Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Annie Anna. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Annie, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

In summary, my parents are good role models, and they support me unconditionally. They did a great job of encouraging my creative expression, and they were happy to support me throughout those endeavors. While I was still in Kansas getting started, whether or not I was playing a show in town or two hours away, my parents would always be there in the crowd. If I had a show with bad turnout, I could always count on them taking two of the seats and staying there for the entire performance.

I always have to give my dad a shoutout for his influence in my journey as a musician. Had it not been for him, I’m not sure if I would have ever formed the emotional connection to music that I currently have. Whether it was singing with me in the car, taking me to piano lessons, or driving me to band rehearsals, he always encouraged me to keep practicing and learning. I also give my mom a lot of credit for helping me develop the grit I needed to overcome the hurdles I’ve faced. She’s always been a role model for me as a woman in science, and she’s shown me that if I persevere, I can do just about anything. Being an artist takes a lot of perseverance, so that trait has been critical to my ability to continue to pursue my art.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a singer/songwriter who’s originally from Kansas and is now based in Tucson. In a lot of ways, I still think I am in the process of discovering my sound, but I would generally describe my sound as dark, edgy folk rock (with my latest release, Transamerican, being much more on the rock side). Some of my influences, to name a few, are Hozier, Matt Maeson, Fleetwood Mac, and The Black Keys. A lot of people have described my voice and style as “having attitude”, and I think that’s a significant distinguishing factor of my music.

As for getting started in music, I wouldn’t say that I’ve ever not been involved with music; it was a huge part of my life growing up thanks to my dad, who is also a singer and guitarist. Singing was the catalyst for my love of music, and eventually that branched out into piano, drums, and then guitar. Despite that though, I wasn’t always big on the spotlight, let alone writing and performing my own music. Growing up, I was a pretty reserved person, so I had every reason to avoid performing altogether. I did my first performance as a soloist in a talent show when I was in 7th grade, and looking back, I’m not entirely sure what drove me to sign up. Regardless, the reception I received was phenomenal, and at that point, I realized that becoming an artist and pursuing my passion was a viable option for me. From then on, I started slowly building up my skills through coffee shop shows, brewery gigs, vocal competitions, forming a band, and eventually recording and releasing my own music.

I’m still a relatively small artist, so I don’t have achievements to tout like selling out a stadium or anything crazy. But I am most proud of how far I’ve come as a person since beginning my journey with music. I went from a shy kid who hardly talked, was scared of talking to strangers, and rarely discussing my emotions to someone who has confidence on stage and who isn’t afraid to state exactly how I feel to a group of strangers. I’ve learned how to allow myself to be vulnerable in the process, and that’s made me a better, more confident version of who I was. Not only that, but vulnerability has helped me connect with so many people who I may have never spoken to had I not put my emotions and experiences out there.

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

On the thread of vulnerability, struggles with my mental health nearly drove me out of music all-together at one point, and it’s honestly something I still reckon with today, albeit to a lesser extent. Becoming an artist has come with a lot of growing pains over the years, and while I’m grateful to be in a much better state today, it was very difficult to push through. My worst struggle came in college while I was in the thick of my engineering degree. I was struggling to get established as a musician in my college town, and I remember feeling like none of my efforts were resulting in any progress. I withdrew from my support groups, and I didn’t feel like anything, including music and my degree, were worth continuing. An incident right before my 21st birthday turned into the kick I needed to do something about how I was feeling, and I spent a couple years going through therapy and just drastically overhauling my entire life until I eventually pulled myself out of it. At the same time, I started working on releasing my own music and started to get enough momentum with my music to perform regularly.

If anyone is wondering about the 3 year gap in my discography, I had another bout with this in 2020 when I was diagnosed with a fairly serious chronic health condition and was nearly bedridden for a few months. I was really struggling to not only cope with that diagnosis, but also with uprooting my entire life to move to Tucson, starting my job, starting grad school, and fully supporting myself for the first time. It was the first time I really had to come to terms with the fact that I’m not going to be able to do everything that I want, and I had to learn to accept that. The 3 year break I took almost completely killed my momentum, but I’m slowly working to build it back up, and I feel that I’ve honestly come a long way in spite of the odds. I’m back in a position where I can perform regularly, I’ve formed a band, and I’ve gotten back to writing and recording. Even though I’ve still got a long way to go to establish myself, I am happy with where I am knowing that I’m supported by a community that encourages me to do what I love.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

In my opinion, the biggest thing you can do for an artist, especially small ones, is anything that helps them buy back time to dedicate to their craft. That can come in the form of financial help like buying merch, tickets to shows, etc., to smaller stuff like helping promote their latest work via spreading the word about events, sharing their posts, or listening to their music on streaming services. I’ve found that a lot of people in music don’t get into it because they think it’ll make them rich; they get into it because they’re so passionate about making music that they can’t live without it. But the reality of the world we live in is that unless you’re bringing in a significant amount of money from your music, you’re going to have to work a typical job to stay afloat, and you’re going to have to do the vast majority of the work to promote yourself because you likely can’t afford much help. As I’ve become more and more serious about my own music, the workload of promoting myself has become so significant that I rarely have time to write music, and I feel like a lot of other artists find themselves in a similar situation while they’re in the thick of establishing their fan base. Most of us greatly appreciate any help we can get, so really anything you can do to lessen the burden of tasks, no matter how small, goes a long way.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.annieannamusic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annieannamusic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/annieannamusic/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0RS9VNCsO5wfF0LflzAfjw
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@annieannamusic Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0v4NLeXUPlfWN6jmO79prv Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/annie-anna/1443680670

Image Credits
Kerry Whelan