Anna Stine performs at Radio Heartland
by Mike Pengra and Simone Cazares
October 23, 2018
For any young person, starting out in a new city can be a challenging experience. When Anna Stine first moved to Minnesota from Ohio three years ago she was excited to start her new career as a music therapist, but quickly learned that moving to a new state wouldn't be easy. Similar to her work as music therapist Stine's debut album, Company of Now, is her way of working through the two major themes in her life right now.
"One of which is about dwelling in discomfort. That's been huge in my own journey in just becoming a human being is not pushing away the things that make us uncomfortable, whether it's emotions or experiences, but on the reverse kind of welcoming them and sitting with them," she said. "Then the other theme being moving to Minnesota. I wrote a lot of these songs kind of in the beginning of my time here, when I kind of was lonely sometimes trying to figure out my place in these Twin Cities."
Robert Bell, a well established guitarist in the Twin Cities, plays on Company of Now and produced the album. When he first met Stine, he knew he wanted to work with her on her music.
"It's happened to me with a couple of other artists too, where I absolutely know that the individual I'm speaking with and is standing across from me is probably well beyond their capabilities of what their talent. What they possess is well beyond their station at that particular moment," Bell said. "And I'm not speaking about the music therapist component, but maybe where she was as an artist, that she hadn't realized she hadn't been in a recording studio yet and hadn't recorded all of her own material. These are just incredible songs that I was just really honored to have her invite me in and be a part of."
There are many elements of Stine's sound that you can hear in her music. Influenced by powerful female artists from Macy Gray to Billie Holiday and Stevie Nicks, you can hear the range of her musical influence in Company of Now and how she makes them her own.
"There are soft songs where I'm just playing the piano. There are kind of the more rocking songs, there's one song Threshold of you where we kind of just went all out and I think it does resonate with all the parts of myself. I think that's important as an artist is to acknowledge where you are as an artist," Stine said. "Along the way Robert and I talked about how presenting these songs is kind of this stamp in my timeline as an artist, and my journey and it's about being true to those parts and figuring out what resonates and what doesn't."
But even though Company of Now is just being released, Stine says she's been already looking forward to what's to come.
"I'm constantly writing and I constantly have new songs brewing in my head. I've had to be very intentional during this process to not give too much to that part of me and to just focus, develop and learn to love and be with these songs."
Songs Performed
"Company of Now"
"Eyelids"
"Growing Pains"
Personal
Anna Stine - guitar, vocals
Robert Bell - electric guitar
Keith Yanes - bass
Andrew "Diz" Gillespie - drums
Hosted and produced by Mike Pengra
Engineered by Mike DeMark
Visuals by Nate Ryan
External Link
Anna Stine - official site
