We recently connected with Anna Katarina and have shared our conversation below.
Anna, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’ve love to hear an interesting investment story – what was one of the best or worst investments you’ve made? (Note, these responses are only intended as entertainment and shouldn’t be construed as investment advice)
The best investment I’ve ever made is deciding to fully commit to music. It’s easy to be half-committed and play it safe, but I know that if I wasn’t entirely “in,” it would take me a lot longer to achieve my goals. Making that change was scary — music is a very unreliable career with no return-on-investment guarantee. Unfortunately, there is no road-map to pursuing music. What works for some, doesn’t work for others. That means we often spend money on empty investments, which can be hard to stomach. The music business is one big game. It’s frustrating but it still feels like the absolute right path for me. That being said, I am still smart about money and time — I make sure to do things outside of my field, and not spend all my money in one place. Being an actual starving artist wouldn’t help me achieve my goals either!
The biggest two lessons I’ve learned are:
– make your budget prior to spending: it can be hard to drop $5000 of hard-earned money on a radio or marketing campaign. If your budget is already set up, you know what’s within your means and what’s not. It makes it a lot easier to pay those big bills.
– it’s all about balance!! This is a work in progress for me, but whether it’s about budget, time management, stress etc., it’s all about finding a healthy balance between pursuing my goals and staying emotionally okay.
Anna, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’m Anna Katarina – a Canadian and American musician. I’m a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist (vocals, keys, guitars) and performer with a jazz/classical background and now mostly in the contemporary world. My debut solo album releases this month (Oct 14) and it falls in the alt-pop/americana/indie-rock genres — reminiscent of Clairo, Kacey Musgraves, Sheryl Crow, HAIM, Phoebe Bridgers, Taylor Swift’s Folklore and Kathleen Edwards’ Voyager.
I started playing music when I was 3 years old and haven’t stopped since. It’s what I love more than anything – music is like an endless field of creativity and love and learning. I studied classical music growing up and attended Selkirk College, Victoria Royal Conservatory and Berklee College of Music. Currently, my main bands are my solo project, Anna Katarina, and my indie-folk duo, Rumour Mill.
Pursuing music is a lot of work – it can be challenging to be a team of one and constantly have to be cheerleading yourself. It’s important to stay emotionally balanced so you have the capacity to keep advocating for your place in the industry. Sometimes music feels like therapy — there is so much to work through. Am I good enough? What if no one wants to play with me? What if I never write another good song? What if they all hate my music? When we put our art in the world, we get a slew of No’s and negative feedback. It’s easy to focus on that rather than the good. I’ve had to grow a big backbone, learn how to set my boundaries when asking for feedback, and shift my mindset to focus on how far I’ve come and how much positive feedback I get.
I am so proud that I am committed to this career — to finding my place in the industry. I have a lot to offer, I make great art, I work extremely hard, I am kind. I hope this shines through my music and people resonate with what I have to say.
I hope you all get a chance to listen to my new album, Daisychain. It has a lot of unique elements, yet is very accessible. Some cool facts about the project are: I recorded it in Vancouver, BC. I performed the majority of all instruments. The oldest song I wrote in highschool, the newest in 2021. There is a pretty political song on the album – whether or not you agree with my views, I’m really proud of how it turned out.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
We often get caught up in the end product, what the public sees. In my case that would be an album, a single or a music video. It’s easy to overlook the creative process, but that is exactly why I do this. I am pursuing music so I get to spend a month in the studio recording, or tour Europe with my backpack and a guitar, or play that tiny random festival in Northern Canada. To me – the actual activities are the most rewarding – not the numbers, not the feedback, not the sales. The way our industry is set up right now, there is a huge focus on digital “success” and I admit to getting swept up in the game at times. But when I close my eyes and remember why I’m doing what I’m doing, it’s because I love playing and writing music. The actual process of doing that, collaborating with others, forgetting about the public and the marketing for a moment, that’s the most rewarding.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
I don’t know if any non-creative (or even a creative who isn’t pursuing it full-time) can understand how much behind-the-scenes work there is. I don’t have a manager yet, so every business detail falls to me, on top of all the creative work. It’s impossible to tell someone how much time we spend on the computer: booking, pitching, making content, communicating, ordering, mailing, updating, spreadsheets, applications, editing etc. etc. etc.). It just feels like so much sometimes. But if we stop, no one is doing it for us. I can’t wait to grow my business and have a bigger team – although I’m sure the workload will grow with it! Bring it on!!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.annakatarinamusic.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annakatarinamusic/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/annakatarinamusic
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ankatarina
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/annakatarinamusic
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@annakatarinamusic https://open.spotify.com/artist/3wUofml5k6dhBcD5OKPLup?si=yloUawGsR9yLhHPsdPKALA https://music.apple.com/us/artist/anna-katarina/292968411
Image Credits
Yellow/Blue photos: Cory Wood Black & White/Sepia photos: Garrett Gardner Blue Background o Stage: Murray Hayward