ANA ROXANA's powerful song “Sea Of Change” celebrates life and resilience in the face of adversity!

ANA ROXANA

... is a Romanian singer, songwriter and producer who lives and breathes music. She turned her pain into power when she faced breast cancer twice before turning 35. She poured her soul into her songs, creating music that heals, inspires and uplifts. Her music is a blend of positive vibes, deep emotions and spiritual wisdom. She is on a mission to spread light and love through her music. Ana is a self-taught music producer who works from her home studio. She has a wealth of musical ideas and has composed dozens of songs in the past three years. She is now preparing to launch two albums and several singles that will showcase her talent and vision.

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Who is ANA ROXANA as a person and an artist, and what is her story?

I am a 38 year old Romanian, living in the Netherlands since 2008. I love music, am spiritual and practice yoga, I have two cats and I love walking. I have a curious mind and enjoy taking new challenges and learning new things. I have a PhD in electrical power systems engineering and I currently have a full time job in the energy sector. Not the expected artist profile I guess? Haha! 

But actually since I was a child, music and art have been part of my life: during school I sang for 8 years in different choirs, in high school I wrote poetry and essays, I joined literary circles, I composed a few songs and was also acting. With going to university my creative endeavours reduced but I was still singing in a few bands for short periods of time and I composed a few other songs. Moving to the Netherlands, I was mostly singing jazz and bossa nova in the local Delft jazz scene as well as in a jazz choir. And when I moved to Arnhem because of my job, singing became something I was mostly doing at home. I kind of forgot my inner artist. If I look back I think I was also bored of singing other people’s songs.

It took me getting ill twice in order to rekindle my inner creative spark. When I got breast cancer for the second time in 2019 (I was 34) I had to undergo treatments for a year, and during this time I really did some soul searching as I wanted to remove any existing energy blockages and live more aligned with the Universe. Someone recommended a book called “The artist’s way” by Julia Cameron. So I started to read the book and do all the tasks in the book, and I found myself soon drawing and then I also started to hear songs in my head. But actually I think the music was always there, I just did not listen to it as I did not take myself seriously as an artist before. 

But in the spring of 2020 things changed. I could tap into the stream of consciousness just by being open to it. And whenever an idea came I took my mobile and I recorded myself. And so many songs took shape in the beginning about my own struggles (with breast cancer and beyond that), and about my soul’s longings. I had some nights that I could not sleep because of all the music I was hearing. And I did not know what to do with it. I wanted to make this music heard and record it and produce it so that it gets out of my head into a shape. But at the time I did not have the skills, nor the energy. You have to imagine that my energy was very low as well as my focus capabilities. It was hard to match the soul desires with the possibilities. So patience was needed. 

I bought very quickly a microphone, an audio interface and a small midi keyboard, and I installed Cakewalk on my old laptop and so my music production adventure started. For me, making music is not a rational process, is more of a spiritual/flow process. During the years I listened to a lot of music of different genres and I guess all these impact from the subconscious the music I make. I am always surprised by the music that comes out of me. Being able to sing my own songs and shape them as in my head is very healing and this is my first purpose. Sharing is the second purpose and I hope that I can bring light and healing to others through my music. I don’t believe I was given these gifts to keep just for myself (even though that would make things easier).

People say that I have my own recognizable musical style, so I take that as a compliment. There are often mood/tempo variations in my songs. It is not premeditated, it simply is like that and my music has often something dramatic to it. My lyrics are meaningful, concise and direct (I am also direct as a person) I would say and together with the music and my singing voice they can touch deep people, as I sing from my soul. This is from what I noticed myself and the feedback that I got. So that gives me extra energy to share the music.

What inspired you to create your fantastic debut release, “Sea Of Change”?

Thank you for your enthusiasm and for your kind words! Well, I was actually going through a difficult personal period at the time I composed Sea Of Change, in spring of 2021. My relationship had ended and one of my young cancer friends announced that she had only a few weeks left to live, that while one month earlier she had a clear yearly check up at the hospital. 

The latter was very confronting as one realizes again how fast things can go from ok to not ok. So the song came from a deep reflection on life, the human journey, not surrendering to fear and not giving up no matter what life throws at you. There is a deep spiritual layer to the song, about getting to the light, to divinity, to the Source as the final goal of the human journey. I also intentionally produced the song that it flows from one sphere to another, with the sea waves washing away the past, and throwing us on a different shore, thus symbolizing the change. The tempo changes, the mood changes and also the tone of the song changes. What else would you expect in a sea of change?

What are some of the songwriters who inspire you to craft your musical stories?

To be honest the songs just come to me so there is no rational choice to create a song that sounds like X. But for sure subconsciously there is the influence of all the various music I’ve been listening since I was young, which covers a very broad spectrum and not only singers songwriters. 

To answer your question I will mention some of the singer songwriters which I really loved during the years: Lhasa de Sela, who had such a power to transmit from the depth of her being her music when she was singing, she is my favourite of all times; Emilie Simon; Antony and the Johnsons; CocoRosie; Sufjan Stevens; Aimee Mann; Kings Of Convenience; Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam; Katie Melua; Damien Rice; David Gray; Agnes Obel and more recently AURORA and Sevdaliza.

Do you have any plans to perform live on stage in the near future?

Actually I will perform at a local festival in my city Arnhem on the 2nd of July, so looking forward to that. You can find on my website the details of the concert (https://anaroxana.com). I don’t have now really a focus on performing. 

My main focus is on getting the songs for my albums done. My performances are quite simple at the moment: voice and ukulele. I actually bought the 1st ukulele in beginning of august 2021 because I wanted to be able to accompany myself when singing my songs. One month later I was renting a small theatre and on 22nd of October 2021 I gave a 1.5 hour concerts with my songs . That was an unforgettable experience. Again it came from the desire to share my songs and at that time that was the fastest way. It was crazy as I was new to ukulele. But one thing cancer has taught me is not to postpone things as life is too short.

How do you manage your time and energy as an indie artist?

That is the most challenging I guess. As I mentioned I have a full time engineering job, so everything I do regarding music is in my free time. So that requires some will power and organization and also accepting that things take longer to be finalised. I enjoy that I can record myself at home, and it is easier to catch myself in the right mood for recording. What costs me a lot of energy is the bureaucratic part/social media part/promotion part. I am not really fond of that, but I guess most of us aren’t. However, it is necessary nowadays in order to reach a broader public. And this is one of my deep desires to be able to have my songs to reach the people who might actually need them.

What are you working on right now and what can we expect from you next?

I am working currently on two albums. I have a lot of songs and song ideas waiting to be developed. So some of these songs I already targeted to have in these albums. The first album will be with songs which I composed during my recovery period which reflect my struggles/experiences/perceptions from this time. This I want to have finished first, because I want to move on. In the coming months I intend to release various songs which will be included on the album(s). So the next release is one of the first songs I composed back in 2020 and I can tell you that I used only my voice on it, no other instrument. Surprise, surprise!