Music Review and Interview with Anna McKinley – Cadillac

It’s a pleasant and reflective song, the vocal is soft and soothing to listen to, and some of the lyrics are really uplifting and beautiful. ‘Looking at that view you know you can do anything you set your mind to.’ A lot of the lines in fact, are really promising, and in many ways they highlight that this is most probably an artist who thinks quite deeply and wants to have a positive effect on those around them. There is always room in music for artists of that kind of optimistic intention.

The song doesn’t have a bridge or any sort of big change in melody at any point, it’s one of those that instead just wraps itself around you. it has that sort of poetic hypnotism about it – not unlike you might find in a lot of trip-hop music, so it’s nice to hear an acoustic take on that kind of musicality. The raw and real sound of the whole track is hugely appealing, it shows the artist for who they are right from the offset – there is no hiding behind effects or drums or that big band sound. It’s important to be able to write and play with just the basics like this, there’s a lot of honesty and depth involved.

The sudden introduction of the piano was completely unexpected, what it does though is introduce the possibilities, it’s a taster of what may come in the future – a bigger sound, more music behind the vocal, a full band perhaps. Anna McKinley has a lot of songs over on her Soundcloud page which leads me to believe she plays as often as possible and is constantly learning and working on new material. The song writing is very powerful, on a lyrical level in particular, and so I’d be keen to stay updated and hear the music she continues to create over the coming months and years.

By Rebecca Cullen

 EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW:

Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?

Anna McKinley: I’ve lived in Oklahoma for most of my life. When I was growing up and trying to figure out who I wanted to be when I grew up, I didn’t have much of an idea as to what I wanted to be. I had different ideas as to what I wanted to do once I grew up.

Some of these ideas were a zoologist, an engineer, a painting artist, and a rockstar. In 3rd grade, I was obsessed with sharks and the colors red and black mainly because I thought they were cool, and I was a tomboy. Third grade was also when I thought being a rockstar was the coolest thing to be, and that’s when I got my first guitar. In the 5th grade, I started teaching myself how to play guitar. I published a book with my dad the summer before my 6th grade and it is called The Pirate Bride (you can still get it on Amazon). It won some awards, and taught me that it doesn’t matter how old you are; if you want to do something, just do it. I spent several years promoting it at book conventions, and talking to total strangers about it, so that pretty much helped me to be fearless on stage. I’m pretty shy, but on stage I’m fearless. The switch to songwriting was a natural evolution because good songs tell a story. In a book, the main character experiences something that changes them. In a song, you don’t have as much time to show how a person changes, but you can convey a strong sense of emotion about what happened to that person or what led them to that change.

The summer before my 6th grade, I slowly started to become passionate about songwriting after I watched a documentary about Taylor Swift, and how she became famous at a young age. During 6th grade was when I started to write poems, I was just writing for fun and I didn’t think anything of it. I was also slowly learning how to play popular guitar songs all through middle school. I really learned a lot about song structure and chord progressions by covering those pop songs like Taylor Swift and Lenka.

By the 8th grade, I decided that I would put some of my poems to music. It’s funny looking back because most of the lyrics/poems that I wrote were about a silly middle school crush that I had. ((One of those randomly written poems turned out to be the lyrics of “For the Both of Us” on my Soundcloud account! I think it’s my best yet.)) Some were written to help me through the struggle of being bullied. I was bullied a lot when I was in middle school, and writing poems provided me an outlet for those stressful feelings. My first live guitar performance was covering “Roll with the Punches” by Lenka for my 8th grade Red Ribbon Week Talent Show.

Now that I’m in high school, I only perform original compositions. Through this, I’ve become more comfortable performing on stage, and I feel more comfortable performing in front of a huge crowd. I’m debuting a new song this week at the Heritage Hall Spring Revue called “Cadillac.” I also take any opportunity to perform as well, and I feel like I still have a lot to do to earn my stripes as a performer, so I’m getting a street performer permit and will spend the summer on the streets of Oklahoma City selling my CD’s and reaching directly to the public. In the meantime, I’m producing higher quality videos of me performing my songs on my YouTube account titled “Anna Sings.” ((https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUI-GCgErzb6Lq_sqnofOQA))

Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?

