Anna Wise '10 on Collaborating with Kendrick Lamar, Sonnymoon, Her Solo Debut

It's been a good year for Anna Wise '10. Fresh off a Grammy win for her work (as a featured artist and cowriter on select tracks) on Kendrick Lamar's acclaimed album To Pimp a Butterfly, she also appears on his surprise release untitled unmastered. of Butterfly-era demos, and just released her debut solo album The Feminine: Act I, on April 27. During a recent trip to Berklee, which involved classroom visits and a caf show performance, Wise talked about all of the above and founding her band Sonnymoon with fellow alumnus Dane Orr '11. She also offered insight into her nascent career, her guiding philosophies as a songwriter, and navigating the industry as a female.

The following is a condensed and edited version of that conversation.

On Putting Out a Bat Signal to Kendrick Lamar

When I was at Berklee I met Dane Orr and we decided to start making a record. We put out our first record under the name Sonnymoon [on December 25, 2009] and a year later we got a text message from Kendrick [Lamar] saying, "Hey do you want to come work with me?" He found me on YouTube and really liked this one voice I was using for a song called "Nursery Boys." It's very little kiddish; he calls it the alien voice. We started singing together. He liked me and I liked him—that was in 2011—and that was that. It's like I put out a bat signal.

On Keeping Lamar's Surprise Album a Secret

I knew for a couple weeks before it [untitled unmastered.] came out. But I'm a really trustworthy person—I keep secrets really well. Sometimes not my own, but everyone else's.

On Releasing Her Debut Solo EP The Feminine: Act I   

It's all about women and my experience as a woman on planet earth. . .  I was originally going to call the whole album Bitch Slut because I'm not so marketing-minded, but I'm becoming more so thankfully. I thought, what's a word that refers to women that doesn't have men in it. It's really interesting actually—women are incredible. There's a lot of us throughout history who have been erased. My goal is to create balance, to elevate women to be equal to men. I think art is so powerful that it absolutely has the possibility of [achieving that].

Anna Wise is a new artist but I'm not; I've been around. [Sonnymoon] recorded the first album at 7 Eric Road in Allston—a house with seven rooms where Dane [Orr] lived. We did all the vocals on an SM58. I think people are waiting for someone else to tell them it's okay, or for a resource—well this is the $10,000 microphone—or I was discovered on the street when I was singing and then they took my career to where it is now. It's like, no, you take your career to where it is, you record your songs, you make your videos and press photos, and you get that done; no one else is gonna do it for you. And if they are, they're probably taking a huge cut.
 

On a Record Deal  vs. Self-Release

Don't think that you need a record deal or that a record deal is going to get you what you want, because a lot of times it actually causes more problems, including someone checking in on your art and telling you how to do it. That can be from as small as someone saying, "We want you to turn in three demos a week and we'll tell you which songs to move forward with," to "I understand you want to release these four songs as an EP but we really feel you're an album artist and we don't like these songs, we don't think we can put money behind this." There are all types of ways being signed can push upon your creative instincts. Sonnymoon isn't huge, but we get to do what we want, and our fans are really dedicated. 

I didn't do this [solo] record with a label or with anyone. I refused money from multiple sources so that I could do it all by myself. You have to do it yourself. They don't give you the keys. Like DJ Khaled says, it's actually quite simple once you figure it out. I'm putting my music out through a digital distribution company called STEM that someone who also went to Berklee started. They take 5 percent, distribute [my work], and give me back my earnings. They have an app [to track sales] and that's super important to me. 

On the Philosophy of Songwriting

I probably won't say what people really want to hear, because when I write it's usually all at once and I know exactly what it is: the lyrics, the melody, the harmonies, the bass line; everything happens all at once and it's just a race with my mouth and fingers to be able to articulate it outside of my body before it leaves. And that's not really something I can teach anybody. I can't teach you how to have a muse, or to receive inspiration, you know?

I love to meet new people and learn of their experiences; that could fuel an idea that lives inside me for months. Sometimes [ideas] come from above and just woosh. And sometimes they start in my spine and just crawl up. It's not like I'm mining people for ideas or inspiration. I'm just living my life and then when it comes it comes and I'm grateful. I think you just have to do it, or not do it. I don't support beating yourself up to get results, and whether that's not sleeping or practicing for 18 hours a day or hating yourself for not doing what you're expecting yourself to come up with, those things are all death to creativity. 

Follow Anna Wise via her website at annathewise.com