Anna Has Arrived and Is Here To Stay

After experimenting with a plethora of musical styles, since her youth in the nightclubs owned by her father—ANNA has since settled on the hypnotic series of beats and percussion that fans are all too familiar with. "There's a certain quality of a sound which makes it techno," says Anna. "When I'm in the studio and I create something and think, 'How techno is this?' when I tweak sounds on a 909, for example."

Brazil may reside far away from the familiar techno hubs of Berlin and Detroit, but Sao Paulo was flourishing in it's own right, "When I started, techno was very big in Brazil too," says ANNA. "That helped a little as I didn't know much about underground music at the time."

However, that wasn't the case for long—a changing tide in bookings and popular culture meant techno temporarily fell out of the spotlight in ANNA's native Brazil. Local agents would suggest to ANNA that she play specific genres and tracks in order to grow her audience, but the Brazilian stayed faithful to her musical intuition. "I never tried to play anything that I didn't like or believed in just because it might mean I would be out of work."

ANNA says that the market in Brazil shifts often and hyper saturation of tracks and genres can fade the careers of up-and-comers. This sort of spotlight volatility would spook most, but Anna seems unhindered by it. "I've always done my own thing and nowadays it has paid off sticking to what I believed in," ANNA tells THUMP.

That same perseverance to do what she pleased led her to one of her biggest achievements to date. When asked to remix NERVO's "Haute Mess" for Ultra Records, Anna took the popular mainstream EDM song and brought it over to the techno world with acclaim. "I liked the idea of putting techno vibes on an EDM track," says ANNA. "So I asked for the stems to try it out before agreeing to anything and it came out amazing." Supported by artists on stages from Rio to Ibiza, ANNA's remix is one of a select number of success stories bridging the gap between otherwise inaccessible areas in music.

"I just thought 'why not?' if I had the freedom to do something in my own style, and I could accomplish something different and it had the chance of reaching another audience who might not have been aware of my work previously."

There are plenty of people taking notice of ANNA's abilities in dance music—like her hero Carl Cox. Coming this summer, ANNA will be playing alongside house and techno's finest in the dance cathedral that is Space Ibiza for Cox's famous Music Is Revolution parties and it is making quite the impact on her.

"I've actually just packed up everything in Brazil and moved to Europe. I'm based in Barcelona now," she says. "It will make it a lot easier for touring and I won't have to crash on my managers sofa anymore."

Although ANNA has made the trek to the Spanish Isles before and has become a household name in Europe and even as far as India, she says it's not the music that has stopped her from playing north. "The only reason is the visa situation—it is really complicated to get one," says ANNA. "I'm always getting a lot of messages from people in North America asking me when will I play, soon I hope!"

Canada has been more forgiving to the South American import, as she readies herself for her anticipated Canadian debut in Toronto at Coda on June 6. "I had such a great response after I announced my gig at Coda," says ANNA. "I remember telling my manager, 'I think we should try something [in Toronto]—we have a good following there.'"

Alongside her new releases on Ultra Records and Kraftek, ANNA also has a new EP coming out on Tiga's Twin Turbo Records. The Unstable Structures EP feature three tracks in the form of the title track, along with "From The Air," and "Ambience." This EP is something new for ANNA she says. "I tried something more melodic and I worked the percussive elements in a very different way than I'd normally have them do."

That wasn't always ANNA's intention though; in the budding stages of her career she admits to being influenced by the nature and reputation of the labels she was sending her music to.

But now, fitted with a new Barcelona studio and plenty of new tracks to release—ANNA is feeling inspired. "Now, I just sit in the studio and enjoy myself," says ANNA. "I always say that you have to make the kind of music you love—I just do my thing and send to the labels."

You can see Anna this Saturday at Coda in Toronto. Buy tickets here.

ANNA is on Facebook // Twitter // SoundCloud