Anjali Rose
By Sean Maldjian, Contributor
Photo by, Patrick Anderson
Meet Anjali Rose
Anjali Rose is a multi-talented artist whose music has been described as a blend of folk, jazz, avant-garde, and soul. In an interview with our blog, she talks about her music journey, the creative process behind her 2022 album 'The World's That Disappear', and how other forms of art inform her work. She also answers some quirky questions, such as whether she would rather only be able to write using finger paint or only be able to talk through a megaphone. Don't miss this interview with the enigmatic Anjali Rose!
A self-portrait by, Anjali Rose
Would You Rather…
only be able to write using finger paint or only be able to talk through a megaphone?
Fingerpaint, megaphones are unreliable and I could finally get back into drawing.
Some Questions with Anjali Rose
Could you introduce yourself? How did you come to start making music?
I started my music journey in piano lessons when I was very young, I'd rarely ever practice but my teachers always noted that I was very musical and good at expressing myself through the repertoire. Eventually, I sang in the school choir till I was 18 and took one year of flute and one year of violin at a young age...in college, I was ashamedly in A Capella and quit after my second year, then in my third year I joined my first band "Sapphic Prince" and also came out of the closet as the person who invited me into the band eventually became my first girlfriend...didn't last long, the relationship ended, band, ended, and I started a new band where I was the lead titled "Ginger Libations" that lasted maybe 2 years then I went solo and started Anjalirose which then turned to Ananda Luna when I lived in Spain and taught English post-grad then back to Anjali Rose when I came back to the US.
Your music has been described as a blend of folk, jazz, avant-garde, and soul. How do you balance these different genres while still maintaining a cohesive sound?
I'd say the sound is really just Anjali...and in being Anjali I maintain cohesion because my music is an authentic representation of my personhood at the moment I created it. The new music that my band and I are performing in our current live set and in the midst of recording is very electronic...it seems to be getting more into art-pop but I am definitely calling from different worlds. I actually want to encourage a societal shift in the music world to embrace multi-genre albums, creations, etc. Like many other artists are doing...capitalism has a way of diminishing our capacities as writers but I am willing to wait longer and take the hard road if it means I can simply create the music I want to and let the creativity flow organically as I have been since I started this 8 years ago.
If you had to end each live performance with a catchphrase what would it be?
God loves a hairy woman.
Do other forms of art inform your work? If so, who/what, and how?
Yeah totally, I love spending time with visual artists, I find them to be more pensive and thoughtful sometimes, deriving beauty from everything.
They seem to spend more time alone and I appreciate the sensitivity this gives them. I was actually a filmmaker before I was a musician. I started filming and editing movies when I was 10, I had a company called "RAD" Studios and we would use windows movie maker to make spoofs, comical PSAs, and music videos with my friend Danielle Hutchinson...I also almost went to film school at Temple, and got in post-grad but decided I was not interested in school again at that time.
Your 2022 release ‘The World’s That Disappear’ boasts a rich eclectic sound. What was the creative process like producing the music for the album?
That release includes a lot of songs I actually wrote before the album I released before it titled "Shadow Works' ', I was very anxious about getting my music out in my early/mid-twenties, and I see now how that fear has actually disturbed my process but that's ok...I recorded that project with my friend Daniel who owns a small church-turned-studio outside of Montreal. I actually met Daniel via email when a beloved Montreal venue "Cafe Resonance' which is now sadly closed recommended we share a bill. I lived in Massachusetts at the time and there was some sweet crossover of creative collaboration between Quebec and the Northeast independent music scenes.
