Anna Graves
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Growing up on her family's farm in rural southern Minnesota, outside Minneapolis, Anna Graves was ready to trade the 40 acres of horses, hay fields, and lack of television in the rectory-turned-house her family called home for life in a big city and a music career. "I never appreciated it. I wanted to be everything opposite of who I was because it's never cool when you grow up that way," she reflects. "I look back now, and it makes me sad how much I didn't appreciate how lucky I was. As a kid, all I wanted was to be able to watch TV." After several years in Nashville and Los Angeles, though, Graves is learning that, as the saying goes, there's no place like home. Her decision to move back to the farm in early 2023 turned out to be the best thing she could have done for herself. Coming home has refreshed Graves, both personally and professionally. With her phone hidden away, she spends hours in her family's music room writing lyrics, picking a guitar, and playing the antique piano she learned to play when she was seven years old. After years of grinding, she feels back in touch with what first inspired her to consider becoming a songwriter: the heartfelt and raw music of artists such as Tracy Chapman, fellow Minnesotan Bob Dylan, Stevie Nicks, and other singer-songwriters she'd hear on her painter mother's favorite alternative radio station. "That's the warm spot in my soul that's the comfort food," Graves says. Her new music is similarly spare, with simple production that puts her vulnerable, ripped-from-her-life lyrics at the forefront. On her new single, "Made to Love Someone," an echoing acoustic guitar line and wispy harmonies create the backbone of the recording — the very one Graves made the day she wrote the song. "I really wanted to introduce the music exactly how it started," she explains. "I didn't want to polish it up too much." You can't polish life, after all instead, Graves aims to embrace what causes her angst, knowing it helps her grow. "Every heartbreak or every relationship has taught me a little more, and I feel like I stitched back together a little stronger," she says. "Every time, it was something different that led me closer to what I want." Love is the overarching theme in Graves' new music — not only romantic love, but also, and perhaps more importantly, self-love. The latter, in particular, has been a journey for Graves, who has discovered that the more compassion she has for herself and the more trust she puts in herself, the better the outcome. "The first half of my twenties was filled with so much hate for myself. I was just really tired of it," she admits. "I thought, ‘What if I just tried to have more love for myself? Let's just try it.' And that's when I started to feel really, truly fulfilled." It's personal stuff, but Graves isn't afraid to mine her own experiences for inspiration, nor to be extremely forthcoming with the details. "The best that I can do," she says, "is just write something that's completely true to me. How else are people gonna relate to something? I want to hear about people's stories, and I want people to hear about mine." Anna's first new track of 2024, "Made To Love Someone," was released in February to an eager audience of over 10,000 people who pre-saved the track prior to its release date. With her vulnerable, ripped-from-her-life lyrics at the forefront of the song, the echoing acoustic guitar line and wispy harmonies show the artist at her most raw. Next up, "Fly" (released April 2024) reveals another step in Anna's path to self-discovery. The track is underpinned by shimmers of acoustic guitar and sparse production while Anna croons "I've been learning to fly/ this whole time." As she works to complete an album for Island Records, Graves is also working toward splitting her time between Minnesota and Nashville. The first go-around in Music City all those years ago wasn't without its downsides, but the time back home has helped her rediscover the version of herself who wanted to be there in the first place. After she returned to Minnesota, Graves unearthed a set of songs she'd written as a teenager, after her mother told her she could go to college in Nashville if she wrote 10 songs — "and they had to be good songs, ‘cause my mom is an artist," Graves remembers. She couldn't help but notice that not only did the songs still hold up, but that they also bore similarities to the songs she's been writing since she moved home. "There's such a beauty in coming home and truly connecting with your soul," Graves says. "I've found that the most beautiful things are the small, simple things — including being home and being with my family. That's where all the beauty of the music has come from: being real with myself." Graves is managed by Simon Tikhman, Chief Zaruk, and Tim Crane at The Core Entertainment.