Annie Elise delves on her new single “We Can Pretend”, musical influences & more
Great to have you on Xttrawave. Please, introduce yourself
Hey, thanks so much for having me! My name is Annie Elise & I’m from Hershey, PA.
What got you into music and made you realize that it was your chosen path?
When I was in 4th grade, my dad (who works as a general middle school music teacher) brought home a shiny new iMac with Garageband on it and asked me to test his curriculum. I was probably about 10 years old, and I fell in love with it. I used to sneak up to their room to play around in Garageband when they weren’t home. I didn’t really have a “moment” of knowing that this was something I was going to do, making music was always kind of a constant for me. As I got older, I started getting more involved in playing violin and learning more electronic instruments, as well as more advanced production techniques. It didn’t surprise anyone in my family when I announced I would be attending Berklee College of Music for production!
Tell us about your new music? And what’s the story behind it?
The new single is called We Can Pretend and it’s all about the line between dreams and reality. We initially wanted to write a song inspired by a false awakening, which is where you wake up in a dream and feel like you woke up for real, but you’re still in a dream. It’s a bittersweet feeling because being in a dream is nice, but ultimately not as good as reality. That’s the emotion we tried to capture for this song! All of the collaborators for the track and I have never met in person, we did the whole song entirely virtually in about a month. Josiah Soren produced it, I wrote & did the vocals plus a bit of additional production, Craig Reeves mixed it, and Piper Payne mastered it! It was such a smooth collaboration process.
What makes your music unique? And how would you describe it?
One thing that I am finding about the music industry is that there is a lack of female producers in it. Growing up there was never anyone visible of my gender that I could look up to, and even now only about 5% of recognized music producers are female. It’s so insanely male dominated, so finding my voice as a female producer has been difficult. To add to that, this music is sort of in between genres – it isn’t quite commercial pop, but it’s too commercial sounding to fall into closer categories like electronic, dance, IDM, etc. There’s a very distinct shimmery quality to all of my music though, which I love!
Who are your biggest musical influences? And any particular artist/band you would like to collaborate with in the future?
This song was most inspired by Bad Snacks, since we all met each other through her Discord community. She has such a distinct groovy-quirky sound that I love, and is killing it as a female producer in the scene. I’d love to collaborate on a track with her. Rachel K Collier, DATSUNN, Maddie Jay, ARIZA, Damoyee, and Dresage are also very high on my list – there are just so many people I’d love to make music with!!
Which is the best moment in your musical career that you’re most proud of?
Well, a lot of people have found my music through a TEDx talk I gave in 2017 on synesthesia, a neurological condition I have which causes me to physically see sound and hear color. That ended up going viral which was pretty cool. Even though it was about 4 years ago, I’m really proud of that talk because it was what started the idea that I could do music as a career. I’m so proud of fifteen year old Annie for beginning to think about synesthesia in a way that validated it as part of her identity rather than denying it. I feel like that can happen. I also scored a nomination for Central PA’s Best Pop Artist which is a huge honor, and feels really good that my genre blend of artistry is being locally recognized as pop.
How do you balance your music with other obligations – family, friends or work?
Oh man, that’s a tough one. It’s really hard to balance things correctly. But one thing that helps is that all aspects of my life are centered around music – I can make music while attending music school, and my partner is also a music producer. That’s all great because everyone understands. My work is making music, and it takes up a large part of my life. But all the people closest to me have music taking up large parts of their lives, too. That’s helped a lot.
What advice would you give to aspiring musicians?
One piece of advice I would give is to never stop working on your dreams! That sounds so cheesy, but self-motivation is a skill I am very blessed to have. Things will only happen if you can take the initiative, so take that initiative and go get it! That also includes reaching out to people to learn things and ask questions as well. It can be scary when you’re starting out, but it’s so worth it.
If you had one message to give to your fans, what would it be?
A message for my fans? To be quite honest with you, I didn’t even know I had any until very recently – I started a music production/listening Discord Server called The Annie Elites which has become the name my fan base has adopted. My message to them would be that I’m so grateful that you are with me on this journey, and I’m so proud of what each and every one of you are doing in music. It’s a hard journey, but it means the world to me that you believe in my music and mission every day.
What’s next for you? Any upcoming projects?
I’ve been working on an EP to put out this fall, and hopefully as things start to open back up you’ll be able to catch me playing some shows! Super grateful for my team at Bloom Management.
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