Meet Annie Trezza

Interview by Kate Maldjian

It was a grey and stormy Saturday in August when I face-timed singer/songwriter Annie Trezza from her Montauk apartment for this interview. It was around this same time, ten years ago, that I had first met her—a time long before quarantine, Facetime calls, and long long before the release of her latest EP, Blue Suitcase #2. We had both just started our freshman year at FIT and were dorming on 27th street in Manhattan. Her roommate felt that, since we both dressed in primarily surf shop clothes and colorful socks, we’d be fast friends. She was right. 

A year or so later, Annie dropped out of FIT to pursue music full time. She has since played around the globe, but most notably around her home in Montauk, NY. Her sound emulates the town: surfy, groovy, 60’s inspired but with a modern edge. The two of us caught up, cracked some cold Cigar City beers and discussed her latest music.

But first, some silliness:  

“CAR OF THE YEAR” A fill in the blank with Annie Trezza

It's here, the all-new SCHNEPH. The most luxurious SUNGLASSES.you'll ever drive! The only four-door APPLE that comes equipped with dual air IPAS, power SUNFLOWERS, and contoured, plush leather WAVES. And, believe it or not, it is the only car in its class that can go up to a hundred thousand HONEYS without needing a COFFEE change or a CLOUD tune-up. Run, do not SURF.to your nearest SCHNEPH dealer and feast your ELBOWS on the car that Motor DIRT ROAD magazine calls the GROOVY CACTUS of the year. As always, we save the best for last. When you see the sticker price, you are sure to shout, "OH BOY!!"

Would You Rather

be able to lift anything 100x your weight or have control of all the ants in the world?

Well, you know Kate, I’d have to go with being able to lift anything 100x my weight. I have no desire to lift anything that size haha but I much prefer it to controlling an entire species. Ants are free reign! I say no need to control any other living thing. 

Some questions with Annie Trezza

What is the meaning behind the title of your Ep, Blue Suitcase #2? 

Well you see... the original blue suitcase...Blue Suitcase #1 traveled with me for many years. I was gifted it while living in Charleston. Soon after I began using it as my tip jar whenever I performed. It went with me to all my gigs—it held my wires, my CDs, my tips—it’s an object that became very important to my music. 

Then sometime last winter...I was out thrifting and I was just about to give up at this old Salvation Army when I saw it: a second vintage 1950’s blue suitcase, just like the one I treasure! But this one had a mirror on the inside, so it was maybe even groovier. I found that right around the time I started recording these songs. 

If you know me, you know the blue suitcase to me is something significant. When I finished recording...that suitcase was there and it just felt like the right name for it. I just feel like it had all those emotions packed in there, much like the songs themselves. That’s why if you look at the album art, all the objects that are in the suitcase are very significant to me. 

What rituals do you find work best when songwriting? When do you most often find yourself coming up with new tunes?

First things first! Songs don’t come as easy as they do when you’re heartbroken. 

*She raised her beer and cheersed it to the iphone screen*

Heartache always makes it easy…

Life experiences. Things like that. When your heart is broken, or missing someone I just find it easier to write. It was a rough winter for me, but I got through it with a lot of songs. I would also say I’ve always been very inspired by my travels—the people I meet and all the beautiful and new places I’ve seen. 

I don’t have any rituals for writing really, other than I need to be alone. If anyone’s home, then I just get in my van and drive somewhere quiet. I definitely need to be alone, no one else’s energy interfering with my own. Often I’ll find myself strolling off to isolated places with my notebooks and my guitar. There are a couple go-to spots for sure, where you don’t see people around for miles and hours; nothing to look at but a good view! Places where as soon as I sit down and start strumming the words start flowing.

Now in terms of when I come up with them, well haha “the best songs come without thinking!” (a lyric off her song “Drinking Beneath the Pear Tree”).

I’ve been writing songs for a little over 10 years and I’ve come to find that one can go months...sometimes a year without writing. You can’t force it. But I’m always writing in my notebook. 

*her notebook stood among the scattered things on her outdoor table: a batch of sunflowers in an old milk jar, her mom’s potted plants, a half-drunk coffee in a mug with oranges, pens scattered about* 

I’m always writing..but when it comes to writing songs, I find that I’ll just be sitting down strumming at a time when I’m feeling lots of emotions..and that’s when the songs come out. They flood out. THANK GOD FOR VOICE MEMOS! Haha because there are a lot of songs that would be forgotten if I didn’t press that lil red button.

Now it’s like what else am I supposed to do with all these emotions? At this point, songwriting has become my medicine. It’s my therapy. 

When did you know the path to being a singer/songwriter was what you wanted?

