Today’s guest blogger – indie artist and SongU’s new social media assistant Chapel Bell – took some time to chat with our newest faculty member Anna Kline. They were thrilled to discover that they live on the same street in Nashville! What are the odds? To me, it’s a reminder that even after more than thirty years of living in a city that’s grown exponentially, Nashville still holds the same small-town serendipity I felt when I first arrived. You never know when you’ll run into exactly the right person at exactly the right time!
Last week, I had the pleasure of doing a quick interview with Anna Kline to help introduce her to the SongU community.
Originally from Dayton (or more specifically Miamisburg), Ohio, Anna began playing piano after her stepdad, a fellow musician, encouraged her to get her bearings in music theory. She quickly transitioned from piano to bassoon. The following is directly from my interview with Anna.
Tell us about your early musical background.
I was in our school’s band and in the Dayton Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. I auditioned in sixth grade, and they only take high schoolers. So I don’t know why they even let me in. The conductor told me, “you’re way too young, but come in next year, because sometimes we let people in early.” So I did that, and got in as an eighth grader and did five years with them. I was always into film scoring – like in Finding Nemo, I always thought, “Oh my God! This film score is so beautiful!” and then when I got into the orchestra, I realized, “Wait – this is basically that! That’s so cool!”
What instrument did you originally want to major in?
Bassoon! That is what I originally wanted to major in when I applied to schools. But then I applied to University of Cincinnati which had a pretty new program called Commercial Song Production and in that major I did film scoring, jazz arranging, jazz piano classes, took my first songwriting class, and did digital audio. It really helped me figure out what I wanted to do and what I didn’t. I realized that actually sitting down and making film scores was not my thing at all! It was far too technical, and then when I took my first songwriting course I realized, “Oh, this is totally the thing!”
“When I took my first songwriting course I realized, “Oh, this is totally the thing!”
Were you writing songs already?
I was. But they were really bad, and were not full songs. I don’t think I understood song form until I was in college when I learned about the verse, pre-chorus, chorus. No one talked about that when I was in elementary, middle school, high school.
Is that from being in the orchestra instead of the choir or theatre?
Exactly! It was such a roundabout way to get to where I wanted to be, but it gave me good insight into theory and counterpoint and lots of the nerdy aspects that make melodies make sense.
In hindsight, I’m very grateful, but in college, when I had to switch to chord sheets instead of reading music and all of that. It was really daunting. I’d been doing it for so long, and now, I had to switch everything I ever knew. So I was placed in the lowest classes. There were kids in honors because they had been doing it forever, and I was just starting to figure out what it even meant.
It was such a roundabout way to get to where I wanted to be, but it gave me good insight into theory and counterpoint and lots of the nerdy aspects that make melodies make sense.”
Aside from the musical aspects, what were you like as a kid?
I was pretty sensitive as a kid to everything around me. Even as a kid, I was absorbing all the emotions from my sister and parents and friends and internalizing all of that.
Music, whether I was listening to it, writing it, or playing it, unknowingly, I was able to work through those emotions and process what I was going through.
To you, what separates a good song from a great one?
Ooo! I think when I’m listening it’s kind of all over the place, because the genres I love are all over the place. So it depends on the genre. I love clever wordplay, but can be sucked in by a great melody as well.
I think when you’re writing a song there’s a certain amount of intangible magic in the room. Whether it’s the conversations you’re having or whatever emotions are circling around to get a great idea.
Then the execution of that idea takes a lot of craft… It’s a mixture of the chords and melody reflecting the lyrical nuances and the fact that the lyrics support the hook in a meaningful way.
Writing in Nashville was the best thing that could’ve happened to me, because I write a lot of pop, but the storytelling and Nashville country helped me learn the craft of how to support a hook with meaningful language and real attention to detail.
How did you go from a college graduate in Cincinnati to a Nashville writer with over 30 cuts in just two years?
First, all along my journey I’ve had people who have been really kind and opened their home to me, and that happened when I moved to Nashville. I had a family friend who let me stay in their home in Murfreesboro.
I pretty quickly linked with a woman named Noreen Prunier, I always tell her that she’s the reason I know anybody in Nashville. She hosted meetings called pop hangs, so I was immediately plugged in to the pop scene in Nashville. It was a lot of Belmont graduates, and I met so many of the people. I just started doing sessions with them. Once your plugged in its like “alright! lets do this!” I still write with to this day at those people I met three or four months in.
How did you transition from writing within your community, to songs with major artists?
A lot of the biggest artists I connected with weren’t from me connecting with them – it was all my cowriters that lived in town. They were starting to write with bigger artists, and we would write these great songs, and I wasn’t in the room with bigger artists… they would pitch the songs to (them).
“I always brought something to the writers room. Even if I was having a bad day I always had a list of titles that could have some magic in them. I also remained really open to asking good questions in the room to dig deeper on titles and get the best ideas, and that just led to better songs that ended up landing with bigger artists.”
My song with Danielle Bradbury came about because my friend Kendall Brower, who I wrote “Wake Me Up” with pitched it to her. Same with the Neo song – my friend Bonnie linked with me and pitched one of our songs. He loved it.
I’ve just met with and maintained relationships with great writers and made sure I was really intentional about nurturing those relationships, and stayed friends with them as well as writers.
I always brought something to the writers room, Even if I was having a bad day I always had a list of titles that could have some magic in them. I also remained really open to asking good questions in the room to dig deeper on titles and get the best ideas, and that just led to better songs that ended up landing with bigger artists.
Which success do you feel was the hardest earned, which was the easiest?
This is a hard question because success is very relative, you know. At this moment in my journey, the hardest-earned success was learning the balance between work and life, and then also my journey back to Nashville.
I lived there for three years, and then my husband got a job opportunity that we couldn’t turn down. So that took us to Florida for two years and then to Louisville for two and a half years. We always knew we wanted to go back but had to practice a lot of patience getting to the place where we could move back, like financially and logistically. He had to find the right job and I had to travel back and forth, splitting time, being long distance from him for four and a half years of marriage.
So, success is so relative. For me being able to have a family, and pay my bills, and keep doing what I love to do is – like I love the idea of accolades, and don’t get me wrong I’d love to have a Grammy – that is on my mind! But right now finding the work/life balance and moving to Nashville was the hardest earned success because it was four and a half years coming.
Do you have any advice for someone just starting out in songwriting?
This is always a tough question for me because everyone’s journey is so different. I think the first piece of advice is to enjoy the journey, because it is so much fun that we get to do this! Even though it can be hard to have a side-hustle, and do all the things – if you love writing, enjoy it while you’re in the room, and soak it up!
The other thing I would say, is when you’re first getting started, say yes to everything! Cowrites, coffee meetings, all of that. Say yes and fail. But fail forward.
“When you’re first getting started, say yes to everything! Cowrites, coffee meetings, all of that. Say yes and fail. But fail forward.”
Lastly, if SongU members could only know a few sentences about you, what would you want them to know?
I would say I’m a coach just as much as I am a songwriter, and I try to make my feedback as objective and helpful for your individual goals as possible.
Follow Anna Kline @annaklinemusic
Follow Chapel Bell @chapel.bell