We sat down with Sydney artist AnnaLina to chat her newest release 'Took It Further', growth, collaboration and plans for the future.
You describe your latest track ‘Took It Further’ as having a spectrum of emotions, while you battle your own thoughts and feelings. What more can you tell us about the emotions that make up the track, and the motivation behind it?
It’s really a blend of crippling nostalgia and a strong hope haha. The verses consist of me reminiscing about a time when I felt more self-assured and the chorus is made up of the hope that I can get back to that confidence. Bit of a fake it ‘til you make it situation. I acknowledge that it can be easy to idealise the past and only remember the good things so I guess I’m hoping that I’ll come out in an even better place through the lessons I’ve learned and ‘Took It Further (Feelin’ Fine)’ is a representation of that.
You have some more upcoming tracks to be released. What can you tell us about the themes of these tracks? Do you have a track coming up you’re most excited to share?
I do! I’m really excited about the next few releases. The next one is about being a chronic people pleaser and once again my journey of getting out of that headspace. It also digs a little deeper into the R’n’B I’ve always loved and listened to with a little bit of Ms. Lauryn Hill energy and plenty of 90’s windchimes.
With Sydney is open again, who are you most keen to catch live? And what venue would you love to be able to play?
I’m so happy things are opening up again. I’d really love to see the Teskey Brothers, Matt Corby and Odette, I feel like they’d all be so good live. I tend to look for killer voices when I go see shows. As a singer myself, I find I really connect with that side of a performance. When a singer can make me feel any type of emotion within their voice, there’s honestly just nothing better and it’s something I strive for in my own shows. Aside from that, I love going to my friends’ gigs, seeing them up there killing it makes me so proud of the Sydney music scene and reminds me why I do what I do. It’s not really a venue but I’d love to play a festival, that would be the dream and I’ve missed them so much the past few years.
You put your first tracks out into the world last year, can you talk to whether your sound has grown over this time? And do you think there are any specific things you want to develop?
I would say my sound has definitely developed since then, particularly with the upcoming releases. The first few tracks were written years ago and while they were very special to me and putting them out is what made me want to start this project, I’ve been having so much fun writing with lots of different and amazing people and learning from every experience. Music has become such a collaborative thing for me and it’s one of my favourite things about my life at the moment. I want to develop my production skills and have more fun with different soundscapes. It’s such a great time when a project is new, and you have the freedom to explore lots of different sounds and ideas as you get to know yourself as an artist better.
Do you have any rules or framework when it comes to song writing? Or is it more about what comes about in the moment?
I tend to write from real life experience as writing is when I’m most honest with myself and strangely the most rational, so I really like to explore whatever I’m currently going through when I’m in a session. But it’s definitely not a strict framework and no subject matter is off limits. I’d like to delve deeper into writing about other lives and from perspectives other than my own so I guess look out for that down the line.
What do you hope 2022 has in store for you either personally or professionally?
2022 will hopefully be a big one for me. I’m planning an extended visit to London that has actually been in the works for years but kept getting put on hold for obvious reasons. I have a lot of family and friends in London and I’m a huge admirer of their soul/RnB scene so I’m hoping to go and do some writing and gigs and just have some fun over there for a while. But I’ll definitely be back, Sydney will always be home.
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