It was a really magical and difficult experience. I didn't have a clear plan going into recording, my perfectionism was taking so much of my mental energy and I was so terrified of wasting Daniels's time and my money. Daniel is like a creature from some fantasy novel, CS Lewis vibes....old school, eccentric, recluse...very recluse. He has a daily morning routine of playing guitar atonally, drinking pounds of organic green tea, and eating dark chocolate every morning...during that time I would use the space to practice piano, and guitar, and do yoga...what I didn't know was that Daniel had all the mics on and recording while I was rehearsing and from those practice sessions, we got some of the interludes and even the song "Always" off the album which Daniel technically wrote piecing together what I was rehearsing from a different song. Some of the other songs on the album were written when I lived in Western Massachusetts, my ex-girlfriend Paige and the heartbreak from our ended relationship fueled some of the songs like "To Love and Be Loved" and "Montague" where she used to live..... All the songs come from a period of my life from the ages of 19 - 24 when I was really learning how to write music and play guitar, it was the beginning of a new life for me and this album is a nice archive of those formative years. The album was also recorded around 2019 and then took me about 3, almost 4 years to get it released, I was moving a lot, touring a lot, and kind of confused about how I fit into the music world and ...Anjali in general, post-grad was a shock for me like a lot of folks who only knew school since they were 3...So over some time after the first recording I started digging into the rough mixes Daniel sent me and taking things out, adding things. The vocal line and lead melody to "Fine Alone" was recorded in my parent’s attic at some point when I was living there between touring and nomadic living in the last few years. Haha, I hope I'm answering this question....but yeah I came to Daniels Church with a rough idea of what to record, we used the week to record just about all the ideas and Daniel took from that what he thought made sense as a project and then I took from his ideas my idea of what the final album would be. Then I had my go-to mastering engineer Mikaela Reed tie the bow.
What is a strange thing your algorithm has been serving you lately?
Recently I've been getting weird recommendations for new-age spirituality and manifestation talks. There's one particular ad on youtube that I think is using AI or an actor to mimic Oprah Winfrey's voice saying "Why only some people can manifest things and others can’t"... that’s their hook...I haven't clicked to find out. It's so funny because it uses videos from her talk show but they aren't synced to what she's saying and I can tell it's not her exact voice...this all came up because I was listening to this speaker "Abraham Hicks" who talks about manifesting your dreams and energetic fields and "The Source" which is I believe her lingo for "The Dao" or in Star Wars terms "The Force"...I like Abraham but she's a bit too preachy and gimmicky for me to fully support her. It irks me that she charges so much to see her speak.
Do you usually show people your music before it is finished to get feedback? Who do you show it to?
I do! I show it to fellow artists and friends who have known me for a while, a lot of other musicians in similar worlds to me or maybe who know more than me about mixing as I've mixed all my releases and mastered "Shadow Works". I am discerning about who and how much to share tho...life has taught me that it's actually not good to ask advice from too many people because in the end only you know the answer so it’s sometimes best to wait, and get more in touch with your present self.
Was there any gear that you felt you leaned on a lot while producing ‘The World’s That Disappear’?
Yeah learned more about distortion pedals, loop pedals, and analog reverb, also learned about digital interfaces as that's what I used to record overdubs. I learned a lot more about Ableton which is what I used to mix the project.
If you could write the score for a movie by any director ever who would it be? What would the movie be about?
Man, I'd love to write a score for the guy who directed Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind... loved that score, Jon Brion was the composer I believe. Barry Jenkins who directed Moonlight would be amazing. Also perhaps an Independent Indian Filmmaker that could vibe with my cross-fusion style... would also love to work with Terrance Malik even though his films annoy me I think we could make some magical ambient work...ah also whoever made Portrait of a Lady on Fire, that film was gorgeous...
I actually scored a film last year for a woman Evelyn Lorena that will be on Netflix, it's a short film that won an award from LA Latino Film Festival. Was a really beautiful experience, challenging! I think I'm going to release an ambient album featuring some of those tracks....so honestly I'd love to keep writing music for other female filmmakers, esp immigrants or second gen immigrants who have shared experiences with me.
How do you feel about the reception you have received for ‘The World’s That Disappear’ so far?
