On the road with Anna Vogelzang

Anna Vogelzang is a cliché, and she knows it. Her gorgeously emotive folk songs are inspired by her Kerouac-esque lifestyle on the road as well as love lost and found. But just five seconds of hearing her full-bodied, emphatic alto lilting over Americana string arrangements will have you captivated. She’s not trying to be Kimya Dawson or Dar Williams. She’s just Anna.

Since graduating from Carnegie Mellon University in 2007, the Massachusetts native has been building a steady following in the Midwest music scene. After spending a year and a half in Chicago, she relocated to Madison in 2008 and signed with local record label, Slothtrop Music.

Taking a rare time-out from her month-long tour of the Northeast ⎯ during which she is performing every night while also recording songs for her newest album ⎯ Anna discusses her travels, her music and, of course, her feelings.

Vogelzang connecting with nature. Photo courtesy Melissa Cooke

How did you get your start in music?

I was born! My whole family is in music ⎯ my mom is an opera singer. I grew up singing and I started playing guitar at 14. In college I ended up creating my own major in the School of Music. It was called Creative Music Production, which basically gave me the excuse to take a bunch of jazz classes — I got to learn jazz guitar and do sound engineering. I ended up doing two projects where I made my first two real albums in the studio lab at school and they counted for credit. I kind of made the singer-songwriter degree.

You have a really impressive discography. Four full-length albums and three EPs in five years is incredibly prolific. How often do you write?

As much as I can … being on the road fuels a lot of it for me. It’s sort of a double-edged sword because being on the road is where the experiences come from and they make you want to write, and yet you’re on the road and so busy so there’s no time to write. It’s a weirdly hard question. I’m always writing, but I sit down and write songs either when they come naturally, or when I decided I need to give myself a project to do, which is quite often. I signed with Slothtrop Music in October of last year, and that lit a fire under my ass.

On 2007’s The Things That Airplanes Do, you have two songs called “Pittsburgh” and “Philly.” Are you particularly inspired by places you visit?

Yeah, for sure. Traveling has been so helpful for me, particularly on that album. Since then, I’ve still done a lot with travel. After Airplanes there was an EP called Nesting that was basically about living in Chicago and moving to Madison. And the next record after that was Paper Boats, and even though there’s a lot of ship and sea references, it also ended up being very inspired by specific places.

I love the map of the U.S. you have as the background for your website and MySpace. You also categorize your music as “Americana.” I know this sounds strange, but are you very patriotic?

I really love being able to see the country the way I do. It’s tiresome…especially because I’m on the road right now, I’m right in it. But the cool thing about this job is that you’re on a constant road trip. I was actually having a conversation the other day with someone about how we put in all these highways, which destroyed the railway system in the States. But it created, I think, a very American experience, which is the road trip ⎯ the idea that you can drive across the country and get to another ocean … it’s such a romantic way to see the country. I’ve been to so many cities that I would never have seen and there are still so many left I would love to play in.

Vogelzang having an intense moment with her banjo. Photo courtesy John Brunner

Any favorite American hidden gems?

Norfolk, Virginia is awesome. We love it every time we play there. Dubuque, Iowa is another awesome city that I would never have considered going to with a wonderful music scene.

Your songs are also self-described as “songs about feelings.” Are you a very emotional person, or do you get all the emotion out while writing and then chill?

It’s a little of both. For example, last night was our last night as a trio because my fiddle player had to leave today, so it’s just gonna be me and my cello player. And I was getting really weepy on the train. The whole idea behind “songs about feelings” is that so much of folk music is kind of a joke, right? It’s all people singing about their feelings and it’s like, how many more people can we listen to singing that song about losing someone? So for me, even on the really serious songs, there’s a lot of humor. The songs are emotional. They get a lot out and it is super cathartic for me, but I am emotional beyond the songs too. But it’s usually in a funny way.

The “Bad Romance” cover on your MySpace is pretty hilarious. If you could have one artist cover one of your songs, who would it be?

Ooh, that’s hard. I guess it’d have to be the Mountain Goats. It would be great if it was a dude, especially because so much of my music is lady-centric, it’d be great.