INTERVIEW: Anna Vaus

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INTERVIEW BY: Alana Beltran & Brenna Torrence

Hailing from San Diego, California, Anna Vaus is both an artist and songwriter who moved to Nashville, Tennessee for university where she studied songwriting, and is pursuing a career in the alternative/folk-pop genre. She has worked with artists like Keith Urban, Maddie & Tae, Carly Pearce, and many more. Previously, Vaus toured with stars like Willie Nelson and recently got off the road with The Voice Season 21 winner, Girl Named Tom.

Anna Vaus is currently on tour this fall as the opening number for the powerful vocal trio, Trousdale. WHIP had the chance to talk with Anna about her night in Philadelphia, her fans, and where she gets her inspiration from.

Alana: We first wanted to start by saying we loved your show last night (Friday, October 13th), and we wanted to thank you so much for taking the time to meet with us over the phone. 

Anna: Yeah! Thank you guys for coming out to the show. I really appreciate it. 

Alana: Yeah, you killed it honestly.

Anna: Thanks!

Alana: Okay, so to start, how do you think your set went last night and how do you feel being in Philly? 

Anna: So, I thought it was so fun, I was running on very little sleep, so I was like I’m just gonna trust the music will carry us through and that Philly is going to show up because Philly always does. It was awesome and I had a blast. Philly crowd-wise is such a fun group of people. I feel like everyone is just ready to go and have a good time and everyone seems like they were there last night, so it was great.  

Brenna: Yes we were talking about how the crowd had such a good energy level-

Anna: Yeah!

Brenna: It was just so nice. Going off of that, how has the touring experience with Trousdale been for you so far? 

Anna: It’s been amazing. They are some of the nicest people I’ve ever gotten to tour with and so it’s just fun to get to know the girls and watch their set every night. On top of that, their fans are incredible, and I was so surprised the first show because I’ve spent time playing thousands of hours playing shows in front of crowds and these are some of the best crowds I have ever played for and I feel so lucky to be a part of their fall tour.

Alana: That’s incredible. We saw that you toured with Willie Nelson, is that correct?

Anna: Yes! It’s crazy!

Alana: That’s actually insane, he is one of my favorite artists in the world.

Anna: He is a legend, he is just amazing. And he is just like the same, like him and his crew are just so kind and so welcoming. And his fans are so amazing, and to get to be a part and even get to share a stage with him – I even got to sing with him – it is just bananas to me. Like that shouldn’t even be a real sentence, you know?  

Alana: When you first heard you were going to tour with someone as huge as him, what were you thinking when you got that news?

Anna: I definitely freaked out. My agent called and he was like ‘Would you want to go on tour with Willie?’ and I was like “Listen, you never have to ask me that question again. Just assume it’s a yes always.” That’s the dream. So I freaked out and I’m pretty sure I called my parents immediately after and was like “Guess what?!” 

Alana: That’s so crazy, and something so casual for your agent to just bring up. 

Anna: I know, I know! I was like this is not a normal thing. 

Alana: And then, how do you think touring with Willie Nelson prepared you for your time on the road with Trousdale? 

Anna: You know, I think it just gave me this sense of like- I think since I first started touring I was playing for a lot of crowds that just were showing up at a venue to drink beer honestly, and especially having started in music as a country artist and now being more in the Americana-folk-pop lane, I just felt lucky to even stand on a stage where people were in the room, and playing and touring with Willie just showed me that people don’t just show up to a concert to drink beer, they come to listen to music. Which sounds like such a silly thought to have, but I just realized that there’s fans out there that genuinely care about the songs and the lyrics, and the music. 

It allowed me to just be more myself on stage. It made me realize that there are fans out there that love songs for the songs and I just got to lean into me and I feel like touring with Trousdale, I’ve gotten to do that too where it’s like I don’t have to play a bunch of covers, I can just play the songs that I’m really proud of and just be myself, and people will accept that and actually want to be fans of music like that, so that’s pretty cool to me. 