Anna McKinley: I’ve tried a couple different band names. At first I called myself “Behind the Smartness.” I thought it made sense because I figured that everyone has a driving force behind their intelligence, and I thought my driving force was love. Back then I was writing only love songs, but since then, I’ve moved on from only love songs. I also thought it was a cool name, and something that would catch people’s attention, but I decided it’s probably best to just go by ‘Anna McKinley’. Looking at different artists such as Taylor Swift and Jason Mraz, they don’t have any band names like Arctic Monkeys or Two Door Cinema Club. They just use their own names since it’s just them, and I’ve decided to do the same.

Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?

Anna McKinley: I think that online music sharing is an easy way to get your name out there, and an easy way to make sure your music gets heard. I haven’t given away my music on cd’s yet, but my music is available for download free on Soundcloud. At this point in my career, the feedback I get from family and friends about what they like and don’t like about my music is much more valuable than any money I could be making off it. Don’t get me wrong, I want to be making money off my music. I figure that will come soon if the music is good.

Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?

Anna McKinley: Do whatever you can to get your name out there, and your music listened to. Don’t compare yourselves to others if they’re more successful than you are. The thing about the music industry is that it takes time, and as long as you’re working on you, and your music, you’ll get where you want to be in the end.

Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?

Anna McKinley: I gather songwriting inspiration from real experience. My usual songwriting process is I start out with a poem from time to time. Other times, I have a point that I’m hoping to make at the end of the song, and I dive right into it. I make sure that I write out an outline of what I want to say in each verse, and in the chorus and bridge so I don’t drift off, and say something that doesn’t go along with the storyline. Once I have somewhat of a structure with the lyrics, and I have all the verses, choruses, and bridges, I get into the chords. Then, when I have the melody, I go back to the lyrics and fix anything that needs fixing and make sure that the lyrics fit with the beat, and melody.

Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?

Anna McKinley:  I use Soundcloud, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to promote my music.

Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?

Anna McKinley: Why do you ask? Wait…are you giving me half a million dollars?! LOL. JK. I know you’re not, but if you did, I would get my butt in a recording studio! My music right now sounds good, but I would love to have the polish of a legit producer and a studio band backing up my blossoming talent. I definitely would spend some money promoting myself. And of course I would need a sweet tour van and I’d drive across the country booking any gig I could get my fingers on. I want to put my music in front of people!

Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?

Anna McKinley: My school’s talent show has been a good venue for my talent. I had a parent approach me and pass a song that I had performed in 2014 along to a big record label producer. They passed, but it goes to show that if you put it out there, it’s gonna make it’s way to the right people some day. Until I’m able to devote more time to performing (re: I graduate from school) I’ll probably continue to focus on social media outlets.

Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?

Anna McKinley: THIS SUMMER I AM GOING ALL IN! STREET PERFORMER ALL THE WAY! I heard this is how Katie Tunstall perfected her craft. I’ll either die of heat stroke in the Bricktown neighborhood of Oklahoma City or become a monster performer. I’ve got 2 new songs that I’ll be uploading to my YouTube and Soundcloud accounts, so stay tuned in to my Twitter account (@AnnaMcK17).

Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?

Anna McKinley: I would still be writing. Books. Poetry. Short Stories. Storytelling is just a part of who I am.

Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?

Anna McKinley: Since I’m still in high school, my education has to take the front seat on this crazy rollercoaster of life. However, I try to treat my music life like I treat my homework and schoolwork- I practice my music every day and every chance that I have. I can’t go a day without practicing my music, and so far, that’s worked pretty well. It helps me to keep everything into perspective. I love music so it has to be in my life everyday. It helps me release stress, and what’s best is I’m creating something out of nothing.

Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2016?

Anna McKinley:  What?? Fans?! I have fans? Sweet!  You can look forward to new originals on Soundcloud, and YouTube. Subscribe at “Anna Sings” >>https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUI-GCgErzb6Lq_sqnofOQA/featured<< >>https://soundcloud.com/anna-mckinley-1<<