Anna Stine is an emerging singer-songwriter who has been moving her way through the Twin Cities scene, becoming a regular on the local show circuit following the release of her debut album, Company of Now, last October.
Stine, who has a show at Moon Palace Books in Minneapolis on Monday night, is about to go on a mini Midwest Tour, and performed in the Center Stage segment on the Jearlyn Steele show Sunday night.
A gifted vocalist and introspective writer who the Star Tribune compared to Joni Mitchell, Stine told Steel about how she is expanding beyond autobiographic song lyrics, but the two had a heart felt exchange on the challenge of performing songs that can be revealing and act as painful reminders of times they might rather forget.
Jearlyn Steele: I've always wanted to write about my ex-husband who was horrible and I just thought, ‘You know, no, you don't want to sing that on stage Jearlyn, you just don't want to do that.’”
Ana Stine: But people could connect with it...
Steele: It can connect, but it takes you back to a point you've already healed, you've already forgiven, you know, all of that has happened. So when you write, do you ever put off of the bad stuff out there on in your songs?
Stine: Do I put it in my songs? Yeah. I think I can't help but do it. It's how I process through those challenging things for me. Writing a song has always been easier than processing verbally. There are several songs on my new album that stemmed from breakups where I was realizing this pattern and myself and the time, the types of relationships I was in. And through writing those songs, I found a sense of wisdom and healing that I don't think I would have found just talking to a friend or journaling. It really brings out healing for me."
Listen to the full interview below: