My Interview with Folk Singer Anna May

I recently sat down to talk with Anna May, folk singer and songwriter, about her story and growth as a new artist in the scene. We discuss her influences as an avid traveler and a sensory-centric artist who uses music as medicine and a lens for navigating the world around her. As a previous resident of the Bay Area, Anna May also shared about the impact of California on her songwriting overall. Her new single "Elegy", written about San Diego, will be out tomorrow, March 13th!

Please enjoy our conversation below!

Kiley Stokes [BFF.FM]:

So, how did you get into playing music? When did you start and what got you on that path?

I come from a musical family. My dad is a performer and singer/songwriter. I would get up on stage a lot, although I had severe stage fright as a child and a lot of anxiety, which I didn't realize until later in life. In middle school, I had some issues with being bullied and music became a refuge for me at that point in life.

Since you've been sharing your music with other people, how has your vision for your music developed over time?

Well, I think having gone through things like bullying, trauma, horrible relationships and all that, music was unexpected in my life. But it helped me channel feelings like loss and grief and finding refuge and healing, which isn't what it started out as.

Where do your stories come from when you're writing? Are there aspects of your life that you write about that you want shared?

What I've always loved about songwriting is that if something really dissatisfies us we have kind of power to express our experience of it and hopefully come to understanding. We all experience a lot and I like to really dissect my experiences. So it's very autobiographical and I like to explore society and people. I've always been fascinated with those elements and I love like dystopian novels and things like that. I like to just turn things on their head, but I also like to be very spiritual and take anything I do musically to a different place that is less literal. I have a few songs where I feel like I achieved that and hoped to reach something that was a little bit more out of grasp.

 I think it always, for a lot of songwriters, comes back to relationships. I think that's the most interesting thing to write about. And it never fails to be inspiring but there's certain things in my life where I want my side of the story told and songs are a really good way of expressing that and saying what you need to say. If you can't say it to a certain person, you can say it in a song.

Kiley [BFF.FM]:

It sounds like you've lived in quite a few places. How has that influenced your storytelling and your sound?

I've lived in a lot of places almost unintentionally. I've been to a lot of random locations in my life for periods of time. I've taken a lot of inspiration from the songwriting traditions of places like Tennessee and Kentucky. I have a lot of songs from those places. And then I have my song "Poet Masquerade" which was written in New Orleans, and that's just one of my favorite songs that I've written. It really encompasses my experience of New Orleans; the contradictions and difficulty and crazy, beautiful life of New Orleans.

But yeah, there's songs that I hear and I'm like, “Oh, that's Florida” or “that's the Bay Area” and it's cool to have that to look back on, that you remember that song and that memory from a certain place.

What other creative mediums do you take inspiration from or practice yourself?

I love words and I love poetry, and I write a lot of poetry. That's something I've studied for a long time. I just grew up thinking in poetry, if that makes sense. So those are my two favorites. I love to dance. I'm a flow trance dancer. And I think some people find that surprising about me because I'm a folk singer, but you can find me at like Ecstatic dance. I think the movement really aligns with lyrics and writing and anything creative. And sometimes if I'm writing, I'll do a really intense yoga session before I go for a run and that really plays into my creativity. I think those are creative mediums, even though they're untraditional.

I love film too. I'm super into movies and directors and that whole world. I've always had those interests. Dance, movies, and writing.

Kiley [BFF.FM]:

So you don't currently live in the Bay Area, but you have in the past. What can you tell me about that experience?

It always feels like a home to me. My dad grew up there in Mill Valley in the 70s. And so I've gotten to go back a lot. And it feels very special to me. I think that shows up in a lot of my songs, like just the time that I've spent contemplating in the [Santa Cruz] redwoods. I think anyone who's spent time there, knows the kind of sacred nature that the Bay Area has. And it lends itself so well to visual arts and music and just everything. No matter how many times I go there, I always seem to find some sort of inspiration or something new. It stops me in my tracks.

I’m curious what words resonate best with you when describing your own music?

My tagline is alternative tragic Americana. Invocations for peace and judgment. Reshaping bleeding heart, stream of consciousness poems. So that kind of says it all. I try to, unconsciously, place that into my music.

I think music can be a meditation and can serve a different purpose than what we traditionally think of in the mainstream music world that it's supposed to entertain us and be this distraction. But I think, and this is something that Californians really seem to get, that we can immerse ourselves into this kind of sonic landscape.

I think of people that I really admire, like KD Lang and Mazzy Star,  who really do design this kind of world. Not all music experiences are that way. So that's what I intend and I always want to explore things like social justice, oppression, and judgment in ways that are subtle and human. I think people can relate to stories of exclusion and trauma.

"A little gleam on evening streets

Glistening like our elegy

Darkness upon Solana Beach

We found the place where two sunsets meet

Sunken down so deep

Hills of heartbreak

Falling like dreams

You are the best and worst that I

Have ever seen

Flames and embers float between

A lost land of possibility"

-Anna May, lyrics from"Elegy"

Anna May will be releasing her new single "Elegy" on bandcamp tomorrow, March 13th, 2025. The single is written about San Diego and is one of her favorite songs she's written yet.