Anju
Anju is a singer songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in Minneapolis who released their EP, Rind + Seed in 2017. Since then they have released five singles and EPs, which are available on all streaming platforms. Their most recent single, Cicada, opens with simple piano chords and bouncy, reverb drenched guitar, and slowly grows into a dreamy mosaic of sound, complete with lush strings and driving percussion. Their lyrics use metaphor and personal experience to convey longing and emergence.
In addition to playing music, Anju is a music teacher and gives one-on-one lessons to young people and beginning musicians.
When you’re writing a song, where do you start and how does one idea lead to the next?
Anju: For me it always starts with some sort of feeling or sensation. When I’m writing I want to be just as surprised as someone listening to it. I try to do be like, “okay, fingers take the wheel”, or I guess more like feelings take the wheel.
Part of [my process] is just about letting come through what needs to come through, even if it's weird, or even if it makes no sense. I feel like what I’m writing is shaped by my existence and experiences but sometimes I have no idea what it means. Sometimes certain words or themes are coming up a lot and I don’t necessarily feel some big connection to them in the moment. I might figure that out later, or maybe I never figure it out, and I think that’s the magic of it. It feels like a spiritual practice to tap into this bigger force that connects all of us and that's beyond our comprehension.
How much are you thinking about the person who's eventually going to listen to the song as you’re writing it?
Anju: When I started writing songs it was always just me. Now that I have a small audience, I do catch myself wondering how people will interact with it or react to it. It’s more like I’m curious about how the song will make them feel, I’m not trying to make them feel any particular way. I feel very clear that everyone's going to experience it differently and I feel like once I do share something, especially once I release it formally, it does truly feel like a release. It feels like it doesn't belong to me anymore.
When you were first starting to play music did you have any specific vision of what success would look like?
Anju: Honestly where I am now is beyond what I initially envisioned for myself.
I think a big turning point was the first time I played to a packed room. Even though it was literally all my friends I was like whoa, I can play to a full room. The energy in that room just felt so alive and potent and healing. I could feel myself really putting my heart on the line and having it really held and resonated through everyone that was there. And I think that's when I was like, Whoa, this is beyond anything I ever could have imagined. And maybe that's also when I started to dream bigger.
I never imagined getting, like, algorithm traction on Spotify and gaining a little online audience. I never imagined those things. I think, since then, I've started wondering what it would it look like to be a musician that reaches a lot of ears and like tours, or whatever. I don't think any of that was on my radar when I was writing my first songs. I think I was just like, oh, this feels good.
This kind of scary thing happened last year though where I feel like I strayed really far from my musical goals. I tried to scale down what I was making because I didn’t trust that I could make those big dreams happen, but that really didn’t feel good. I felt like I wasn't pushing myself in the songwriting process.
And now I'm starting to dream big again and trust that the right collaborators and tools will come to me. And in many ways it did, like with the collaborations that I've had on Cicada, and the other two songs that I’m preparing to release this year. I made those songs so long ago, like years ago, and I'm just trying to be like, okay, however long it takes, I'm still going to dream big and not compromise my vision.
Do you think young Anju would be proud of present day Anju?
Anju: I think I'd be surprised in a really really good way. I think I’d be proud of all the things that I have become, especially in terms of identity and becoming politicized. Even in terms of my everyday lifestyle, I think I'd be surprised because I wasn't necessarily shown or told that I could be like this and live like this.
I think about young me a lot actually, they feel very much alive in me, especially in the songwriting realm. I try to call upon the sacredness of kid me.
How has your relationship to song writing changed as you’ve started working with more collaborators?
Anju: It feels so liberating to recognize that where I thrive is with just an acoustic instrument and my voice, and there are other people who really thrive at producing or arranging. I have a lot of ideas around production and arrangement, I just don’t always know how to make them happen, so it feels liberating to lean into my strengths and also to be learning so much from the producers that I have been working with so far.
I really want more of these types of collaborations, and I also want a little band now! In that latest Big Thief record I can really feel the friendship and their love for each other flowing through the music. It's so amazing.
I feel like the reason I've maybe strayed away from playing with a band is because this process is so personal and so sacred that its hard to let anyone in. That's why I was so slow to even start working with other producers but now I'm just itching and dreaming to attract that somehow, someday.
As you’ve started working with more collaborators has it been tricky to navigate the hierarchy of creative ownership when there are more people involved who all have their own visions?
Anju: Definitely. These last three songs I made would not sound anything like they do without Lutalo and Atlas, and that feels really wild. I feel like these people are giving me the world by bringing their production and arrangement ideas to my songs and I hope it's giving them something too.
Because we're in capitalism I'm grateful that I can pay them for their time and expertise but I wish it felt like more of a holistic exchange. I do feel self conscious and vulnerable about that because I want to compensate them for their time and skills but that doesn’t even feel adequate. I just really want them to gain something artistically out of the experience too.
I guess I see the song as this seed came out of me, but then all these other people watered it and tended to it. I wish there was a way in the industry for us to see it in its wholeness. If I weren’t into music I don’t think I would appreciate the team around the music that I experience. Now that I'm building my own team I’m wondering how it can be recognized as a team- built garden.
Can you tell me about your experience teaching music?
Anju: I love teaching so much, it feels so right. I think teaching has been the closest experience to how I feel when I’m making music. I also think it's just made me identify more strongly as a musician. It's easy to come home from teaching and play some stuff on the guitar. It feels very fluid, like I'm moving through the world as a musician, and that feels new to me actually. I feel like I used to be all these different things, and being a musician was just a part of it. And that’s still true, but music is taking up a bigger piece of the pie and that feels really good. It’s been such a good reorientation and it feels like I'm being kinder to myself.
Is there anything else you want to share before we wrap up?
Anju: I just feel really excited and eager to find my team, my gardening crew, I guess. And at the same time, I really have to be like, Universe, take the wheel! Because it’s really not something I can force. I feel like music is so spiritual and chemistry oriented and I just have to hope that I attract the right people and circumstances. It feels like really the most important thing right now is the team.