We were lucky to catch up with Anna Kline recently and have shared our conversation below.

Anna, appreciate you joining us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

Thank you so much for having me! Oh gosh, my parents did so many things right, but what impacted me most is how they instilled my hunger for growth. I remember in elementary school, my step dad encouraged me to start taking piano lessons. He noticed how much I loved music and could hold a tune along with pretty much any song. The community I grew up in, much like a lot of small towns, valued sports over the arts; so at this point, I didn’t have much exposure to music education. Taking piano lessons literally changed my life. In the beginning, I practiced for hours, teaching myself new songs and eventually accompanying myself. I started with covers and as I became a teen, searching for an emotional outlet, I ended up writing songs. My parents struck such a beautiful balance between supporting my passion and instilling work ethic in me. They would tell me how special it is to have such a sense of passion at my age, but to never stop being a student of my craft. If I didn’t practice for my lessons, I had to pay for them; which at the time seemed like TORTURE, but looking back gave me such accountability. They wanted me to understand that there will always be room to learn and grow in pursuit of a dream!

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’d love to! I’m Anna Kline, a multi-genre songwriter and artist developer. I began my career summer of 2018 after graduating from Cincinnati Conservatory of Music with a degree in Commercial Music Production. I moved to Nashville and immediately entrenched myself in the writing culture, taking sessions daily and teaching piano/vocal lessons to pay the bills for about 2.5 year. When COVID began in 2020, I found myself at a crossroads. I could either take time off of writing until the world opened back up, or dig my heels into writing alone and learning how to do virtual sessions. I chose the latter, and saw it as an opportunity to teach myself demo and vocal production. During the pandemic, I worked with creatives in Nashville, LA, NYC, Miami, the UK and more. Now, I continue writing and developing over Zoom and in person with artists all around the globe!

An early mentor of mine, Judy Stakee, helped me understand that the best artist developers are mirrors to their clients. My job as a developer and songwriter is first to listen to the vision of the artist, and then wear whatever hat is needed to reflect that vision back at them. Sometimes I’m an editor, sometimes a therapist, sometimes creative director, but each role is important in seeing their creative vision to the end.

Being a songwriter/artist developer is a risk, especially in the beginning. There is no guarantee that the projects you work on will have a budget on the front end or royalties on the back end, so I’ve really had to ask myself, “Why keep going?” The answer is; I deeply love helping people see their creative vision come to life. I’m obsessed with the journey a song takes from initial, magical spark of an idea, to complete, life changing lyric, melody, and production, (even if it’s only life-changing for one or two people!) “Why keep going?” because I know the way songs have and will continue to change my life.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In 2021 my husband got offered his first “foot in the door” job opportunity in his industry. The only problem is that said job would take us from Nashville to Orlando, FL. I had two ways to look at this. I could either be devastated and assume my career would suffer if we moved, OR I could see it as an opportunity to be a traveling songwriter. My husband’s dreams are just as important as mine and there was absolutely no way I was letting him turn down the offer! So we packed up and moved to sunny Florida! Much to my surprise, this was THE MOST creatively fulfilled I’d ever felt in my career! I was taking multiple Zoom sessions a day, with walks and yoga in between, and traveling to Nashville a week out of every month to maintain my relationships. My time in Florida has been pivotal in making me the creative I am today!

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

So my side hustle, artist development, hasn’t turned into a full-time gig, HOWEVER, it goes hand in hand with my songwriting career! Learning how to mentor clients has taught me to be a better listener, and thus a better co-writer. At the beginning of my writing career, I wanted so badly to be heard, pitching all my ideas the second I walked in! But now, I create space for artists to feel comfortable opening up. Turns out we get better songs that way!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annaklinemusic/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-kline-a8a668153/
• Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@annaklinemusic