Oh boy Kate, this question!

I know that I’ve always been obsessed with music. Even at 3 or 4, whenever I got in the car I had to turn the music on. I was in love with the Beatles by age six, started playing piano shortly after but it wasn’t right yet.

Then I remember when I was 15, I had been playing guitar for a little over a year. I was experiencing my first own bit of heartbreak, and I was laying in bed listening to Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right”. I heard him sing “Goodbye's too good a word, babe so i just say fare thee well”, and i remembered thinking “I want to write music.That is what I want to do.”

I always knew I wanted to play music. But the writing...that came with bits of heartache and years of living and learning. 

Of the songs on Blue Suitcase, do you have a favorite? If so, why? 

Oh wow, Kate, this question could go in two different directions. 

“Cigarettes and Army Jackets” is one of my favorite songs I ever wrote, because I never get sick of playing it. That song to me...whenever I sing or play it I am taken back to where I was when I wrote it. But it’s a song I’ve found that doesn’t apply specifically to one person. It’s always relevant to me or how I’m feeling at any point in time.

“B minor “ though...that is really one of my fav’s to groove to haha. It's a real crowd pleaser.  “B minor 7” to me is riding down to the beach to check the waves. Groovin and cruisin! Yeah! I’d say those two.

When you couldn’t play live shows for the months of March - June, you took to Instagram every Wednesday with your “Groovy Wednesday” series. How did you come up with that idea, and how did it evolve? Are you happy you did it? Would you do something like that again?

Well so “Groovy Wednesdays” was coined by me and my friends over the years. Wednesdays are just groovy! In the summer, we all are working nonstop and Wednesday happened to be one of the only nights we had free.  

So when the quarantine started, and it became apparent we weren’t going to be having live shows for a while, I wanted to channel that energy into something new. A lot of bands were doing live stream shows, but mostly on weekends. So I thought I’d rather do one in the middle of the week, because what else would there be to do during quarantine? I thought people maybe would like to listen to some tunes. And so Wednesday just seemed appropriate. 

My first first one...I was pretty nervous. But then it went really well, and I got a lot of positive feedback. So I just kept doing them. It became something to look forward to. I took it pretty seriously haha, I learned new tunes, prepared a theme or a setlist. It was something to think about and put creative energy into. 

They always started right here on the piano bench! 

*Annie turns her camera to show her piano which is just steps into the Montauk apartment. The top of the instrument, much like the suitcase, serves as a mantle to all things significant: a film camera, an ashtray from a shell, matches from the Dock, a bird a sunflower, photos, a polaroid, a CD, artwork, mail sent from pals, and a freshly picked vase of sunflowers. Beneath it rests a Bob Dylan book, a couple doodles, a pile of old setlists, and a notebook.* 

I think it evolved for me in that I got to share new tunes in the comfort of my living room just myself. Kinda cool. I also had never played the piano at any live gigs...so Groovy Wednesdays was my first opportunity to do that. 

I hope to do it again. I mean, I hope to play more live shows too.But the live streams connected me to people all around the world, that wouldn’t normally get to see me play anyways. 

During quarantine, what did you do to find new inspiration? 

Lucky for me...I was gifted a piano in November. I haven’t really played the piano regularly since I was 12, and so having the piano was so good for me. It was something new. Writing on piano was a whole new thing for me, and so that kept me really inspired. 

I also luckily still live down the street from the ocean. The ocean inspires me pretty much more than anything. So I spent a lot of time there, that didn’t change in quarantine. I’ll spend hours a day staring at waves, going for walks, having coffee. 

Well I had to come to terms with no live gigs. But then I just took that energy I normally put into performing and channeled it into writing...and learning new tunes. Writing a bunch. I decided to channel my energy into something else, into new things. 

How is Montauk integrated into your music/style?  

First off it’s pretty much one of the grooviest places in the world and I get to live here! It will never not inspire me I don't think. I find my peace of mind in and around the ocean. Thats a huge part of who I am. Next to music, surfing is my biggest passion and when I’m consistently surfing, which I was all winter out here, it soothes my soul. It gives me peace of mind no matter what kind of mood i may be in. So I think you can always see a lot of that in my music and style. 

Oh Kate, the wind chimes are chiming!

*My dad’s plethora of front porch wind chimes were swinging in the stormy wind* 

Annie and I cheers our (mostly empty) cans once more against the iphone screens. We caught up a bit more (with not interview things) and both went about our days. She was headed to the Dock, a local spot in Montauk you can catch her at most nights.  

If you haven’t already, be sure to have a listen to Blue Suitcase #2, give her a follow on instagram, and keep an eye out for her full album.