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WEHM All Access - Sag Harbor American Music Festival - Ava Anderson · WEHM All Access

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's WEHM All Access, the Stag Harbor Music Festival.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: Getting ready for the 2026 edition, and we're chatting with a whole bunch of different performers this year, getting to know them a bit, learning their backstory before they arrive in Stag Harbor.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: And it's four days of free music.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot going on.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I was looking at the Friday, September 25th lineup.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh coming to a fairway at 6 p.m.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: is Ava Anderson.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: Ava, welcome.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: How are you?
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm great.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for having me.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for doing this.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: We appreciate it.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: And uh thanks for coming out to Stag Harbor.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: Now, where are you from?
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm originally from a small town called Oldwick, New Jersey.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's in central Jersey, kind of farm country.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but me and my family have been living in New York for about 12 to 15 years now.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'll be coming from Long Beach.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: And this is your first time doing the uh the Sag Harbor Music Festival.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Correct, yes.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm very excited.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Well, welcome.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Fairway looks beautiful, and it should be a great night out there that Friday night of the weekend.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just kind of cool because there's music everywhere uh that weekend.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: Sagharbormusic.org to get the full schedule of all the performances.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I guess let's let's start a little bit at the beginning.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you said you're you're from New Jersey.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: When did you kind of get bit by the music bug, so to speak?
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: Were you always a musical uh person growing up?
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: What kind of got you involved?
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, uh I grew up with music in the house all the time.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: My parents fortunately had very good taste.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: We listened to Don McLean, Celine Dion, Sting, Sade, and then a bunch of classical stuff.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: So shout out to WQXR too, because they've been supporters of them for over 30 years.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, Bruce Springsteen, Hootie and the Blowfish, like I have very early childhood memories of just dancing around to music, and I think even then it was bound to be a part of my life going forward.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then when I was in about fourth grade, I started playing guitar and I taught myself because my parents were like, Sting taught himself how to play guitar, so you can too.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: But I really, really wanted guitar lessons.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I could probably still use them to be honest.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: But I taught myself and started performing at school dances back when they actually did those, and talent shows, pep rallies, and you know, fall festivals, like things like that through high school, and then during high school we moved up to New York, and then a whole new chapter came from that.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: What's it been like to uh just kind of start um the musical career?
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: You do a lot, yeah.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: I know you've worked in different studios and other things.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: What's it been like to um I guess start as an artist?
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's it's hard, especially when you first start, it's all about just doing a ton of gigs.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I actually was fortunate to do a lot of studio recording when I was younger.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I released a couple of songs when I was like 13 years old.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Oh wow.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so I while I I was, you know, learning guitar and performing and doing these things, I was kind of simultaneously falling in love with the recording studio.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that's really where my engineering kind of came into play as like a second love of all of these things.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I started learning how to be an artist in the studio, which is like a totally different animal than when you're performing as well.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I I did that, and then um I actually had a studio internship in the city when I was in high school, and then I ultimately went to Berkeley College of Music uh after a lot of other stuff in there happened.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I'm very blessed to have been able to do that.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Very privileged, fortunate.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um in a way, you you grew up in a studio.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: What was that like?
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: What did what did you like when you look back?
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: What do you think the best lessons you learn from being able to watch, I guess, watch other performers?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and and work with work alongside with other musicians, other engineers.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: I still, you know, think that I'm very good at just collaboration and giving other people that creative freedom to express themselves.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if I'm working with a guitar player, drummer, producer, engineer, whatever.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so at an early age, I was kind of familiarizing myself with how to be like on this team of music.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that really helped me going forward.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: So even though I do a lot of like solo things, I am very comfortable and working with other people and and the studio and live too.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: That's great that you got you got a taste of that at such a young age, and you got to kind of learn not backwards in a way, but it work with other musicians first and then say, Hey, I I want to try this myself.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: We you mentioned you released some songs when you were younger.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: Are you have you always been writing?
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: How does it work for you?
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I actually started writing just lyrics before I even picked up the guitar.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I would just sing kind of a cappella, and then in the fourth grade is when I when I started playing guitar because I saw this other kid in my class, he brought in a guitar for like show and tell.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, he looks so cool with the guitar, you know?
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, I gotta just because he looked cool, that's why I wanted to do it mainly.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now, how did it ended up falling in love with it?
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: How did you teach yourself?
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: Was it online?
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Did you kind of have it was we didn't have in those days?
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm 33, so uh YouTube was like definitely in its infancy then.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I had a book, so I learned from the book.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: There was like they had photographs of you know somebody's hand on the guitar, so I learned like simple chord shapes that way.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, Green Day, I was a big Green Day fan.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: And Ramones, so like the punk music, like it's all bar chords, power chords, so it was like very easy to pick up in that way, and then once I kind of got those down, I started doing more, you know, complex chords, if you will.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: When did you start thinking, okay, I want to try this as a as a solo performer in a way?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: I want to try my in recording my own music.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: I always just like knew that that's what I wanted to do when I was very young.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to like be the next Avro Levine, to be honest.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I went through a lot to ultimately find my own voice and you know, not like imitate the artists that I had admired and uh Haley Williams from Paramour, other other big uh influence on me vocally.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: And it was always like the plan A, like there was no plan B really.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and obviously now I'm an adult and we have responsibilities and bills and things like that, and you know, that's one part of my life, but the music is still always you know comes first, but it's just I'm still navigating how to be like truly successful in that area.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: What was it like?
