Eighteen-year-old, singer/songwriter and Los Angeles native, Annika Rose is a force to be reckoned with. She released her first EP Ventura Boulevard last November which has garnered more than 700,000 total Spotify streams and 2.4 million total streams on Apple Music. Her sultry voice, energetic nature and eclectic style are only some of the reasons we are so gravitated toward her.
Pass The Crown: Did you have a particular intent when writing your EP Ventura Boulevard?
Annika Rose: So, I think the funniest part about the whole EP was that I didn’t really know what I was making when I was making it. “Fly to You” and “War,” I believe, were the first ones written. But, at that point, I was just kinda writing those songs as a tool at the end of the night and I had no idea they were going to end up on an EP.
Pass The Crown: What was your songwriting process for “I’m Better?” How did you go about it since you wrote it yourself.
Annika Rose: It’s a funny story because I’m really close with my Aunt, and it was around Thanksgiving last year. I flew to Boston cause that’s where her family is from. At the time, I was going through this thing with a boy and she helped me through it. She helped me through the whole year-long process of getting over somebody.
I’d written so many songs about this person and even I was getting sick of myself. I was like “sh*t, shut up, stop writing songs about this person.” And I was really sad one day and she called me and she goes “Do yourself a favor, sit down and try to write something about you for you.” And I was kinda like, “Yeah, okay, whatever.”
I sat down and the first two lines came. I don’t know. I think I was supposed to write that song and I didn’t really know when or why or how and then it just wrote itself. It was a really strange thing.
Pass The Crown: Does it scare you knowing that a part of you that is so personal is shared with the public?
Annika Rose: I think sometimes it’s scary, but at the same time that’s kinda my only form of expression that I’m willing to share with the world. The beautiful thing about the process of me releasing music was that is was so gradual.
So, my parents had been divorced for a couple years already and all of these things have already happened and I had gotten to a place where I was actually settling in to the fact that I went through all of these things. So, it wasn’t scary for me anymore. I was like ``oh, it actually feels really good to talk about these things” and I think that it's great to hear people’s responses to it cause they’re like “oh, my parents went through this” or “this thing happened...I feel the same way.” And it feels so good to hear that cause I’m like “Great, me too. We’re in this together.”.
Pass The Crown: “War” is such a powerful song. Can you speak to the process of writing it and the inspiration behind its creation?
Yeah, I mean it kinda goes back a little bit to what I was saying earlier about being a teenager and having that crazy on-and-off love/hate relationship with your parents. My mom is my best friend in the entire world, we’re so similar but those similarities also cause so much havoc. We know each other so well, and at the same time I’m like “god, I could wham my head through a wall,” but I’m also like “are you okay? I love you so much, I hate to see you cry.”
I think I was just struggling with that, it’s very specific and very exact to what happened this one night I was sitting on the couch and I could hear her obviously... I live with her. And I could hear her crying and I knew it was because of me. So, I’m sitting on the couch and I’m like man, she made me so mad, but at the end of the day when it comes down to it, I love her so much more than anyone in the entire world. I think I was kinda just painting that picture. I couldn’t bare listening to her cry anymore, so I went to the piano and I just wrote that song and yeah I’m glad that you connected to it.
Pass The Crown: Who is an artist you’ve looked up to since you were a child? And what was your relationship with music growing up?
Annika Rose: Hailey Williams. Paramore. I’m so angry I missed Warped tour, I was probably what ten? when that sh*t ended. Oh my god. It makes me so mad. But yeah, I’m like the biggest Paramore fan in the entire world. Like stalker Paramore. Like know their birthdays and sh*t.
I grew up in a musical family. My dad designed recording studios back when there was actually more of a recording studio industry because now it’s just a laptop and speakers. He designed studios and he was constantly playing guitar and piano around the house and my mom is a singer/songwriter who moved from Boston when she was seventeen to pursue music. It’s kinda crazy to think that she was my age moving across the country to do the same thing.
Pass The Crown: Was there a particular moment when you decided to pursue a career as an artist?
Annika Rose: There was never a moment where I was like “I want to do music.” It’s funny, you know when you’re in school and you have the first day of school assignment when they ask “what do you want to be when you grow up?” It was always singing. Singing. Singing. Singing. I mean I sang a song from High School Musical in my kindergarten talent show, I don’t even think I thought about doing anything else ever.
I was always singing and then it turned into whatever it turned into. I joined my first band when I was ten, started a YouTube channel when I think I was eight or something singing who knows what covers in a spiked beanie and a Superman shirt. It was terrifying. Don’t go back on my YouTube channel. That’s all I can say. It’s always been such a constant thing in my life that I didn’t have to really think about.
Pass The Crown: I think that is what’s so beautiful about being an artist and a songwriter, you’re evolving and your fans and your community get to watch you do that.
Annika Rose: Yeah, it’s so great. I have people who have been on my Instagram for a few years and watched me through my first band and the girl band I was in and they’re like “this is so cool, you just put out an actual music video… you put out an actual body of work!” And I’m like “you’re right, I did, that’s so sick.” I can’t believe I got to do that. It’s so weird. It’s the best ever. It’s so fun.
Pass The Crown: That’s awesome, I love it. If you can envision yourself performing at a venue a couple years from now, what does it look like? What is the vision you have for yourself.
Annika Rose: You know when you go to a concert, maybe this is just me. I go to a concert and I have so much respect and admiration for whoever is on the stage, even if I don’t know their music. There has not been a concert that I have gone to in the last five years where I haven’t sobbed. I don’t know why I’m crying, it’s just the impact that it has on me when you feel something from someone on a stage, in person. I want to see that when I look out when I’m the one on the stage. I want to feel that energy because I feel like it is the most beautiful response you could ever get from something. I want to hear people singing the words back to me, that is what I want. It’s so cool.
Pass The Crown: Do you have any shows coming up?
Annika Rose: We just put together a band so I’m in rehearsals, but I think I’m going to start playing shows at least a few here and there in the first few months of next year.
Pass The Crown: How would you describe your fashion style and do you like the idea of having a particular image or brand?
Annika Rose: Well, I hate branding. It’s so unnatural. I hear it all the time “your brand, your brand” and I have references for stuff that I like when it comes to photoshoots or music videos. I know what I’m influenced by and I know what little thing I want to take from that and how to apply it to something very specific, but I don’t wake up and look at Pinterest and be like “ah, this is the kind of sh*t I want to wear today,”
My thing is I’ll wear the same thing going to walk my dog that I will wear on stage, there is no in between. And weather too, if I want to wear a blazer and it’s 100 degrees outside you bet your ass I’m wearing a blazer. There’s no question about it. It’s happening. And if it’s snowing and I want to wear a bra with a blazer over it, I’m wearing a bra with a blazer over it.
Pass The Crown: I love that. It is so easy for things to be fabricated, especially with social media nowadays, but your authenticity is so admirable.
Annika Rose: Thank you. The most important thing to me, especially when you’re in the machine is there are so many noises. You can get pulled in so many directions and it’s so important to stand your ground.
And even if it takes longer to reach a certain level of success, longevity is so important to me and if it’s going to take me longer to achieve something, it doesn’t matter because I know I’ll still get to the end point but I’ll do it in a way that’s still natural to me.
Check Out the Official Video to Annika Rose’s song “In The End” Below:
