Interview: Meet Anana Kaye, Nashville based Indie Alt-Americana Duo
Meet Anana Kaye, a Nashville based Indie Alt-Americana Duo. Hailing from Georgia, the other one, where Argonauts sailed to steal The Golden Fleece and where wine was invented 8000 years ago, Anana Kaye and Irakli Gabriel deliver a unique and distinctly European sound we rarely experience in such potent doses today.
Anana and Irakli currently live in Nashville TN where they also own and operate Duende Vision, a professional photo and video production company. They pride themselves on bringing a musical perspective to visual work with stylistic influences wide ranging in time period and geography.
What’s the story behind your single “Blueberry Fireworks”? The title of the song came from a grade school-aged friend with a vivid imagination, Willow, who once described her blue eyes as “Blueberry Fireworks”. It’s the first song we recorded with our collaborator and producer, Norwegian Grammy Nominee Brett Ryan Stewart at WireBird Productions. The recording captured the melodic mood of melancholy and alienation which later inspired the surrealistic music video.
With the creation of the official video, how did you make the story relate to the song? The concept for the video, a woman falling in love with a lifeless mannequin, living in her version of reality came to us almost immediately after hearing the recording for the first time. Underneath this crazy sounding image, we wanted to capture alienation, longing for real human connection and feelings of dissatisfaction prevalent in modern western society through a satirical lens. We wanted to show the realness of depression, and mental illness that we can all relate to and have accepted as the norm through vibrant visuals.
When actress and collaborator Rosemary Fossee came on board, the vision pretty much came alive as she embodied the complexities and sensuality of the character in the music video turned short film that depicts the humor and absurdity that has become our reality. We self directed, shot and edited Blueberry Fireworks through our Nashville based video production company Duende Vision.
When did you know you wanted to pursue a musical career? I feel all musicians will agree that music pursues you rather than you a musical career so in our case it was very much the same. It happened so organically that we can’t recall a specific moment in our lives.
Who are you biggest influences? David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Kate Bush, Ingmar Bergman and Fellini.
What are your biggest accomplishments? We hope that the biggest accomplishments are yet to come but so far we’ve very happy and proud of the work we’re doing.
What can fans expect in the upcoming years? We’re releasing the new EP “Detour” recorded in NYC at the Bunker Studio in a couple of months and gearing up towards recording our concept album, a collaboration with the great David Olney in the near future.
Connect with Anana Kaye by visiting www.ananakaye.com and on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.