Anna Katarina — Transcript

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity, spelling, and readability. Music excerpts are noted where they appear in the episode.

Cold open

Anna Katarina: I’m just so happy now. I’ve got such an amazing group of people that are in my life. I guess I felt it’s important to honor that, and it’s important to acknowledge that I think I would choose this life over being Taylor Swift.

[Music]

Eric Chan: I’m Eric Chan, and you’re listening to Inlet Wire — your direct line to BC artists.

In this episode, I’m joined by Anna Katarina. Her album While I Was Dreaming looks at the life that happens around the dream: falling in love, finding your people, moving through uncertainty, and noticing the moments that shape who you become.

Anna Katarina: It’s called While I Was Dreaming, and the theme reflects the concept that life happens when you’re busy making plans.

So, you know, when I was a kid, people asked me, “When did I know that I wanted to be a musician?” And I just, I’ve always known. It’s just what I was meant to do.

From a very, very young age, I was slightly delusional thinking that I would be the next Taylor Swift, you know? And I would be on these massive arena stages and have a team, and somebody was just going to discover me on the street.

And that lasted for a very long time. I had that. But I did learn eventually that behind most successful artists, it looks like maybe they have a big break, and it’s really just so much hard work, and then they have some luck.

And I might never get that luck. You know, I might always be a slightly unknown artist making music because I love it and finding a few people around the world that resonate with it.

And so this record is kind of not quite coming to terms with that, because I don’t know if I have, to be honest, but it’s about all of the beautiful moments in between that I think I would have missed if I’d been discovered in the mall at age 18 and catapulted into instant stardom.

[Music]

Eric Chan: And for Anna, the in-between moments are the whole point of this record.

Anna Katarina: So it’s just about falling in love and family and going for walks by the ocean and discovering yourself and feeling depressed, and what it means to be human in all of these moments that I’ve experienced.

Most of them have been beautiful, but some of them have been really challenging while I was dreaming about this other life of success.

I’m just so happy now. You know, I’ve got such an amazing group of people that are in my life. I guess I felt it’s important to honor that, and it’s important to acknowledge that I think I would choose this life over being Taylor Swift.

That feels weird, but it also feels really beautiful. So that’s the theme of the album.

[Music]

Eric Chan: That mindset also changes what she’s trying to do with songwriting and what success even means.

Anna Katarina: It’s been cool to hear the response to my new record, where some people’s favorite songs are my favorite songs, and they’re not the hits. They’re the anti-hits.

It really has taken the pressure off of writing songs that need to be under three minutes, pop hits. I want a long, sustainable career with playing to people that resonate with what I’m trying to say.

And lyrics have become a lot more important to me as well. So I think I’m still working on this, you know? And it’s hard when I’m busy and I’m feeling burnt out and I’m feeling the pressure of, “Oh my goodness, I haven’t released a song in this many months. I need to write something that’s really going to do well on TikTok.”

That really messes with my head. I’m not going to lie, because the hardest thing about being a musician right now is just getting your music heard.

But I also just have to think about who I’m speaking to and what I’m trying to say. And those people want me, and they want honesty, and they want songs that they can relate to, because I’m not writing them for me. I’m writing them for everybody.

[Music]

Eric Chan: And even when Anna talks about pressure, she’s also clear about what still keeps it fun: collaboration.

Anna Katarina: I mean, I love collaborating with others, and even on my own album, I’m still collaborating with so many people. And with other artists, it’s really fun because it kind of gives me permission to go outside of my usual genre a little bit, because fans are kind of expecting something different.

It’s when you bring two artists with two different sounds and you put them together, and what could happen? So it’s kind of like a science experiment. And I really love that. It kind of takes away the pressure to stick to my lane — not that you should ever have to stick to your genre and stick to your lane.

[Music]

Eric Chan: One collaboration taught her something very practical about songwriting, especially when the music comes first.

Anna Katarina: I have a song called “Lost Without You” that I wrote and recorded with a producer friend of mine, Gunter Brenner.

And that was such an interesting writing experience for me because he writes from such a different perspective. He kind of produces as he goes, right?

We got the song to the point where we had really finessed the melody, and I spent months with this song trying to come up with any sort of lyrics because it’s actually really challenging to have a song be finished and then write lyrics for it later.

But it was a cool experience because at one point I thought, “I’m just never going to have lyrics for the song. So we might as well just trash it.” And there were parts of the melody that I didn’t really connect with because I didn’t write it.

And then it clicked. I think I just finally realized I have to put the work in, and I just have to do this. You’re always waiting for the muse to hit you and inspiration to come. And I just did the work, and I love it. I love the lyrics. It’s one of people’s favorite songs when we play it live.

It kind of showed me that I am capable of writing in a different way. You can’t just always wait for a blast of inspiration. There are a lot of tools that I have in my belt that I can draw upon when it comes to songwriting.

And I also don’t believe in forcing a song if it’s not ready, but you can’t be lazy. I guess that’s kind of what that song taught me.

Eric Chan: And that idea — having a full life outside music — is a big reason Vancouver still makes sense for her.

Anna Katarina: Back in 2022, I moved down to Nashville for a little while because I was like, “I got to be in the city that the music is happening,” because it’s really cool. Such an amazing community and super, super inspiring.

But two things that really jumped out at me after a few months: firstly, it was too much music scene all the time for me. All of my friends were in the music scene. All we did was go out to see music. And I love music, but I’m like, I need to have things outside of music, and I need to have friends that do other things.

All of my songs started being about the music industry and how I was feeling about the music industry, and that’s so boring after a while to me.

Eric Chan: So she came back to BC, not because it’s easy, but because it gives her the life she needs outside of music.

Anna Katarina: And then the other thing was, I have been so spoiled growing up in British Columbia. And I was like, “You know what? I love Nashville. I’ll come back. I will write songs here. But I need to live somewhere that feels like a vacation and fills me up and gives me everything else that I need.”

And it’s not to say it’s not hard to live here. I have to work a lot. It’s expensive, and it’s gray and dark and rainy. And we had a week where it was just so foggy.

But there’s something that’s still beautiful about it. You go down to the water, and I kind of love the days where it’s really cold and rainy and gross because no one is down there, and you kind of feel like you just own the city.

Yeah, it just gives me this feeling. I don’t know if I can explain it, but I hope it shows up in my songs.

Eric Chan: That’s Anna Katarina. Go check out her album While I Was Dreaming, follow her socials, and catch her live when she’s playing near you.

I’m Eric Chan, and this is Inlet Wire — your direct line to BC artists.