We did an interview with Nan Ana a R&B singer/ songwriter from Baltimore
Strwbry Jean Zine:What does your songwriting process look like?
Nan Ana- Oh boy! It varies. Sometimes I'll have an idea for a song. Just a blanket idea. When I wrote “Ruinous One”, I was really inspired by SZA at the time. I was listening to a bunch of SZA. So, the overall idea I had was to write a song that sounded like it could be a SZA song. After listening to hours of her music I came up with the idea of the first line of “Ruinous One” . I rolled with that.Everything came from that point. I came up with a baseline then I just wrote the rest of the song. But, it varies, sometimes I’ll have a tune in mind, sometimes I'll have an idea in mind. Sometimes I have a melody in my mind, or a phrase. Those are usually the three tipping points though.
Strwbry jean zine: I'm obsessed with SZA so much , so when you said that, it totally connected. I could hear the hints of SZA in your song,” Ruinous One”.
Strwbry Jean Zine: How would you describe your music, which genre?
Nan ana : It's funny you ask that because I've been asking myself the same question. I would say my music ranges from bedroom pop, bedroom R&B to Indie. When it comes to musical inspirations, I draw a lot of inspiration from NEO soul. Like UMI, SZA and Arna Lenox. I also really love old school R&B. I love erykah BAdu and BRandy and toni braxton. However, I also really love indie alternative artists like Cavetown and Dodie. So it’s a big modge Podge of all those different artists inside of me. It really depends on the song but my overall answer would be india pop, I guess.
Strwbry Jean zine: I almost replaced my UMI shirt before this interview.
Nan Ana: oh my gosh I love your UMI shirt. That’s Beautiful! That’s incredible, Oh my Goodness!
Strwbry Jeanzine: Can you explain sound from scratch to our readers?
Nan Ana: Yes! Absolutely, absolutely!
So, a very ta;ented Baltimore producer and songwriter by the name of John Tyler has a show that hw hosts called, sound from scratch. He invites different artists to his home and they work on a song for about two hours. After those two hours, he records and produces it into a song of his own creation with collaboration of course. I was fortunate enough to be on this show for an episode and that’s when we wrote and produced a song we have called, Forever. It was a really interesting experience because I’ve only really been a songwriter with two people. THose being my producer and my sister. It was a comp[letely new experience to write with somebody completely new. Especially because at the time I didn't really know him very well, I only knew of him. Now, we are better friends. At the time it was very new, he had an idea for a song and we just sat down. I wrote a few versus to the chords that he had. We recorded it and now its a song!
Strwbry Jeanzine: How were you feeling going into sound from scratch?
Nan ana: Oh gee! I was really nervous. Being an artist in the Baltimore scene, In my little neck of the woods, there's a lot of people who are very serious about their craft and absolutely grinding. I think it’s very inspiring but I’m also very new with everything. John Tyler is someone that’s been in the business for years now. It was a bit intimidating and I really wanted the song to be good. Sometimes when songwriting, I just don't have any ideas at the present moment.=, I was nervous, going into it thinking my song writing would be trash! I would have this documented terrible moment for everyone to see. Luckily, thank god, it went a lot better than I thought it would. I was really anxious but even=rything went we;ll.
Strwbry Jeanzine: If you could compare your music to anyone, who would it be?
Nan Ana: That’s so hard. It's such a difficult question because I feel like it’s almost presumptuous of me to be like “yeah, I know, I feel like I sound like this person!1!1” I’d like to say that I sound like an early erica bondeuoo. Once in a while, when I write songs acoustic I get very erica bondeo vibes. Sometimes, I get India Ari vibes as well .I'm told I sound like INdie Ari. I've been told by UMI. I’ve been told I give off an UMI vibe. So I guess those three? It sounds [presumptuous of me but I love those artists and that's who I want to sound like, in the least.
Strwbry Jeanzine: yeah! When we wrote down these questions, I said to myself “ She sounds like UMI, I hope she says that”
Nan Ana: Oh my gosh, thank you!
Strwbry Jeanzine: what advice would you give to new artists?
Nan Ana: If I were to give advice to new artists, it would also be coming from other new artists. For the advice I'd be able to give with the short amount of time I've been at this is try everything. Don't be afraid to collaborate. Collaborations have taught me a lot about the general music scene and growing from and artist is very important. Drawing inspiration from what you know and who you're around. A lot of times, people that go at something always have the same goal. To make music that they love. They all want to make music that other people love. It’s important to just sit down and have heart to hearts with people doing the same things that you are and just learn from them. I've been spending a lot of time trying to sit back and learn from the people I'm around and I feel it's been very beneficial for me. A lot of times, people want to go and experience their own things and make their own mistakes, I respect that. A lot of times, you can learn from other people's mistakes and there's no need for you to fall into the same pitfalls when other people can advise you against them.
