A chat with Anne Elise Hastings
Hey Anne Elise, how the heck are you?
I’m great! How the heck are you?
I am very well actually, thanks for checkign! Before we start, I always like to ask, is it Anne Elise, Anne, or do you prefer a nickname?
It’s Anne Elise, but some of my friends call me Egg.
So set the scene for me... where are you right now, and what are you up to today?
I am at my music teaching job, sitting in front of a Zoom call that my student didn’t log into. I lead a very glamorous life. In all seriousness though, I do love my students and I love teaching and that is what I’ll be doing all day.
Introduce yourself to our campers.
My name is Anne Elise Hastings, and I live in New Orleans, LA, but I’m originally from Virginia. Being from there, I love to hike and be out in nature. I also love crafting and roller skating. I’ve been playing music since I was a little kid, and it’s my favorite thing in the world. I started piano when I was five, violin at seven, and picked up guitar and songwriting around age 13.
Let’s talk about Unmasking a Confidence Trickster… how would you describe the album in two sentences?
I’d say it’s twangy rock that focuses on storytelling and lyric writing. As a whole, the album deals in anger, love, heartbreak, and all of the other emotions that people deal with every day.
Tell me about the first song you wrote for the album?
The first song was ‘Sara Jane’. I finished writing it shortly after releasing our first album in 2018. That song deals almost exclusively with the anger I mentioned above.
Who is Sarah Jane?
The real Sara Jane is a teenage girl that crashed into my parked car while we were practicing the song. The Sarah Jane that’s the subject of the song is terrifying and also married, so I didn’t want to title the song their actual name. We had a very short relationship, but they ended up bullying me when I’d see them out in public once I broke it off. It was a very negative experience, and I was afraid of what would happen if I named the song after them like I was originally planning to. When this girl crashed into my car at the same moment we were playing the song, it seemed like a good alternative. The real Sara Jane is very sweet though, and I hope she’s doing well.
What was the last song to make it onto the tracklist?
The last one was ‘Twice Married, Twice Divorced’. That one snuck its way in right before the recording process. It’s all about telling the person that strung you along for years that you’re better than them, without them, and that they’re going to regret losing you. The end of the song is just a fantasy of running into the person again years from now and being able to rub it in their face how much better off than them.
You’ve chosen a really interesting cover for the album, what can you tell me about it?
I made it! I wanted it to look cute and innocent at first glance, but have a really intense scene when you take a closer look. I was definitely going for the darkly comedic thing. The whole idea is that this couple got too drunk and started a huge fight and ended the party. I did all the hot gluing and painting, and my friend/manager Berlin Arguello built the people out of clay. A fun little side piece of it for me is that a lot of the things in the cover are my mom’s from when she was a kid. She used to build these tiny “fuzzy houses” as she called them, and I built them when I was a kid, too. A lot of the furniture and room accessories came from the fuzzy houses.
One of my favourite songs is ‘Make You Care’, what’s the story of that song?
This song came out of this sort of pseudo-relationship type of thing. In retrospect, I should’ve known that it wasn’t going anywhere good, but at the time I was still trying desperately to get this person to pay attention to me. This song is all about seeing how little they cared about me and vowing to do whatever I can to make them care. It’s a little bit of “if you’re not going to love me, I’ll at least make you fear me.”
Rubbish journo question I know but what’s the song on the album you’re most proud of?
I’d have to say either ‘Loving You’ or ‘Between My Teeth’. I’m proud of the lyrics on both of them, but I’m very proud of the guitar part on ‘Between My Teeth’. I’m not as confident in my guitar playing, so I was pretty happy with myself for coming up with a more complex guitar part.
I read in a previous interview that you wrote one of the songs in an hour, which one, and is that unusual? It sounds it!
It was ‘Missouri’! Yes, that’s very unusual for me. Some people are able to write great songs in a short length of time, but I am not one of those people. It usually takes me weeks to months to finish a song. This one was finished when I had a concussion, so I don’t remember much of the writing process. It’s about my Grandma’s parents and their beautiful love story, so I really feel like they did the writing on it. A lot of the phrases are not how I usually speak or write, and I just found the lyrics on the notes app on my phone the next morning. I remember sitting down to write, but I think they took the reins on the rest of it.
Your Instagram bio says “Just a lady and a pack of wild dudes playing some folk music”, what can you tell me about those wild dudes?
On drums, we have Isaac Worley. He’s been playing with me since we were 18, and he’s one of my closest friends. He’s from Bellevue, WA, and loves reading fantasy books, playing Dungeons and Dragons, and going on road trips. On bass, we have Tristan Clark. He’s also been with us since college, and we were roommates for a while. He’s from Wilton, CT, and he’s absolutely hilarious. He also grew up playing cello and spits out random facts about any topic. On trumpet, lap steel, and percussion, we have George Thomas. He’s from San Diego, and recently moved back there. I miss him a lot, and he always has a couch to stay on. He writes and plays some really awesome reggae music in his band Sundog Tribune, and surfs a bunch. On the record, we had Dustin Dietsche from Chicago. He also has his own band, Diets, and writes some really awesome blues songs. He made us try shots of Malort once and it was awful. Apparently it’s a Chicago thing.
With the poor $ numbers from streaming, what’s the best way for people to support you and your music?
At this point, just listening helps. Since we’re still a small band fan-wise, anyone who can follow us on Instagram or Facebook or listen to us on Spotify will help immensely. We just need better numbers. I’ll also have some merch available soon on a website that will also be up soon, so stay tuned for that!
Social media; necessary evil or most fun you can have with your phone?
Somewhere in between. For the band, I don’t love the online marketing thing, and I don’t think I’m very good at it. Personally, I like seeing what people I haven’t seen in a while are up to and seeing who all is getting married. I also like the memes.
I’m so there for the memes as well! If you could recommend one artist to listen to this week, who would it be?
Magi Merlin! I went to Austin TX over SXSW weekend and saw her play at this cute bar. She was incredible and had an amazing band. The music sounds like a neo-soul, R&B kind of thing. They kind of reminded me of Hiatus Kaiyote, but a little grungier and with more hip-hop influences.
What’s the question we should have asked you today but haven’t?
Hmm.. how about: “Is there anything else you are excited about that people should know about?” Why yes there is! My mom is a wonderful painter and I want people to see her art. You can find her on her website, Mary Hasting Art, or follow her on Instagram. She also does all the graphic design for my band, including the graphic overlay on my album cover and all of my flyers, stickers, and merch designs. She’s super talented, I gotta plug my mom in here somewhere.
Finally, how do you take your coffee?
As caffeine-free tea!
To find out more about Anne Elise you can follow her on Instagram and Facebook.
