flint Eastwood — "DeLorean" 2019 Amwin — "Fooling Around" Japanese Wallpaper — "Parties" 2020 Elizabeth — "The Fool" Overcoats — "Homecoming Queen" Thelma Plum — "Stuck In A Bubble" George Alice — "Life in Live" The Rubens — "Voices In My Head" 2021 Ex-Olympian — "River" Pnau —