Hey, Anja Kotar! It’s so lovely to have you with us, we always like to allow our guests to introduce themselves, so can you be kind to us and tell us a little about who you are and what you do?
Ahh, it’s so nice to talk to you, Connor! 🙂 I’m a Pop singer-songwriter and classically trained pianist – born and raised in Slovenia in Europe and then moved to California with my family 10 years ago. I firmly believe that true happiness in life comes from finding something beautiful in every single day (no matter how small) so I write music that you can romanticize your life to. 🙂
What is “February” about in your own words and what inspired the song?
This year, I’m releasing a musical version of the year’s calendar – 12 songs, 1 per every month of the year, named after that month. For February, the topic was pretty straightforward because the month has Valentine’s Day. But I didn’t want to do a standard love song so it took me a while to figure out a cute little twist on it. I kept thinking ‘how can I write a love song if I’m single?’ and then one day it hit me: I should write a love song to myself. 🙂
What are you most excited about in life right now?
It’s been really exciting creating songs for each month of the year – it’s a lot of work but I absolutely love it. It definitely feels like writing a musical for a year of my life – having to put each month into music really makes me pay more attention to things around me, really take in every little detail of every day.
The past two years have been challenging, has there been one thing that you’ve learnt during this time?
That happiness doesn’t come from grandeur, big gestures and shiny things. As cliche as it sounds, I believe that it resides in all of the little things we encounter in our daily lives – birds singing in the trees, a beautiful sunset, warm cup of coffee – it’s all right there, just waiting for us to discover and appreciate it.
How do you like to relax in your spare time Anja?
I love reading (two of my all time favorite books are Stephen King’s ‘The Stand’ and ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ by Delia Owens. I also play Sims (it reminds me so much of my childhood haha), take intensely bubbly baths, do a lot of Barre3 and scour the internet for unique jewelry pieces.
Do you have a favorite TV show you are currently watching?
Oh my gosh YES – The Expanse! It’s criminally underrated, but in my humble opinion, I think it’s one of the greatest TV shows ever created. It has everything: science, economics, politics, sociology – it’s such a relevant storyline set into a Sci-Fi backdrop that can be applied to more or less any time period in history and that perfectly encapsulates the incredible and heartbreaking qualities that create humanity.
If you could collaborate with any artist, who would it be and why?
Lady Gaga forever. 🙂 She embodies everything that I believe an artist should be: she has an incredible voice, is a songwriter, actress, dancer AND she always complements her music with visuals and forward-thinking fashion. She isn’t just creating and releasing songs, but an experience – that’s extremely difficult to continuously do and deserves nothing but sincere praise and admiration.
Which recording has challenged you the most?
I think ‘February’ was actually pretty hard to figure out! When I was writing it, I thought it would end up sounding like something from ‘La La Land’, but Noah Taylor (who is co-producing all of the songs this year with me) insisted we make it more Pop. It was absolutely the right decision, but it took us some time to find a good balance between something that still sounded modern and relevant, while still including live strings, a classical music sample and some of that musical theatre feeling.
Anja which song has been the easiest to write?
Tuscany! Before writing it, I had been scrolling through Pinterest for almost an hour, looking at very aesthetically pleasing photos from summer in Italy so my head was filled with these beautiful images. From there on, I got very lucky and found the *perfect* instrumental track on Youtube which, combined with the little Pinterest adventure, enabled me to write the chorus within 10 minutes. 🙂
Besides your songs what song have you sung the most?
When I was younger, two of my go-to songs were always ‘Domino’ by Jessie J and ‘Something’s Gotta Hold On Me’ (the Christina Aguilera version from Burlesque – the musical numbers in that movie just absolutely took my breath away when I first watched it at 13). I still sing these and they always hold a special place in my heart as they have been with me from the beginning.
Have you ever considered a different stage name Anja?
I grew up in the golden era of Katy Perry and Lady Gaga when *everyone* had a cool, dope sick fresh stage name, so yeah, 13-year old Anja definitely considered some stuff. I genuinely don’t remember any specific name ideas I had, but I do remember that I considered spelling my name as ‘Anya’ for a while to make it easier for people to pronounce it. However, I felt like that was erasing part of who I was – the Slovenian alphabet doesn’t even have a ‘y’ so I decided people will just have to learn how to pronounce non-American names. 🙂
What would you do if you were not making music?
I honestly never gave that a thought so I have no idea! hehe 🙂
What has been your most iconic style moment so far and do you have any fashion icons?
Haha I’m not sure if I would call anything ‘iconic’, but one of my favorite music video outfits I’ve ever done, is the lavender feather and butterfly dress from ‘House Party’.
It was inspired by Moschino’s garden collection from 2017 – I got the dress from Etsy, then bought artificial butterflies on Amazon which my dad then applied individually, by hand to the dress and headband. On the day of the shoot, it was a little windy so the feathers naturally danced around and I felt like I was on top of the world. 🙂
To finish with Anja what is next for you, have you got any new songs in the pipeline?
Yes! Since it’s the first week of March, I have the ‘March’ song coming out – it’s actually being mixed as I type this. From there on, I have 9 more songs this year, each named after the remaining months of 2022. 🙂
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Connor Mantle
Young entrepreneur and freelance model. Founder of the AW20 Hope & Glory Fashion show, with interests in mythology, spiritualism and astrology among many others. One can be contacted via Instagram @Connormantle