Artist Interview: Anzi

For this week's interview we have singer/songwriter Anzi who is signed to Chrome City Records. She is out with a new song titled "On My Own." 

MW: Anzi, thank you for being here.

A: Thank you so much for having me on! I’m excited to be able to speak to you about my music.

MW: So, I want to talk about your newest release, “On My Own.” Can you tell us how the song came about?

A: Sure. Pretty much as soon as I got signed onto the label, I told them that I wanted to work on a single. I was very eager to get to work since creating my own single has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember. Once the label gave me the okay, I was struggling a bit at first about what to write about since I have not had too much experience writing songs. Marc from the label suggested writing a song about the feelings a person has after a break up. I kind of hit the ground running with that idea and used personal experiences from my past to help me write the words. I also got some help from Marc Lotus and Chris Coleman on the label. The song developed into the idea that just because a relationship ends, that’s not the end of you.

MW: The arrangement is really interesting – did you work with someone to create that?

A: I did. Marc Lotus from Chrome City Records and Scot Vanderpool from Double Diamond Records were really the masterminds behind the arrangement. They did a great job.

MW: Probably my favorite thing about your voice is that it seems to navigate that grey space between belt and gentle; have you always been able to do that or was it something you had to develop?

A: I’m so glad you noticed that! Growing up, I would always sing in head voice, especially since I was in several choirs but I was (and still am) a huge lover of musical theater so I went to one of my teachers and told them that “I want to sing like Sutton Foster in ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’. I’ve always been told that I have good projection so my teacher told me that I was perfectly capable of doing that with my vocal register. So over time, I just kind of created this mix of belt and gentle.

MW: Was there always music in the home?

A: Yes, my parents have been playing music and singing for as long as I can remember. My grandparents were also very musical- my grandmother had a beautiful voice and sang opera and my mother’s parents would take me to see musicals about every month starting at a young age. This early influence of music definitely impacted me since my parents have told me that I started singing as soon as I learned how to talk.

MW: Did you work with a vocal coach at any point?

A: Oh yes! I really attribute my technique to the many years of vocal coaching that I had. I probably had about 10 or more years of vocal coaching. In college, it was on and off. I was very lucky because after performing in many school shows and choirs, the school music teacher approached my parents and told them that she would like to work privately with me to help me build my voice because she saw something in me. After that, I enjoyed taking vocal lessons so much that I just continued over the years with a few different teachers. I definitely recommend vocal lessons to anyone who has a natural singing talent.

MW: I noticed you were also reviewed by Brett Stewart over on his site. He had some very good things to say about you; also your label has you number one on their landing page, not to mention a very successful FaceBook following (all at the ripe old age of 26). I’m curious if you are adjusting OK to all the attention. 

A: All the support that I have been receiving so far from “On My Own” has been incredible. We worked so hard on this song (it took about eight months in the making) so the fact that people are enjoying it makes me so happy. I haven’t really felt any different with the coverage that my song has been getting. I think that if it were ever to get to the point where people stopped and recognized me- that might take some getting used to (laughing). 

MW: Many of the readers here are young musicians themselves. Care to offer them any words of wisdom?

A: The best piece of advice that I would give them is the old saying “don’t give up”. There was a period in my life where I was getting rejected from every singing audition. I wasn’t landing any gigs and it was because I would go into auditions so nervous that they would not like the way I sing. After that, I decided to stop singing for about three years. I didn’t want to deal with the rejection anymore. I missed singing so much and one day, I finally came to the realization that I was just going to sing for the joy of singing and that I honestly did not really care if people liked it or not. After that, Chrome City Records and I found each other and the rest is history. So after sharing this long personal story, my words of wisdom would be to work on music for the love of music. You can tell the difference when someone is singing a song with passion rather than just doing it for a paycheck.

MW: Thanks so much for talking with me!

A: Of course! It was such a pleasure to be able to speak with you.