Hehe good question, I feel grateful to those who liked it but think it could use some more press, playlisting, etc. I think there are a lot of people out there who may like it but who aren't getting a chance to listen yet. I'm struggling to sell it more tbh...but I guess that was never why I got into music so that relationship between art and money is one I was struggling with....at this point in life though I would very much love to make my full living off the music, would love to be so abundant with what my collaborator's and my music makes that we can fund other artists projects through grant opportunities, educational programs and really help revive this music culture in the US because things are really messed up here. I know way too many artists getting preyed on by vultures in and around the industry and the payoff isn't worth it...even for people "up there"....We've all heard the stories...I've tried to work with PR agents, actually one agency "Tell All Your Friends" charged me 500$ a month for a 3-month campaign and didn't do shit for my first release "Marrow" and I fired them after the first month...tbh have only told a few folks about that but people gotta know. I don't fully blame them because this is a tricky business and I don't think the music or myself was "ready" at that time...Ok going on a tangent haha....A part of me feels like this particular album is so old and that my music has changed and grown so much since that my cells aren't all on fire about it...and in turn, the universe is responding to that but it's a niche sound, experimental and unconventional so I'm also so happy to literally anyone is down with that...and I am really grateful to those who have listened to it, who have bought it, and who have reached out to me personally to let me know how it has helped them get through shit, soothed them, inspired them, etc. ...so I'm glad I had the bravery to put it out there. The label "Soulful Nature" who helped me release it was excited by what they heard when they first heard the demo so I'm happy to know that people who don't even know me can receive this and be inspired by it. I have a feeling that pieces of the songs may end up on a tv show or something and more folks will get to hear what was made but for now I'm going to express my gratitude for all that is. We also have a music video coming out from the song "Fine Alone", this song will also be released on a collaborative album for women in music that features some hard hitters...stay tuned hehe.
Any final comments? (This is your electronic soapbox for one last answer.)
Sure, I guess some advice for budding artists out there...
The music industry in the United States is being tainted by commerce, please dare to be original and create things no one has heard before, dare to be honest and let your art help you find your true self and guide you home because the general public is over-saturated with bullshit...and the bullshit is dangerous...music is a superpower, people really do get influenced by what they hear and the energy that existed when it was made...if they are constantly hearing the same songs then they won't be challenged to think beyond the box and if your not thinking beyond what was then you become a passive follower, letting these assholes in our government and running the businesses dig us deeper into climate change.....so even if it takes longer, even if it feels undervalued at times trust that it will work out and that the payoff will be greater in the long run because you followed your truth.
Find and build your community, online, in person, on the road, WHEREVER you need to...and let it grow and nurture, let it swallow your pride and ego and encourage you to support other artists in person at their gigs and financially through each other’s merch... before moving to NYC I found a collective through a google search called "SMC" and through there I've met so many profoundly beautiful artists. At the time I had been touring nomadically and solo for a while around Europe, the west coast, east coast, I was rather lonely and lost and resentful toward white people in New England where I used to live, and words can’t describe how wonderful it was to find so many other biracial people, queer people, POC's (lol at that word but being non-white in America needs some title I guess)... SMC is where I met this badass Elenna Canlas (who plays with Xenia Rubinos, and Allison Russel) who started the Women's Music Forum, an online Zoom forum that featured so many crazy beautiful musicians like Georgia Anne Muldrow, Merril Garbus, Euka Honda, and more, Elenna invited me to be on the panel that helped run the zooms, it was really inspiring and a hard challenge to my young ego as I didn't feel up to par with those I was interfacing with but I know the universe put me there for a reason....this is just an example of how the community can lead you to places you didn't think. Not just that but...it makes the whole process so much more rewarding to know your work is about something bigger than you and that you with other people learning and growing...
Stay present and center your health....meditation retreats with groups like Vipassana or Shivananda Ashram can help you find a means to be sober, present, and grounded...life as an artist can be hard, especially at the beginning when it feels like everything is working against you, constant rejections or just no responses at all can make you feel invisible....then venues only pay you in alcohol....so having a spiritual practice to remind you to remember how absolutely blessed we are to be alive can keep you...alive. Things like meditation and sobriety can also help you trust your intuition better and your intuition will always know what’s best for you and where and what the next best move is.
Let life stay magical and always be learning...those signs and synchronous weird encounters you experience do in fact mean something, there is a magical mystery to this all that not even science can fully grasp so let your journey remain as wondrous as it was as when you were a child and let life surprise you, feel all of it to its depths and keep trusting it’s going to be ok.
Be kind to everyone, even your haters... ppl will resent you for following your dreams, and other artists will envy you if you have talent haha, just wish them well and focus on those who are supporting you and those who you want to support, its always good to have a little friction anyway hehe.
If and when you make your money, use it to help those who need it...the world is changing fast, let’s be the good ones who spread the wealth, spread the resources...