More Than a Girl in a Bar: An Interview with Anna Vaus

Image property of Anna Vaus, sourced from twitter.com

The first time I heard Anna Vaus, she was singing a currently unreleased song she wrote for her mom on TikTok. Immediately, I was drawn in by the introspective lyrics and the undeniably catchy melody. Vaus' reflective, pop-country sound came off like a Taylor Swift project with a unique sense of intimacy. I hit subscribe instantly.

About a month later, when she posted a video asking people to let her tour their backyards, I jumped on board completely. With COVID in full swing, I hadn’t seen a live show in over a year and the idea seemed whimsical and fun. And with the world largely closed up, I developed a sense of closeness with Vaus' inviting presence and casual disposition. Having the opportunity to interview her felt like getting to chat with an old friend.

Which, of course, was why I was so excited.

Despite her easygoing nature and down to earth energy, Vaus is no newcomer to the music scene. In 2016, Miranda Lambert chose Vaus to be the first recipient of her Women Creators Fund, a grant which provides  a female singer-songwriter a full scholarship to Nashville’s Belmont University. After signing a publishing deal with Black River Entertainment, Vaus signed with CAA and went on to release her 2018 EP, the California Kid. She’s also opened for country legends like Willie Nelson and Lee Ann Womack. And, of course, she’s racked up 1.5 million likes on TikTok.

When I catch up with Vaus, it’s after a few hours of technical issues. She’s Zoom-ing in from her Nashville home, which is laden with cute, rustic decor and visual reminders of California, the state where she grew up. With the internet down in her neighborhood, Vaus has spent the morning outside and notes that her hands are covered in sunscreen, getting her computer all oily as we speak. Still, even with technical issues, Vaus is ready to talk about how TikTok is changing the music scene, her upcoming projects and the real love of her life: songwriting. 

Can you give me an introduction of yourself? I mean, I’ve been describing you to people as like Maggie Rogers meets Taylor Swift. That’s how I see but you if you want to give an intro that would be great.

Yeah. So, I live in Nashville. So I definitely consider myself a country artist. But I feel like I am left of center, I guess, because I don’t turn on country radio and feel like I’m like “yes, this is exactly what my music sounds like!” But I love Taylor Swift, Maggie Rogers and Kacey Musgraves. And I feel like those are like the three artists that I would feel like I would say I feel like my music is a mix of, or I would like to think my music is a mix of in my wildest dreams. But yeah, definitely, it’s like indie pop country I guess.

I think you’re spot on. I think you’ve already achieved the mix. The other question I have is like— what really got me when I found your TikTok was the songwriting. I think the first one I saw was the song you wrote about your mom, and I loved it. And I was just wondering, when you started songwriting, like did that coincide with you starting to play guitar? Like, what was the process with that?

So, my first introduction to music was my dad was a children’s country singer when I was super young. And he went by the name of Buck Howdy. And it was like kind of cool, because, he was travelling back and forth to Nashville when I was a kid. I didn’t really like understand the realm of it. He was signed to a record label and would do shows all the time. So, I watched him do that. Also, half of me was like: “this is the lamest thing ever, like I just want to be a cool third grader, and my dad’s coming to school like ‘what’s up kids?’” But that was my first introduction to music. And so, I felt like I just understood what songwriting was because of that. I took piano as a kid, but really was like writing songs by singing them out loud and writing them in my journal. And like, I had no way of recording them or anything like that so they just exist on a piece of paper and in my brain. But then, for my 13th birthday I got a guitar. And my dad was like “all you need to know is three chords, like you can write a song with just three chords.” So, I learned G, C, and D, and I was like “I can write songs like Taylor Swift now and this is a breakthrough!” So I started writing songs—like, really, actually writing songs when I was about 13. And paid more attention to song structure and song topics and stuff like that, and paid more attention to the fact that artists were writing their own songs. And I feel very lucky that my favorite artist, Taylor Swift, was very vocal about the fact that she wrote songs and then I fell in love with Kacey Musgraves. And she was the same way where she was very vocal about the songs that she wrote, and the songs were very unique. So yeah, I just learned from being around it and loving it, and kind of soaking it in. But then, guitar really opened the world of songwriting to me, and also like having an iPhone or an iPod touch where I could actually put a little voice memo and then play it for someone, versus like “Trust me. No, I wrote this song. It’s really cool! It’s about a boy, but here’s my diary entry.” You know?