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: How did you find your own voice?
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: Because it it has to be a process, because I think everyone starts with with mimicking or or kind of trying to be someone they like.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: What was that like for you?
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: How long did it take?
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: And when did you kind of know, hey, this is where I want to you felt comfortable in your own skin singing?
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a great question.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: I I did take a few voice lessons prior to going to college, uh prior to Berkeley, and that really helped a lot.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: She was like the first person to actually say I was I was very much in a punk placement when I was 13, 14, 15 years old.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I loved that music, more like hardcore music.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I kind of had to force basically like train myself to get out of that and figure out like, okay, that's great, but that's not me, you know.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I definitely have maybe some of those isms every now and then, but through extensive, like I would say professional training and lessons, um, and then also, you know, singing things outside of my genre that I'm comfortable in, like jazz and classical, like traditional pieces, which I initially hated doing, and ultimately it it made me better in my own genre of rock.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: So those things kind of all helped me to find my true voice.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: Now you started in the studio, so now I'm curious what was it like to actually get out there on the stage and perform in front of people?
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: What was that transition like?
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: The I mean, the first time I ever did it in front of a lot of people was like my middle school talent show, and I can still remember.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so you had a little bit more than a little bit more than a little bit.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: I can't remember how nervous I was.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like my legs were shaking, I was so nervous.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, obviously there's so much in general, and after that, I was like, I have to keep doing this.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and the more I did it, the more comfortable I got.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: And now being on stage or performing, singing at an in any capacity in front of people is just it feels like home, you know, like that's where I feel like I belong, you know?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: And providing that to other people almost like a service is really fulfilling to me.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: When you uh when you do these um festivals, of course you're a part of the Friday of the uh the Sag Harper Music Festival this year, but then you've done different uh gigs and all over, really.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh what's that been like to uh what have you learned from the people that are the other musicians that you kind of run into along the way?
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: Is it there's there's kind of a community out there and you start to see some of the similar people.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, what's it been like for you to work with them?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's been great, and in all honesty, I would say this year is probably the first year I've really gotten more involved with community in music.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I've always like tried to give back.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: I've I've through COVID, I did a lot of uh live streaming for charities and raising money for things like that and the COVID relief and wildfires and a few foundations that I like.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: And but this year I've I've been much more involved in my local community with musicians, and it's just been honestly like one of the best feelings because even if we're not all like you know, having if even if we don't all have the same goal, maybe in terms of music, just the coming together and supporting each other in really any capacity, it's it's what we need to be doing as musicians and you know, making it like less of a competition and more of like having each other's backs.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I've met so many new people this year, even in Long Beach, who are musicians, and like I'm trying to make sure I make an effort by going out to their show and supporting them, and just being visible and you know, showing that it's not just all about me.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm I'm here to support you because this is ultimately what we all love, you know?
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: As we get closer to the performance at the State Harbor Music Festival, uh, what are you working on?
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: Are you writing?
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um are you looking to put together a record?
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: How how are you looking to do this in the future?
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: I definitely have plenty of material on the back burner.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I would like to release several songs.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of a little bit in the works.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: The last release I had was last year, uh Man of Midnight, which is a single that came out I did in collaboration with this really great author.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: His name is Matt McCain, and Billy D.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Williams, who is a famous actor.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, he's Star Wars and Brian Song, everything.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: But he's also a really great painter, and we all did this collaborative work.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: So he painted this picture for his book, and then I took that and wrote a song about it, basically.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so it's like a you know multimedia kind of situation, and that was just so cool, and it kind of goes along with the whole collaborative thing.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like you you can you can get pretty far, I guess, on your own, maybe, but when you start putting your head together with other people, other creatives, that's where the most success comes from.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm kind of still deciding what exactly I want to release next, but um it's definitely not far off.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: And um yeah, I mean, I I hope to keep working with others.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like I don't want to just do it on my own, you know.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: I want to collaborate with other musicians, even if it's just like in my tiny apartment and somebody else plays guitar instead of me, you know.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: No, that that's great.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm probably more I imagine very very rewarding to do it that way.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: As well.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: What do you have what do you have planned for your your set at the Santa Cruz Music Festival?
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know yet?
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Tons of original stuff.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh my EP that's out, you can listen to.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's a self-titled EP uh on Spotify and everywhere else.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: So all of those songs, um, and then a lot of stuff that's unreleased because I have a lot of un unreleased material.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'd love to, you know, see everybody's reaction maybe and and really just share that with people because it's you know, only a few people have really heard that.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: So it'll be special to to share that with a with a larger audience.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: That should be great.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: Third uh it's uh Friday, September 25th, six o'clock, Ava Anderson at Faraway in Sang Harbor, which is beautiful, and uh looking forward to being a part of this uh this great music festival this year.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: Good luck with everything.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: Can't wait to see what you do in the future and release.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: We'll keep an eye out on that.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: And thank you for sitting down.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: We really appreciate it to get to know you.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for having me.