Whilst many found 2021 unproductive and stagnant, singer/songwriter Katrina Anastasia spent the year writing, producing her debut single, creating stand out video content and all whilst wearing her environmentalist heart on her sleeve.
We spoke to Toronto based Katrina about how it all began, what she thinks is important in the industry right now and her passion that could save the planet.
Origin Story
When did this all start for you?
When I was a kid, I was always singing and doing musical theatre in school and learned a lot around stage presence when doing that. As I got older, I didn’t think that music might be an option. I didn’t have any money, no connections and I didn’t know what was possible. When I was sixteen, someone posted that they were looking for a vocalist on a song. And that is what started it all.
At what point did you start becoming the musician that we know today?
When a band I was in started to take off and become popular. My first love was sport when I was younger and music came After high school, I went to an art college. I joined a course called Independent Music Production which is where I learned how to be an independent musician.
It took me a while to find my sound and figure out what makes me different but this year I finally started getting music out.
I worked with Anthony Jordan, Dionysius French, Creag Winacott on three songs, which included my debut single Soba which was released on February 9th, 2021. This process really helped me get my stuff together and produce something that I was excited about. I’ve also worked with Quickdraw Girlfriend since then and we have collaborated on a few songs Who knew, Moments, 24 Hrs and soon to be released this summer Safe to Say.
The Power of the Collab’
When did you begin to feel your groove as an artist?
When I started recording myself with pro-tools. I randomly came across this 5 day challenge where a bunch of people from all over the world get together and have challenges everyday to write songs. There was also a collaboration day where I met this guy called Paul and we wrote a few songs together online.
We did everything online. He would send me beats, I would record tracks and send them back. It was really interesting and cool that I was able to work with people from all over the world. It’s been a ton of collaboration with all the videos and stuff. There is a lot that you need as an artist – photographers, videographers, it’s obviously hard to manage from a time point of view and there are always a ton of delays. You really learn to be patient and work with others.
Behind The Video
What was the process when creating your latest music video?
I had a grand idea of what I wanted but I knew that I needed help. I got a bunch of people to work with me and collaborate. There was a lot of logistics to manage. Having to deal with everyone’s schedules was super super complex.
I had the song ready, I shared the song with collaborators and started getting the ideas together. I came up with a treatment which is like a mood board for a music video, which covered what the video would be like visually. We then used the treatment to create ideas as a group. I always think it’s best to get people involved in the creative process because I know artists like to be a part of the full operation. We eventually did the styling, locations together, started shooting and then worked on the editing. This video has a lot of moving parts and layers including multiple locations, several outfit changes, a lot of props and people.
I love to socialise and meet new people, networking is one of the most important things in this industry. You can test the water, find out who you wanna work with, check out their portfolio and what they do and see if you’re creativity compatible or not.
Motivation, Pop Culture & The Environment
How do stay motivated when creating music?
My biggest motivation is that pop culture and media can be a huge influence and can really help get messages across to a wide audience. When you pass your message through music, people listen. I really care about the environment and I get the most reach when I talk to people through my music and through art.
When did theenvironment take an important role within your creativity?
I took environmental science in high school where we talked about how plastic never goes aways and I just kept seeing this everywhere. I would imagine if I could see all the garbage that I have produced and how it would look like the size of a house. I believe a lot of people are distracted by stupid stuff materialistic objects but we don’t realise that we are completely ruining our planet and we will have to deal with that at some point. Money is not going to help us when the planet is destroyed.
What is your key goal when creating music?
I would love to be able to help people be a little more thoughtful day to day. We all live on this planet… It doesn’t matter how rich, poor or famous you are. I would love to make it cool to care genuinely, care about yourself, the planet and your family. We all have to make changes while we still can.
Entrepreneur Katrina has released 6 impressive tracks since the release of her debut single in February, hosted a fundraiser to feed families in Afghanistan and held several pop ups for her vintage store Daring Darlings. Katrina Anastasia has some great momentum heading into 2022 and us at Skyn8 can’t wait to see what they do.
“Make it cool to care about yourself, planet, family and even strangers”
Katrina Anastasia
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