Three Questions with Anna Hudson
A songwriter travels the world in search of a song
Welcome to another of Devices’ “Three Questions With…,” a series where I interview musicians, artists, creatives, and others about the intersections of creativity and spirituality. This interview is with emerging songwriter Anna Hudson. Anna is from Winston-Salem, NC and is a student at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. We’ll be playing a show together at Gas Hill Drinking Room in Winston-Salem on Wednesday July 26 at 7pm.
KC: Anna, really looking forward to playing a show together. And thank you for taking the time for this interview. I’ve been thinking about time a lot recently and how we craft a life and find time for creativity. Annie Dillard writes “how we spend our days, is, of course, how we spend our lives.” How do you spend your days?
AH: Because of my current status as a student, I’ve been spending large chunks of my days very differently. Just a few months ago I was traveling around Europe for my spring semester while studying at Berklee’s campus in Valencia, Spain. During other semesters, I live a busy life in Boston, doing things such as classwork, furthering my career as an artist, and learning how to adult. I have spent the past few months at home working in Winston-Salem. College has certainly kept my life from being consistent, but the one thing I try to do every day is create. Whether it’s writing, recording, or listening, I try to spend my days making something, or making space for something that improves my artistry and myself as a person as well. I’m lucky enough to go to this school and to have chosen a job that improves my abilities as an artist whether I know it or not, so every second I spend involved with my education helps me. Ironically, because I spend so much time on schoolwork, sometimes I don’t have any time to write. But I’ve found that Berklee has taught me much more than solely what I’ve learned in my classes; I have learned how to prioritize both my art and my education, and have learned when it is right to focus on only one or the other.
KC: That definitely is a lot to manage and prioritize, but it sounds like you are intentional about prioritizing time for creativity. I know creativity is a very broad concept. It shows up in different ways for different people.
I saw from your bio that you see yourself as a "creatively-minded" person. What does being "creatively-minded" mean to you?
AH: Creatively-minded to me means being versatile. I have always had a knack for seeing things differently, and have always felt like the type of person who is going to walk their own path instead of going down one that’s already made. The most unique thing I can bring to the table as an artist is my perspective, so through my writing I try to make that the most prevalent thing.
"The most unique thing I can bring to the table as an artist is my perspective, so through my writing I try to make that the most prevalent thing." Anna Hudson
Being versatile as an artist and a person means being able to see and work in different perspectives. I’m always looking for different ways to write music and I never want to stay working in one routine. I have no interest in living in only one city for the rest of my life. Change has been constant lately and I hope that continues, because it enables me to change my perspective and therefore be more creative.
KC: I really like your take on perspective. What would you say inspires your music and songwriting? Where does your inspiration come from?
AH: Honestly, my songwriting is a result of what happens when I feel too much. When I first tried to write songs as a kid, I put pretty words with slightly pretty chord progressions and expected it to be good, but it just wasn’t. Now I know that I still have lots more to learn, but I’m certainly headed down the right track. Whenever someone or something causes me to feel something so strong that it interrupts my entire day, when I have to stop whatever it is I'm doing just to feel it, I write about it. Sometimes the results are really good. I’ve figured out how to put feelings into music, and that’s what I want to keep doing as I grow as a writer. I want to write songs about the indescribable feelings that people don’t know they have until they hear them out loud in their headphones.
KC: Lastly, I'm interested to hear a little more about your experience at Berklee College of Music. So many great songwriters have studied there.
AH: Berklee has certainly been a life-changing experience for many reasons. I’m only halfway through (about to enter my third year) and I’ve already learned so many technical and life lessons from this school. The biggest and best thing about Berklee to me is that Berklee’s existence as a college is secondary compared to the massive network of friends, talent, and job opportunities shaped and cultivated by the many musicians that attend.
"Your imperfections, the things that you constantly critique yourselves about, are exactly what makes your music good and uniquely yours." Ben Camp
One of my favorite parts of Berklee was the lyric writing class I took last fall. Our professor, Ben Camp, was one of the best teachers I’ve ever had and opened so many doors for me as a songwriter. He created such a safe and inviting atmosphere with my classmates and I learned just as much from them as I did from him. The thing he repeated to us the most was this: Your imperfections, the things that you constantly critique yourselves about, are exactly what makes your music good and uniquely yours. I’ll never forget it and I think about it every time I write.
Thanks Anna! If you’d like to find out more about Anna’s music, etc., you can find all that here. Check out the debut single “Scattered Showers” now streaming.