Brenna: I imagine those first few show dates with Willie Nelson were nerve-wracking because it is Willie Nelson. Going off of that, do you still get nervous performing? And, how do you shake those nerves on stage?

Anna: You know, I think it’s just like telling myself and trusting myself that I’ve done this so many times before that I know what I’m doing. I sometimes get that imposter syndrome a little bit of like: I’m walking around backstage waiting for someone to be like “Hey you’re not supposed to be here,” and just trusting that I am meant to do this, and that people show up to a show wanting to discover new music and love new music. The only way I can give people the truest experience is to be myself and to do what I know how to do. That really helps me ease my nerves. I also am a big Swiftie, so before a show, I’ll usually be listening to Taylor Swift or Joni Mitchell with my AirPods in just to catch a vibe. 

Brenna: I love Joni Mitchell!

Alana: Yes!

Anna: She’s so so good. Some of my friends came up to the show in Boston recently and we were all getting ready together in my hotel room and I had my Airpods in and I was listening to ‘Both Sides Now’ by Joni Mitchell, which is SO dramatic and a really introspective song and I took my Airpods out and they were listening to really hype Nicki Minaj, all the things and I was like “OK, very different vibes happening in both rooms right now, but we need to bounce. ”    

Alana: That is so good! 

Anna: I know, it’s just like, girls girling!

Alana: Exactly, just girls girling! Do you have any other pre-show rituals that you do with somebody like Kevin (guitarist in Anna’s band) or your band? 

Anna: We both share a fist bump before the show, we don’t have it so “we have to do this thing.” I feel like we need something like that though, because every iconic artist has that thing that they do and so I will report back to you. We will work on it.     

Alana: Yeah definitely, we would LOVE to know. Could you tell us a little about Kevin and how you met him?

Anna: So we went to Belmont University together and we met day one at Belmont. We were just in the same friend group and then as we had both went through school and started to grow in our careers I was like “I need a guitar player” and we started playing shows together. It’s been fun to really grow. We also date, which is lovely. It’s fun to get to be on the road with a partner and a champion of each other, and I think touring is really fun. But there are also parts of it that are really difficult and challenging and to have someone who’s like ‘in the trenches’ with you and there for you, and able to show up when you need a minute and I can show up for him when he needs a minute, it’s really special.

Brenna: Yeah, that’s really amazing to have that support system on tour, especially with someone who you’ve known outside of the business and also knows what you’re going through in the business.

Anna: Absolutely, it’s really special.

Brenna: To go back on something you’ve done in the past, during the COVID pandemic, you organized and accomplished a sixty-date tour called “The Girl in a Backyard Tour,” where you performed live shows in the backyards of your fans. Which I just have to say is absolutely amazing. I’ve never heard of that being done before and that takes a lot of guts, especially during that difficult time. So I love that you’ve done that.   

Anna: Thank you!

Brenna: Would you say this unique experience has impacted your perspective on the touring side of the music business, as well as how you organize your sets? 

Anna: Oh my gosh, yes. I think one of the biggest things that it gave me was an appreciation for the people behind the scenes on a tour that you don’t see on the stage. The people that haul in the gear, the people that plug in the microphones, and the people that turn on the lights and sell the merch; all that stuff to me was something that I had just not, and I was so lucky, but I had just never done that ever. I just got to show up and rock out on stage for an hour.

And then COVID happened and we had to do this backyard tour and all of a sudden, Kevin and I are hauling in the gear and we’re selling the merch and we are doing all the stuff. It’s just like “Oh! Shoot. This is hard and this is a whole part of this.” I am just so thankful to those people, it made me appreciate the shows now; it seems so small but it’s like “Oh my gosh! We don’t have to plug a speaker into this venue right now. That is amazing.” 

