Start Listening To: Anna McClellan
Anna McClellan crafts emotional worlds through songwriting.
Anna McClellan’s music invites listeners into a universe where vulnerability becomes strength, and storytelling takes center stage. Originally hailing from Omaha, Nebraska, Anna’s songwriting merges deeply personal reflections with universal emotions, creating what she describes as "worlds within songs." Over the past four years, Anna has transformed periods of love, loss, and self-discovery into her fourth album, Electric Bouquet, a collection of tracks that resonate with honesty and poetic depth.
In this conversation, Anna shares the inspirations behind Electric Bouquet, the personal and artistic transformations that shaped her music, and what’s next in her ever-evolving creative journey. Dive into her thoughtful reflections and discover why she’s an artist who turns life’s complexities into deeply human art.
For those unfamiliar with your music, can you tell us who you are, where you’re from and about the music you make?
Hi :) Yes, my name is Anna McClellan. I’m a singer/songwriter originally from Omaha, NE but more recently have been splitting my time between Austin and LA. I grew up playing classical piano and started writing my own songs when I was 16 as a means of bridging the gap between my internal experience and the world around me. The whole basis of my songwriting practice is to externalize fears, wants, and needs to hopefully move through them and connect with other people.
Your fourth album, Electric Bouquet, channels some pretty transformative years. Can you tell us about the journey that shaped these songs, and what stories you’re most excited to share with listeners?
Yes. All of the songs were written within a 4 year period, 2019-2023 when I was living alone in my house in Omaha. I had moved back home from New York at the end of 2018 primarily to deal with a deep depression that had been there for as long as I could remember. I started going to therapy and having difficult conversations with my immediate family about the roots of this depression. The song Dawson’s Creek is about this, about feeling real lonely as a child and how it manifested into my 20’s. I also went through an intense love during this time and many of the songs were influenced by that: Paper Alley, Like a Painting, Like a Swan. Romantic love is my favorite thing to write about. I like to see myself through the eyes of a lover.
Television shows like Dawson’s Creek and The O.C. were formative for you growing up. How have these narrative influences shaped the storytelling style in your songwriting?
The formulaic nature of soapy teen dramas is something deeply ingrained and for better or worse, led me to seek highly emotional, unstable relationships in my own life. I think my main examples of intimacy as a kid were from television, something I both emulate and attempt to unpack in my life and through the songs. From a young age, I was narrating my direct experience in my head in the third person. Almost like I was performing my life for myself and would make up stories where grand things would happen to me. I did this out of boredom and to dissociate.
In “Like a Painting” you explore a past relationship with great intensity. How did processing this experience through songwriting help you see things more clearly?
The song was written in stages as the relationship was progressing and then disintegrating. Most of my songs are born out of a need to ‘see things more clearly’. When I fall for someone, I fall fast and hard. I think Like a Painting articulates the high of such a passionate love and then you know, the aftermath of losing oneself in someone else.
“Jam the Phones” feels both personal and socially reflective. Can you speak more about the inspiration behind this track and what message you hope listeners take from it?
During the George Floyd protests of 2020, it felt like so many people were having a social justice awakening and there was so much collective energy and so much posting on social media about “what can I do? I want to do something, but I don’t know what that is. What would be helpful?” I think I wrote this song as a response to that.
In writing the album, you trained as an electrician and eventually moved to Los Angeles to work in film. How has this career shift influenced you as a musician, both creatively and practically?
I was going to electrician school while I was writing all these songs. But I hadn’t moved yet. I moved to LA in the year and a half between when the album was recorded and when it was released. But that being said, going to trade school and going to any of type of college had a huge impact on my brain. It’s really good for any creative practice to have another focus in my opinion. It’s only so interesting for so long for a musician to write about music. Being immersed and spending time with all types of people in my classes gave me new perspectives and new potential for material that is invaluable! Also I learned so much about infrastructure and how the modern world is built. It really expanded my point of view.
You’ve mentioned that each song on Electric Bouquet is like its own universe. How do you approach building these worlds, and what kind of emotional or sonic space do you aim to create within each track?
I think this is really what I love the most about songwriting and where I put my focus. I’m not so much of a technical player. I prefer to surround myself with technical players so I can focus on the vision. I am a big picture thinker. What is the intention behind the words and how can I use simple language to create new ideas? I want to strike a balance between saying something poetic and having my songs be approachable. And I think it goes back to being a child and doing the third person narrator thing. It’s like I found a healthy outlet for all that rumination. I’ve been building this internal world for as long as I can remember.
Your collaborator Ryan McKeever and engineer Adam Roberts have been instrumental in bringing this album to life. How did working with them enhance the project, and what did they bring out in the music?
They are both so wonderful and have different strengths. Ryan and I have been collaborating closely for awhile now. He is the person I send in-progress songs to and bounce ideas off of throughout the whole writing process. It’s the best. He also plays everything. This was our first time working with Adam and he fit in really well with Ryan and my’s dynamic. Everyone was so focused and dedicated for the week and some change that we were in the studio. It was just so much fun to be locked in together and feed off of each other.
In “Hold You Close,” you capture the bittersweet feeling of longing for absent friends. What’s your process like for translating such intimate feelings into lyrics that resonate broadly with others?
That’s a difficult thing to pinpoint. Emotion and emotional resonance can be so elusive and very subjective. My primary focus when writing is to satisfy my own needs for expression. But I suppose the hope is that if something creates deep feeling in me that it will naturally resonate with others. And that we can be each other’s mirrors in that way.
You considered creating a musical and even conceived “Endlessly” as an opening number. Could you ever see yourself returning to this idea, and if so, what would the theme or story of this musical be?
Absolutely! I really want to make some sort of scripted, narrative-based work that incorporates music. I’m coming to understand more and more how important story is to my songs and I want to expand on that. As of now the dream has moved from musical to tv show about a musician. It would really just be a continuation of making albums so largely autobiographical with themes surrounding purpose, relationships, heartache and self-identity.
“Omaha” reflects on your complex relationship with your hometown. How has leaving Nebraska and making a new home in Los Angeles impacted your identity as both a person and an artist?
Personal identity is so wrapped up in the streets we roam and the places we haunt. As much as I love Omaha and the identity I created within it, I began feeling more and more stifled by the expectations I was putting on myself to be this person. My personality just felt ingrained and since I’ve left, I’ve felt my mind expand. All these new experiences creating perspective shifts. It’s really good. I’ll need more time to really understand what is happening but I’m enjoying the ride for now!
What do you love right now?
The resistance movement, driving around and crying, washing my hair, that game show The Floor hosted by Rob Lowe, darts, texting my friends for like an hour straight and really we should have just gotten on the phone, answering to no one.
What do you hate right now?
Barstool with no back, vinho verde, anxiety.
Name an album you’re still listening to from when you were younger and why it’s still important to you?
Songs from a Room by Leonard Cohen, it’s the first album I ever bought on vinyl. It’s timeless of course.
What do you hope listeners will take away from Electric Bouquet as a whole? Is there a core message or feeling you’d like them to leave with after hearing the whole album?
I hope it makes people feel less alone.
