Anna Nalick

Anna: If I was in a room with nothing but myself I would find some way to write on the walls and I'd keep myself entertained or long enough to lose my sanity. I write all my songs in my head first, so I'd be okay.

Anna: You can't possibly judge a book by it's album cover.

Anna: Jumping off amps on stage is really fun, but it looks way cooler when Howie does it. Not that that's gonna stop me.

Anna: Dancing in the rain in Orlando is good times. Passing out in Sacramento is bad times.

Anna: You see, as a thirteen to fourteen year old I was still too shy to sing my own songs, but I would sing with pride the songs that were popular and my favorites at the time. One in particular was "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone" by Paula Cole. When I sang it to my friends in junior high school they would egg me on with "you should be a singer". I never thought I actually would be.

Anna: Actually, SNL is a goal of mine. I want to be a musical guest and someday I would love to host it.

Anna: For as long as I can remember, I've been a U2 fan. It seems like the majority of the landmarks in my young timeline are in my memory with a U2 song playing as the background music...

Anna: ["Breathe" has to do with] three different situations that were intertwined during a particular period of time.

Anna: [In my fifth grade class] I was sitting there, not paying attention, as usual, and rewriting lyrics to a Cranberries' song. I'd also listen to Green Day and pick out bass notes on guitar. I figured out that I could put that all together and write my own melodies.

Anna: I actually thought it would be Ms. Crow [who won Best Female Singer], so when they called my name I didn't have time to put my shoes back on and I had to run to the stage so they wouldn't think I wasn't there and skip over my speech time.

Anna: Ever since I was a little girl I just knew I wanted to be a performer. My earliest inspiration came from my grandparents, they both performed on Broadway, mainly in the chorus. My grandmother even danced with Fred Astaire and was in the stage versions of the Marx Brothers' Coconuts and Animal Crackers. I learned songs from those old shows from my grandmother who taught them to me when I was a kid.

Anna: [My song, Citadel] describes me the most. It was written when I just wasn't feeling like I fit in. I was feeling tentative and afraid to just jump in with both feet. There's a line in the song--'What if I fall? What if I don't? What if I never make it home?' It's saying that it's one thing to be afraid, but you'll never know if you'll make it or not unless you try. There's still this little girl inside me, who may be just a little scared, but at the same time, really wants to dive in and experience all those big exciting possibilities around her.

Anna: Inspiration comes from a variety of sources, [but my songs are] not necessarily about my personal experiences, but sometimes just observations of situations or relationships of different people I've known. They get funneled through my own inner psyche. Whatever the source of the interpretation, the feelings I get are personal. I find a need to write these feelings down in words and the melody follows.

Anna: [Being in a professional studio] was amazing. I couldn't believe it was really happening. I loved having my music fully realized! We played the demo to a select number of record companies and within about two weeks, I had label interest.

Anna: (on the singer Stevie Ray Vaughan) [He is] the guy that I'm going to marry when I get to Heaven.