Strwbry jean zine: That's really great advice! Especially with gen s, we are all so socially awkward, that I would be afraid to collaborate with people.
Nan Ana: I hear you, man! That was me! it's so difficult for me sometimes but you have to push yourself to do things that are uncomfortable, It helps you grow!
Strwbry Jeanzine: what should we be looking for in the future?
Nan ana: Oh! I got plans lemme tell you! If it wasn't for this pandemic,man, things would've been different for me. I would just say keep your eyes and your ears peeled. I've got a lot of things in=m working on. I've been working on doing acoustic covers. I recently got some really nice recording equipment. HopefullyI can share what I've been working on, more publically. I have a lot of little covers I want to put out next.
Strwbry Jeanzine” what's your favorite song you've ever written?
Nan Ana: Okay so, my favorite song I have out on streaming services is ruinous one. Whenever I listen to it now, I still like it which is crazy! Most of the time, when I'M done writing and recording a song, I'm like “Ew I hate it , please never play it in my presence again!” But that song, I can still vibe tp. I'd say, it's so interesting because a lot of the songs I'm excited for are not out yet. I always want to sit down and tweet lyrics like “yoo I lowkey went off when I said this” Then Im like “Argh I can't do that!!” Its aggravating! So yeah, Ruinous ones is my favorite of the ones I have out. I have thi little song that I just wrote and put out on youtube called Flowers that I absolutely love. It was right at the beginning of quran time so everybody was coming out with little quarantine covers and songs. I was like “ I wanna have fun too! I wanna get into the dome of this action !” so I wrote a quarantine song and that was flowers. I think it's a f=song that I really really love because there's so much in it for me. When I wrote it, it was about how much I miss spring, and how much I just want to look at the flowers. I've been away to school in Florida for so long and I haven't ex[erienced spring on the east coast for so long. I was so excited to experience it again but i don't because of the sickness and everyone inside. At The same time I was dealing with a lot of internal turmoil with just having to be isolated. You can really see the juxtaposition of the two different moods in the wayI wrote the song. Itws something I loved to go back to and listen to the difference of the chords and the verses. When I wrote this song, it was very experimental. I don't do key changes often because I'm not a very complicated person .When it comes to the lyrics they can be metaphorical and stuff however, with the chords they are very straightforward. I tried new things with that one so it was a fun one for me to play and a fun one for me to listen to sometimes. So, ruinous one and flowers.
Strwbry Jeanzine : Do you think you'll produce it after quRntine is over?
Nan ana: for sure! That song has to come out at one point. People have told me that they want it to be out so i'd like it to be available for people to listen when they can.
Strwbry Jeanzine: do it for the people,
Nan anan: I think it's a song that, acoustically, is really cool. However, I think it'll be really interesting to explore with much more depth in production. Hopefully I'll have the chance to have that on streaming services.
Strwbry Jeanzine: you said you wrote about spring because you missed it, do you usually write from experiences or do you tell stories?
Nan ana: I feel like i'm saying, “it depends: for all of my answers but it really does. With flowers i wrote that specifically from the experiences I was having. A Lot of the times songwriting is multi- faceted. Sometimes it'll be about a story I want to tell but it's not my own . Throughout quarantine, I've been challenging myself to write songs about my favorite movies!. That may or may not be a project to look forward to in the future, maybe or maybe not, you'll see. After doing that, which was really more for fun and seeing what i could do with that. Also sometimes, songwriting is very therapeutic to me. Sometimes I'm like “ I don't know how to put my feelings into words so I'm going to write a song about it then I'll feel better” funny enough, that's what flowers were for me. It was me wanting to write a song about something going on in my life but also me needing to write about was going on in my life. Like : oh i miss spring but, what is happening in my brain?” is that makes sense, it was a lot all at once, so yeah , songwriting is very therapeutic for me but also i just want to have an idea i want to put out. My notes app is filled with the craziest things. I have this one note titles, “ things that could be lyrics” sometimes it could just be words like molly ringwald. I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet, either it's going to be a little lyric about how much i love molly ringwald or maybe a whole song, I don't know!things like that I guess.
Strwbry Jeanzine: i love when [people put pop culture references in music! Like leo in santro pe in Taylor Swits” the man”.
Nan ana: Me too! Its super cool
Strwbry Jean zine: yeah! And when I was little I never really caught up to it but now I understand what it means and I know what they're talking about.
Nan ana: exactly ! Oh my god!It's so cool to go back and listen to a song after finding more about the artist or about the time, and youre like “ lowkey when they said this they meant this, it's crazy!”
Strwbry Jean Zine: thos circa 2008 songs I used to listen to and think are catchy and happy when they're really about heartbreak. Or inappropriate songs you'd listen to and sing along and no one would correct you.
picture credits by (@jarettloeffler) on insta