Annie Hardy

Hardy was born in San Clemente, California, and James Kent Hardy. Her mother is a Catholic of Irish descent, and her father is of Jewish ancestry. Hardy has stated that she discovered her father's Jewish ancestry through a DNA test; her paternal grandmother was ethnically Ashkenazi Jewish, but religiously a born-again Christian. Hardy also stated she has small amounts of Punjabi Indian, Sardinian, and Italian ancestry. Hardy was raised in Orange County, and began taking guitar lessons at age nine. In the tenth grade, Hardy went to a boarding school in Ojai of which she says: "There was nothing to do there. I was acting there and I was in the choir." It was there that she met another girl who also had a guitar. According to Hardy, "Her dad was teaching her Beatles songs. So we learned how to play together. I learned a lot by studying piano books that had chord charts. I bought some rock books. Around then I learned how to play and sing at the same time." After high school, Hardy did extra work for money and pursued a musical career. In 1999, she moved to Los Angeles. At some point, Hardy worked as a DJ at Beauty Bar. Hardy continued looking for band members and was involved in many potential bands, including Mein Coif, with friends Mike Felix (now drummer of Toys That Kill) and Max Humphrey (bassist of The Adored). ==Career==

Giant Drag , 2006 In May 2003, Hardy and Micah Calabrese formed Giant Drag. Hardy's mother, who had worked with Calabrese at an internet company, had initially attempted to get Hardy and Calabrese to meet, but the two eventually met through mutual friends who began dating. They began recording music together, including covers of Journey's "Who's Crying Now" and the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows." According to Hardy, "One day I said, 'Hey dude, you know all my songs. Why don't you be my drummer?' He agreed." Giant Drag's first show was on June 4, 2003, at the Scene in Los Angeles, one month after they decided to be a band. On January 25, 2005, Giant Drag released the EP Lemona on Wichita Recordings. This was followed on September 13, 2005, by their first full-length release, Hearts and Unicorns, on Kickball Records. In 2007, Giant Drag covered Madonna's "Oh Father" for a charity/tribute Madonna album that benefited AIDS assistance efforts in Africa, titled Through the Wilderness. The Swan Song EP was released on February 16, 2010. Also in 2010, Giant Drag's cover of "Wicked Game" by Chris Isaak was used in a commercial for Nip/Tuck on the FX Network. Giant Drag originals have been featured on television shows including The L-Word, Jericho and the movie A Love Song for Bobby Long starring Scarlett Johansson and John Travolta. In 2013, the band released their second studio album, Waking Up Is Hard to Do. Commenting on the album, Hardy said: "On Hearts and Unicorns everything was a complete mystery to me. I put zero thought into writing songs – I was like, "oh, this is just how they come out. They're beamed to me from a spaceship and they come out finished and then I add a cat solo". Now I'm aware that I have some control over the situation and I put a little more thought into if I was a listener how I'd like to hear it, I guess." In 2020, while Hardy was quarantined for COVID-19 restrictions in London prior to shooting the horror film Dashcam, in which she starred, she recorded material for Giant Drag's studio album at The Libertines' recording studio, The Albion Rooms, alongside another secret project. The material was recorded with Jamie Reynolds, formerly of the English rock group Klaxons. In June 2022, Giant Drag, featuring Hardy and drummer Collin Deatherage, released the track "Devil Inside", which had previously been recorded for their EP Band Car; the track was featured as a promotional single for Dashcam. Film and television In February 2010, she made her screen debut ''I'm Here, a short film directed by Spike Jonze. In October 2011, she made a musical appearance on the 2011 Halloween episode of Pretty Little Liars. In 2017, Hardy appeared as herself in a supporting role in The Icarus Line Must Die'', a semi-fictionalized biographical film about Joe Cardamone, the singer of the band The Icarus Line. Hardy portrays a semi-fictionalized version of herself in the film, starring as a musician who livestreams herself during a nighttime road trip in England, where she encounters a series of terrifying events. The project was developed by Savage, an acquaintance of Hardy's; he proposed the idea based on a series of livestream videos Hardy had uploaded to YouTube while driving in Los Angeles, titled Band Car, in which she works out song ideas before the viewers. The film received mixed reviews; most viewers praised its scariness and visual format, but felt that Hardy's character failed to carry the film and even undermined it by being too grating and unlikeable. Collaborations Hardy provided guest vocals on the song "Pink Cellphone" from the 2006 Deftones album Saturday Night Wrist. On April 26, 2007, Hardy performed the song "Just Like Honey" onstage with The Jesus and Mary Chain for their reunion show the day before Coachella. Hardy contributed vocals to The Icarus Line's 2010 record Wildlife and performed a number of the band's live appearances on organ. She also appeared at the debut live performance of Crosses (featuring Deftones singer and guitarist Chino Moreno) in Pomona, California, performing the Giant Drag track "Swan Song". Other works Hardy frequently co-hosted the Get The Fuck Up (GTFU) radio show with Jeremy Weiss and Aaron Farley, beginning in 2009. Hardy released her debut solo album, Rules, on April 7, 2017. ==Influences==

Hardy has named various rock and punk bands as influences, including The Beatles, Babes in Toyland, Hole, The Misfits, the Descendents, and Danzig. ==Personal life==

In December 2008, Hardy revealed that she had been diagnosed with fibromyalgia. She was prescribed the opioid drug Norco to treat her pain, which resulted in a decade-long addiction to the substance. Hardy stated that at one point, she was taking approximately 60 tablets of the drug per day. Hardy's Adderall abuse eventually progressed to an addiction to methamphetamine. Silvio died at the age of 17 days of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). ==Discography==

Giant Drag • Lemona (2004) • Hearts and Unicorns (2005) • Swan Song (2009) • Waking Up Is Hard to Do (2013) • Band Car (2014) • The Albion Rooms (2022) Solo • Rules (2017) • Saves (2020) • Cross Bearer EP (2024) ==Filmography==