A warm Wednesday afternoon on the Wheel Barrow patio.
We talked a while before I could get my audio recorder to work on my phone. I said I was fine sitting outside but was definitely starting to sweat and she’s sitting across from me cool as a cucumber. As an avid cyclist Anna love to be outside. By avid cyclist, I mean she road 24 consecutive days until she got sick. Completing 700 of the little over one thousand miles journey around Lake Michigan.
She has high hopes for the future, one that consists of a music tour on bicycle bringing only the essentials including her loop pedal and four pound guitar.
Her long time feline traveling companion, Earl Gray, use to hike and follow off leash but as he’s gotten old he has become more cautious.
Anna p.s., an indie folk musician whose music conveys a sense of weariness throughout her simple but resonant songs. Her live performance features new songs yet to be recorded though fans can still expect to hear familiar favorites found on her two albums “The Voice” and “Umbrella.”
She’s booked through October 2022 with plans to fill in November. She was going to take December off but thought plans might be changing.
You’d think with a life on the road you might pick your shows in the mountains or next to the ocean, but not Anna P.s. She has a love for the Midwest.
Her favorite places to play are small towns across the Midwest. Especially those in West Virginia and Kansas where she finds people to be more engaged. Places were locals might be unhappy that there isn’t enough going on in their town and she gets to be that reason they can get out and have a good time.. and in return she can be more engaged in a way she might not get to be in a busier town.
She looks forward to her Northwest leg of this years journey, having had to cut a recent north west tour short, despite being scared to do the math when it comes to gas prices.
She use to run sound as AV technician for production companies and universities but got really burnt out and decided to move on and follow her passions. If not for being a musician she still thinks she would wanna work with her hands as possibly a car mechanic or a barber. She enjoys making the resin-pour necklaces, as well as scented soaps that are available for purchase at her shows and she plans on adding earrings soon made from wood that she gathered working for an arborist at the beginning of the pandemic.
“I do get burnt out sometimes and tired of the late nights and second shift but there is nothing else I would rather be doing with my time that I’ve found so far.”
Anna p.s.
Finding inspiration in loop artists such Katie Tunstel and Mike Vile, she likes to focus on keeping her music as analog as possible by incorporating as little technology as she can; having nothing pre-recorded, and doing everything live on the spot.
“Jealousy of harmonica players” she admits, is what truly lead her down the loop pedal path.
Loving the idea of having another instrument available like folk singers such as Bob Dylan and his harmonica holding apparatus. Already being proficient at playing the flute, since fifth grade, and without any real desire to begin learning how to play the harmonica she new she had to do something. So she began the hunt for the loop pedal that would come to make her music and her passion whole… the BOSS R2… a simple one button loop; One hit record, one hit to play back, one hit to delete.
With song writing being the top of her passions, she likes to keep her set lists fresh. Even having hopes to have some new material out by this weekend.
“I’ve had a lot of song writing energy but not a lot of time.” Anna says, “Between shows and driving and sitting behind a screen [keeping up with the business side of touring]”
“It feels like an itch.. I haven’t had it in a long time and now its like I should really be honing in and listening to this” Going on to add that being on the road is definitely good motivation.
“I think I write serious songs about being a human… Western culture expects us to have our shit together all the time. I think we are all going through so much stuff all the time and there are so many things to grieve, especially now.. everything is just louder and people just need a space to feel the hard feelings of being a human.”
When asked what song of hers she might suggest to pair with the current brand of hard times we are in; “A song called Back Pack, [found on her youtube] inspired by one of my colleagues’ son, who, at the age of 18, had one of those life experiences that just makes you an adult instantly.”
To quote the chorus of “Back Pack”
“The things I carry in my back pack always vary, the things contained inside my pockets often change. The things I hold within my chest are all the same, the only difference is they’re heavier with age.”
She goes on to mention how she likes her songs to speak for themselves and let people make the connections THEY need.
All of her music is available for purchase and download on her website.
and then