Anna Vaus came to Nashville to attend Belmont University and chase her dreams to become a hit artist and songwriter. In her 10 years in Nashville, Anna has made her goals a reality and has found success in one of the most talented and most difficult industries to break through. The California native became the first recipient of the Miranda Lambert Women Creators Fund during her time at Belmont, signed with Big Machine Music and has toured with acts such as Willie Nelson, Stephen Wilson Jr., Maddie & Tae and More. Oh and by the way, she's performed at The Grand Ole Opry (no big deal). A decorated resume that doesn't end there. Through her journey in Nashville, Anna has figured out who she is, what music and sound is the most authentic to her, and most importantly over the years has figured out who she isn't. Being an artist in Music City isn't always as easy as it looks, and sometimes experiencing road bumps along the way really makes you appreciate how you got to where you're at and what you achieved along the way.
Anna has found success as an artist as she has over 80,000 monthly listeners and has hits like "Wild Honey" that have accumulated around 3.7 million streams on Spotify alone. Vaus not only has made a name for herself as an artist, but has paved the way for herself as an esteemed songwriter as she has penned songs for Keith Urban, Maddie + Tae, Carly Pearce, Laci Kaye Booth, Seaforth, and more. Her presence is a complete package that Nashville has been blessed with, and she is continuing to build on her already-solid foundation. Anna’s debut album is set to release on March 21st! In other big news, Anna will be hitting the road on Stephen Day's "The Gold Mine" Tour this spring and will be headlining Eddies Attic on April 17th. Buy Tickets HERE!
I sat down with Anna Vaus and talked about her single "Dust,” how she went from performing for her stuffed animals to big crowds across the country, and how a lacrosse trip changed her life forever. Take a look into the life and music of Anna and how the California native navigates life in Nashville.
Get To Know Anna
"I grew up in San Diego, California in a town called Poway. My family is very creative from the jump. My mom was a videographer and a journalist and my dad, when I was a kid, did children's country music. So I was thrown into a world of "these are normal jobs.” My friends’ parents were accountants and had "normal" jobs. I was always surrounded by creativity. My brother and I, when we were bored, would borrow our family's video camera and go make commercials for a water bottle and then I would go write songs and perform them to my stuffed animals. I grew up in that space and I feel really blessed because I never had anyone in my core family or friends be like "oh music isn't a real job,” everyone was like "Yeah, music is a job and if you work hard and dedicate yourself to the craft, like you can absolutely make all your dreams come true." When I started to see people like Taylor Swift or Kacey Musgraves, just women that were very vocal about writing their own songs and lived in Nashville and there was this whole community of songwriters and artists. I was enamored of the idea of moving to Nashville and getting to share my songs with people other than my stuffed animals in my bedroom.
I applied to Belmont University. It was the only school I applied to and I got into the songwriting program and just like a Type-A goal oriented self-thrived. I had the mentality of "By the time my plane touches down in Nashville I'm co-writing, I'm trying to meet with publishers. I'm doing all these different things, just to try to make this happen." I've always been a go-getter and I think that's served me as an independent artist and has become so much of who I am and my story."
Listening to "Dust"... I feel like I'm floating on a cloud
This song is absolutely ELECTRIC!!! Sonically, "Dust" is such a fun track and filled with so much cool energy that captures Anna's west coast vibe perfectly and clearly is in the driver' seat as she has honed in her sound as this song screams authentically. Vaus displays her soothing, yet powerful vocal ability as she absolutely crushes one of the catchiest melodies of the year! Combining the one-of-a-kind production with crisp vocals, it provides a solid foundation for the lyrics to shine and all three come together and provides one hell of a listening experience. In addition, writers Anna Vaus and Melissa Fuller combined their love and experiences out west and threw the desert, cacti, sunshine and the ocean into a blender and the finished product was "Dust". Listening to this song on repeat I just feel free out in the wild with no worries in the world... the power of elite production. For someone who isn't big on love songs, Vaus hits this one out of the park and brings an upbeat vibe, and intertwines her own experiences of her relationship to say no matter what I'm not leaving, through good times and bad I'm literally here "Till we're gone in a cloud of dust.” Start to finish as well of a written song as you'll find in Nashville. I think my favorite line has to be "Burnt like a matchstick, heart locket rusted shut." DAMN! Top to bottom an A+, 100%, 10/10 whatever scale you want to use... one of my favorite sounds in Nashville!
Inspiration behind "Dust"
Written By: Anna Vaus & Melissa Fuller,
Produced By: Kevin Monahan, Anna Vaus, Harry Vaus
"I wrote it with Melissa Fuller who's an amazing songwriter. She's an artist as well. I think it's been a minute since she's put music out, but it's so good. She grew up in Wyoming, and with me growing up in San Diego and being around cacti in the desert, since I've known her we have always bonded about the west.
