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New Zealand musician Anna Robinson is errywhere right now. The 21-year-old has been making music since her teens and this year has been huge for her. Her single ‘Nothing To Regret’, which was released earlier this year, has been streamed over 45 million times worldwide and is certified platinum in Australia.
Robinson is back with a new single called ‘Medicine’ – which is another certified bop to add to her already mega repertoire. We were lucky enough to chat with Robinson about all things music and she’s a total sweetheart that is destined for hella big things.
GF: What is your latest single ‘Medicine’ about?
The next song is called ‘Medicine’ and I wrote it on my last trip to the UK. It’s basically about having a taste of your own medicine, going back to doing something to someone that perhaps you don’t realise the weight of your actions until it’s done to you.
GF: The response to your single ‘Nothing To Regret’ has been huge! How does it feel to have such a positive response?
I think it’s crazy! It’s so surreal to think that… anything you can create is often done by yourself or in this regard it was me, Lars and Ali and we were just in this room, writing a song and to think you can put it on the internet and so many people can hear it is just absolutely mental and I think it’s definitely blown my expectations.
GF: What inspired you to write this single?
‘Nothing To Regret’ was written on a trip to New York and it was about my life at that point, which was travelling a lot and going on these amazing writing trips where I would be meeting lots of people and doing the thing that I love everyday and then I’d come home and I think all my friends were at uni and living their 9-5 days and very structured lives and I think I felt like the music industry is so unstructured in that regard that it’s hard to find time to hang out with friends so it was just about learning to make your own fun but then making the most of that time that you do have with friends and really living life.
GF: How does your songwriting process work?
Songwriting definitely changes every time. When I’m at home I write a lot of the songs by myself but then when I go overseas, working with people is such an incredible way of learning different things and everyone kind of brings their own superpower to the table which is really exciting and as well I’m quite an extroverted person so working with other people I can bounce off their energy and that’s always really fun. The beauty of music is that you can kind of do it however you want, you can do it with people or you can do it by yourself and the structure of a song can change every time you do it too which is probably why I love music so much because it’s so spontaneous and you don’t really know how it’s going to come about but when it does you’re like ‘Oh I didn’t expect that to happen but it’s great!’
GF: Do you have any plans for an EP or album soon?
An album is definitely where I see all of my songs sitting eventually but the goal at the moment is to just kind of release it single-by-single and then really focusing on the live shows, which we’ll hopefully be heading over to London to do some different stuff and festival season is coming up here which is really exciting. Hopefully next year there will be an album!
GF: When it came to decide on a stage name, what made you go with Robinson?
It wasn’t actually my idea. I was in Sydney a couple of years ago on a writing trip that my manager had organised and this was right at the very beginning so we were still thinking of things we could use for a stage name and as I was in Sydney, he sent me a text and was like ‘What do you think of Robinson as a stage name?’ I think my first reaction was like I laughed at it and thought it was crazy but over the next few days it grew on me. It’s easy to remember because it’s my last name! It doesn’t feel as weird when people say ‘Hey, Robinson’, it just feels like they’ve whispered my name really quietly. I feel like people with stage names, ones that are super new, it must take a while to get used to.
GF: When did you realise that you could pursue this as a career?
To be honest there wasn’t really a distinctive time, I was just like ‘I love singing. I love music. I’m just going to do it.’ I just never remember a time wanting to do anything else. It’s probably one of those things that even if I was terrible I would probably still be doing it!
GF: We read that you’re half-Australian and you lived here for a few years. Does coming back to Australia feel like coming home?
I am! The first time I came back to Australia, I moved to New Zealand from here when I was 11 so I hadn’t been back for seven or eight years so the first time I came back to Australia, I was on the plane and I was like ‘Man this is so emotional’ because the last time I was here I was so little and seeing all my cousins when I came back over, they were like ‘You’re like a woman now, this is so strange!’ It was so lovely coming back; I regard New Zealand and Australia both as very homely to me so it was lovely.
GF: If you could collaborate with anyone in the world, who would it be?
I feel like I would want to collaborate with Emily Warren as a songwriter, but in terms of artist my dream collab would be Rihanna because I love her. It would be amazing.
Robinson’s single ‘Medicine’ is out today.
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