I am so thankful, and in terms of creating a set, it’s been nice because I feel like it’s been such a test of what songs I should keep writing or what songs weren’t working in a set because it is such an intimate listening environment. –It just felt like I was hanging out in somebody’s living room. It was just like playing the songs and telling the stories behind them and being like “OK, that one did not go over well” or “This one really went over well, and I didn’t think it was one that people would love as much, but hey! Maybe I should just keep it in the set.” I think it was such a learning experience and such a fun way to meet fans that I made over TikTok and continue to build my music career.

Alana: That is so incredible and such an amazing thing that you don’t see a lot of artists doing now. 

Anna: Yeah for sure! And it was such a test I think of like I feel like so many of my team members and my friends were like “Well, no one can say you don’t want to do music for the rest of your life because you’re getting in a car every weekend and driving so many hours to do this” and I was like “Yeah, that is true.”

Alana: And I feel like it gives you such a deeper appreciation for your craft.

Anna: Yes. Absolutely.

Alana: So, you’ve had your songs recorded by people like Keith Urban, Chord Overstreet, and many other influential artists in your genre, which again, is amazing. What do you think you learned from those experiences and how have they influenced your music and your current sound today? 

Anna: I think more than anything it has given me– like when I first moved to Nashville, I was like “All I want to do is write songs for other people. I’m not an artist.” I would write every day, and then there would be a song where I was like “Well, this sounds like an Anna song, I don’t want anyone else to sing this. This is for me.” Then I really started focusing on “OK well I want to put out music, what does that sound like?” 

Getting to write songs for other people I think twofold allows me to one: explore types of music and songs that I would not sing as an artist myself because it’s just not my story and to get to help other artists tell their stories is such a gift and two: I think it’s allowed me so much freedom in my own music because I’m like “I can just say whatever I want to say in my music and be me. When I go sometimes into rooms with other people I am limited musically or with what they want to say. It gives me freedom in both, if that makes sense. 

Brenna: It definitely does. It allows you to tell the story in the truest form and show your perspective. 

Anna: Yeah, for sure, and just appreciate it. You know, I played a song last night called “Dumb,” it’s unreleased, but there’s a line in it that goes “You punched a hole in my studio wall when I said that we should be friends” and I don’t think I could ever go into a room with another artist and they would be like: “Let’s put that into a song!” They would be like,“That sounds crazy,” so to have the space to be able to do that and say that as an artist, but also go into a room and write a song about riding down a back road in a truck with a boy that you have a crush on. I would never say that as an artist because that is just not my life, but it’s fun to get to do both.                                  

Alana: Going off of your inspiration, do you think where you come from influences your music and your genre? How has moving to Nashville versus being from San Diego differed from what you write and how you perform?

Anna: Yeah, I am definitely super influenced by where I grew up. I feel like I’m a relatively chill person, and just growing up by the ocean and driving down the coast all the time and being surrounded by California as a physical place and also the music that came out of it – especially 1970s/late 60s Laurel Canyon, Fleetwood Mac stuff – was such a big influence on me and still is every day. 

When I got to Nashville, I was like “Oh, everyone here does country music. I can do that!” so I just started writing more country-focused songs and for a minute I was like, “This is what I want to do. I want to be a country artist, this is who I am.” I kind of just chased that path for a little bit, and this past year I’ve really learned and come into my own where I’m like “I don’t have to be what an industry thinks I should be.” I just get to be who I am, and in fact, I can only be who I am. 

That’s the only way I want to succeed as an artist and put out music as an artist. So I find that Nashville can be a wonderful – it’s an amazing songwriting community, but I’ve definitely had to recognize that just because I don’t fit in as an artist there doesn’t mean that there’s not a space for me there. 

Alana: Wow. That left me speechless, I’m not gonna lie. That was amazing, thank you so much.

Anna: Oh my gosh, absolutely!

Alana: Next, I want to talk about who inspires you to make your music in your personal life and then who inspires you to keep doing what you love?