Really the inspiration of "Dust" was like, I'm not a big love song girl, but since Kevin (my fiancé), we were working on a record together and we started talking like "We are doing this for the long haul right? This isn't going to end?" I'm an all-in girl and I wanted to write a song that captures that, especially in relationships, when I say forever, this is what I mean. So Melissa, thankfully went there with me and we just wrote. I feel like a confessional and I'm really proud of putting my heart on my sleeve in this song. And then sonically, I just love the space that it lives in, it reminds me of home and that I should be dramatically walking through the desert in a sand storm or something. I loved how it turned out, so I'm happy it's getting the love it's been getting."
Q & A with Anna Vaus
Q: What was that "light bulb" moment that made you want to pursue music?
A: "Because I grew up in a creative family, I loved writing, I loved performing. I think in high school because I played sports, I played lacrosse, I was really considering going to college to play lacrosse. I was on a club team and we traveled to UVA (university of Virginia) to play in this big tournament. There were scouts there, all the things. At the time, UVA was #1 or #2 in the country in lacrosse. I remember doing a tour of UVA and we saw the locker room and we saw the field that everyone plays on. And then we went into the areas where the basketball team plays and the volleyball team. A girl on my team said "Could you imagine playing a game with all these people in this arena?" and I said "No, but I could imagine playing a show!" That really made me step back and rethink some things. For some reason to me that was such a light bulb moment.
I remember me telling my parents, "I don't want to go to school for lacrosse," and I was very dramatic about it, but thankfully they were so supportive and they were like "You know we are going to cheer you on no matter what show, no matter what you do we are going to be in the front row," and that opened the door for looking at Belmont and finding a place where I can chase my dreams."
Who are some of your biggest musical influences? How have you created your own sound?
A: "There's so many. I would say Joni Mitchell, I love her so dearly and I'm so inspired by the way she so effortlessly conveys her emotions and it's so artistic to me. I also love Kacey Musgraves, Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks, Glen Campbell. I feel like my music is a melting pot of a lot of different influences.
If you can see my vision board, there's just pictures of California and Laurel Canyon and I'm super inspired by where I grew up because we spent so much time outdoors, I think we are all deeply connected to our hometowns and for me, over the years I've learned to not shy away from that because when I first got to Nashville I would tell people I was from San Diego and people would be like, "How the heck did you find country music in San Diego?" and I felt myself shying away from owning where I came from because it felt like it didn't fit what everyone else was doing. And the more I've grown into my own skin, I've always felt so connected to it, that I was like, "No... I am really inspired by the music that came out of the canyons in the 60's and 70's, and I am really inspired by the cacti and the deserts and the ocean, the connection to nature and the music that comes from growing up on the edge of the world.” So that has really influenced my sound over the years. I've really enjoyed getting to lean into that more, especially because I'm homesick all the time. Nashville I love, but it's different from San Diego.
I always tell myself before shows I have a little prayer that I say of just "I hope my music makes people feel like I felt when I was growing up in California and if that's all I do, awesome."
Q: What is a lesson/failure you've learned from in your music career that has impacted you?
A: "I think I've had to learn a few times over, I'm a people pleaser. Because of that I've had moments in my career where I've been like, "You tell me what to do and I'll do it" and especially sonically, Nashville is so country focused and I feel like I fall in this genre-less space. I definitely have country influence, but there are also parts of me that are "folky" and "poppy.” I found there would be people who would tell me that I should really "lean into the country thing" or "dye your hair blonder just to fit into the box a little more," the things you get told. I listened to that for a while because it was the path of least resistance. I have kind of hit a point now, it was the end of 2023 and I looked around and I wasn't driving the car of my career... and I'm supposed to be driving the car. I realized that I needed to be the captain of my own ship even if it makes people uncomfortable or makes me uncomfortable. So I've really had to learn how to "stick to my guns" and learn how to say "no.”It's been a journey, but I'm in the driver seat now!"
Q: If you could go back 5-10 years, what advice would you give to your younger self?
A: "I think I would tell my younger self to "buckle up!” I wouldn't change anything about the past, but I would be like "Lexapro is great and it helps a lot." Yeah, just to buckle up and enjoy it, because there is so much purpose to me in every part of my story so far. In the high moments I'm thankful and the low moments I'm thankful for. In the moment they sucked. So, buckle up girl!"
If you are just discovering Anna Vaus, follow her on Apple Music, Spotify, Tik Tok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube
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