Yeah, totally. I love the story about your dad, actually. That’s so interesting.

Thank you. There is definitely a video, if you look up “howdy s’mores”. There’s a video of him, my brother and I in the music video of a song he wrote called “S’mores” that is like—looking back now I’m very thankful for those experiences as a kid, and my dad really has been a mentor to me in moments when I’m stuck in music or moments that I’ve celebrated, like to getting to release a song or getting to play the opera. Like, stuff like that, I’ve been really thankful to have that. But I’m also like lol, what a time to be alive. We were in a video for a song called “S’mores”, that’s just insane.

That’s amazing. It sounds like one of those Olsen twin songs they used to have.

That’s honestly what it was. Yeah, it’s truly a special part of my childhood.

That’s great. So, in addition to your songwriting—and you’ve kind of touched on this—do the lyrics usually come first? I was thinking with the diary thing, they probably do.

Yeah, I feel like in general, I pick up from like conversations with people. Usually I feel like if I’m having a conversation with someone or something like that, I’ll hear something that sounds like an interesting phrase, and write it down in my notes in my phone. And then the lyric side of my brain will kind of start going before melodies. And that’s the stuff that like really makes me excited about writing songs is the lyrical part of it. So, I definitely feel like that comes first but it pretty much—when I sit down to write a song—it’s happening very like back and forth, kind of at the same time.

It’s interesting to hear because I feel like a lot of people who identify as musicians are like, of course, I hear the sound of it first. But I really wanted to talk about The Backyard Tour because it’s such a cool idea. And I feel like especially in COVID because it’s such an isolated time, I feel like it’s such a leap-of-faith, fun thing to do, and I just wanted to hear more about it. So, could you talk a little about it?

Yeah, so being in Nashville, I feel like I have the privilege of kind of understanding the general gist of how things work. And there’s kind of a path in a way, like when you get to Nashville, typically you write a lot and then you sign a publishing deal and then you sign a record deal. And then you go on tour and there’s like a typical path. And because of COVID, that has totally changed. So I—in my head—was like ‘awesome, like I’ve been writing so much and finally recording music that I’m really proud of and I’m going to go out and get to tour and like open on a tour for like ideally a country artist.’ And that all just kind of disappeared into thin air with most of everyone’s plans for 2020. And so I was talking with my manager about just ways that we could go out and connect with people because I feel like for as frustrating as 2020 was, it was a blessing to me. Because I got to meet like you on TikTok and all these people I would never have meet, through an app. And people that I honestly feel like I would want to hang out with on a daily basis, and that I would be friend with in high school and college and all that.

So we were like: how does that happen? How do we hang out with these people? And—his name, my manager’s name is Rob—and he was like “well, you could do a backyard tour.” And I was like yeah, maybe, like I don’t know, I don’t know if people would want to do that. And then I put together a little video and posted it on TikTok. 120 people responded which was crazy. And all of a sudden we’ve got this tour where I get to hop in my car with my boyfriend who’s also my guitar player and load a speaker and all that stuff and do a tour. And I’m nervous a little bit, but also really excited because this is the most fun way that I can imagine hanging out with people that I met on the internet and have become friends with, you know?

It should be really good. And I think what you were saying about TikTok is so interesting because I feel like artists can actually be friends with their listeners.

Yeah! I just get really excited about it because I feel like—I don’t know. I just get really excited about it because I genuinely feel like the people that I’ve met on TikTok, we’re buds, you know? Like I see that crossover to Instagram and I’m like DM-ing with people on Instagram, and I’m like “what’s up!? I know that this started because you saw this video or this video.” Whatever it is. And it’s really cool because now I just feel like I’ve gotten to know people. Even, like, I put out a song in December called “In Bloom” and people have messaged me and just shared their stories about their breakups that they’re going through or whatever it is that they’re going through and they randomly found the song on TikTok and that is so cool to me, because I thought that I was going to be sitting at home in 2020 and just sad. And it’s been a really positive part of the pandemic for me.

I love that. And I hope TikTok—I mean I hope all social media really—changes the music industry because taking out the middle man is kind of great.