Anna: In my personal life, I would say…I have a friend group and our group chat name is called ‘Y’all the Queen.’ Someone had said that at one point in the evening we were all hanging out, and we were like “that’s our friend group name now.” They, I think, know me almost more than I know myself sometimes, and they are just always holding me accountable to be myself in my music. They can tell so quick when I’m not being myself and they’re like “Hey girlie, knock it off. Let’s show people who Anna is as actually Anna.” They have been there with me through the highs and the lows and everything in between. So I would say in my personal life, definitely them. Shoutout to ‘Y’all the Queen.’ 

And then for the people who inspire me to keep doing what I love, certainly fans of my music. I feel like I’ve grown up with the people that have listened to my music, and we all celebrate each other. Yesterday at the show, there’s a fan of mine – her name is Hannah – and she was like “I just want to tell you, I’ve just finished writing my full-length screenplay,” and it was so emotional for me because I was like “Holy cow, I’m not the only one out here doing what I love and chasing my dreams.” We’re all on this freaking rollercoaster of life chasing down this thing and it’s different for everyone, but to get to go through that together is so beautiful, and if I can make music that is even the smallest part of the soundtrack of someone’s life – that is my dream all day and I’ll do that all day every day just to keep getting to do that.

Brenna: Absolutely, that’s amazing! So, during your set last night at the Foundry, there was an audience-incorporated aspect in the lyrics where we sang along all together one specific lyric in one of your songs with you. Do you write certain songs with the thought of them being a great track to play live?

Anna: I don’t know that it’s always my first thought, but definitely as I’m writing a song, I’m like “this would be so much fun to play live.” I definitely consider it when I’m writing, but I’m such a lyric person that I feel that I’m like “Okay, if this feels good to me, it probably resonates with someone else as well.”

Brenna: Yeah, absolutely. A lot of your lyrics I was personally feeling really connected to, and I just loved hearing them live. I felt so seen hearing some of the lyrics. 

Anna: Thank you for saying that! It means the world to me. 

Brenna: Of course. If there is one thing you hope people learn or think about from your lyrics, what would that be?

Anna: I’m trying to think of one word to describe it. I guess ‘community’? I feel like my favorite music makes me think – like “oh my gosh, I thought I was the only person in the world that felt this way and turns out, someone else does. And thank goodness, because it’s really lonely to feel this way.” So, I just hope in my music, people resonate with it and feel a little less alone when they feel things and listen to music.

Brenna: Absolutely. To wrap up, what can we look forward to in the future regarding your music and career, and what is a goal that you hope to accomplish? I know you still have almost half a tour left with Trousdale which I’m sure will be incredible. 

Anna: Short-term, I have a ton of new music coming out that I’m so excited about. 

I keep saying “I used to be a country artist and now I’m this folk-pop artist,” and I for the first time feel like I just looked at myself in the mirror and was like “Anna, if you only get to make one record ever again, what songs would you put on it?” And I’ve gone and found and written those songs, and I just feel so excited to release those and be completely and fully myself as an artist, so lots of new music! In terms of goals, the dream for me is to do a sold-out headline arena tour, so working on that every day!

Alana: Awesome! Do you have any advice for new artists trying to make it big in the music industry?

Anna: Definitely. The two things I would say are, don’t spend too much time on TikTok. Don’t compare yourself to other people because it’s so easy to look at numbers and be like “I don’t have that and I’m terrible” and then never create. The second thing I would say is just always keep creating and challenge yourself to be the most honest version of yourself that you can be in your music. 

Alana: Thank you. That’s so profound and I’m sure that will resonate with a lot of our listeners. 

Anna: Thank you, I hope it does!

Alana: Well thank you so much! You’re incredible, and we’re excited to see what you do!

Anna: Thank you, guys, thank you for coming to the show. It was so good to meet you, and I’m sure I’ll see you again.

Brenna: Absolutely! Thank you for coming to Philly, and good luck on the rest of the tour with Trousdale.