Oh it’s so exciting! My dad’s talked about how like radio used to be where if you called in and requested a song that was the way that song really got popular. And I, for a while really longed for that. And I think streaming did that too where it’s like put so much more control into the hands of the listeners and fans. And TikTok is doing that also. And it’s just really cool and encouraging to me as an independent artist because I don’t have to have a million dollars from a record label to push us on. It can grow organically on an app and become something big so it’s cool.

So, I love that recently you’ve been writing songs about people’s comments. Like, lately, people have been dropping comments (about their lives) and you’ve been making whole songs about them. How does it feel to write outside of yourself completely? And then, also, how does it feel to have people trust you with their secrets and their lives?

I think the first time that I posted “hey, I would love to write a song about you. Comment something about yourself,” I was really surprised. You know, I was expecting people to be like “my name is Anna. I’m 24, and I have a cat named Harry.” But people got really deep really quickly, and were like “I just got a divorce, and I’m going through this.” It really surprised me how intimate and trusting people were with their lives. And it made me emotional, because dang. Like one, thank you for trusting me with that information But two, I feel really lucky that I feel like I have an outlet for the things that I go through. I just feel really lucky that if I’m going through something like that, I can write a song about it. And like have—it’s almost like an emotional scrapbook, in a way, of the things I’ve gone through in my life. But it feels cool to get to write other people’s stories because I think that I find a little bit of myself in each one of those. Especially the ones that I pick, I’m like “I feel that or like I’ve felt that at one point and know what you’re going through.” Or just changing my perspective on things that I’m not going through or I haven’t felt. Like, man, I’ve never written a song about that before. What would that be like to write a song about? So it’s been really cool. And I feel like it’s been a way to connect with new people and learn about them. And also, scary at the same time. Because when I post I’m like “please don’t hate this! You can pretend I don’t exist but like here you go!” So, it’s been very cool.

All the ones I’ve seen, I think people absolutely love it and are shocked that they have a song now. And you get new songs out of it, and it’s cool that you find a piece of yourself in all of these people’s experiences. But, I wanted to say I love “Girl in a Bar” (Vaus’ latest single), and I don’t know if you want to talk about the story behind that or just a bit of writing that song.

That song, the story behind writing it, I had a dream at one point that I was dating Harry Styles and in this dream, he broke up with me. And later in the dream, I ran into him in a bar with my friends. And I have this image of looking across the bar and being like “dang, we have all these memories together and now I’m just a girl in a bar.” And I woke up and I was like “strange.” But “Girl in Bar” is kind of a cool song title so I wrote it down and that week I had a write with a guy named Luke Laird who is an incredible songwriter in Nashville. He produced Kacey Musgrave’s first two records and just is insanely amazing. This was my first write with him, and he is like one of my all-time dream write situations. And so, I went in really nervous about it and suggested this title “Girl in a Bar”. Did not tell him that it was about a dream that I had that Harry Styles and I dated. But he was like, yeah, that’s cool. Let’s totally write that. So, we ended up writing that and that has become kind of the song for me that began a whole new era of music for me. And it really felt like oh my gosh this is the music that I’ve been trying to make, or felt like I was always moving towards sonically. And now it’s here. And so that just opened the door for me creatively in terms of what a whole new project would look like. And Luke, he and I co-produced this project that is going to come out soon together. And so, it’s very special to me because of that. And because it felt like a song that I could scream-cry in my car. I remember listening to it on the way home and being like I feel myself playing this in a big theater. And not every song makes me feel that way but it got me dreaming about music again in a time where maybe I wasn’t feeling so much that way. So, it’s very special to me because of that.

I love that. I feel like I’m going to blast it all the time. Is there anything else besides the backyard tour and this project you want to plug and have people keep an eye out for?

Those two things are kind of the main thing. Yeah, I would say those are the big things right now. It's like, it's all I feel like I'm standing at the edge of a cliff right now like about to skydive off of it. I don't know what the appropriate physical activity would be. But like there's just a lot of new stuff that's about to come out that I'm excited for.

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“Girl in a Bar” is out now and can be found on all major music platforms. The music video can be found on Vaus’ YouTube channel and you can follow her on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok where she posts videos that range from telling high school stories to new songs she is working on.

– Jade Sham