Sierra Annie Band
Nashville band Sierra Annie Band released their new single “Roses” on June 11th.
Born and raised in Iowa, singer/songwriter Sierra Annie recently moved to Nashville to fully pursue music as a career and introduced her country sound with the debut single “Famous” released in 2017.
The new single “Roses” is an anthem to anyone who feels defeated and hopeless.
“I wrote “Roses” about a year ago while sitting in a coffee shop in downtown Des Moines. I was in an uphill climb of a long, exhausting streak of depression. I remember walking in that day knowing I wanted to write an anthem for the broken. I wanted to write a song that not only healed the audience listening, but one that healed myself from the inside out. “Roses” was written to be a weapon for the sad girl. It’s for the girl who feels down, defeated, and hopeless. It’s for the scars of a breakup that you think will never heal, and then they do,” says Annie.
“Roses” is now available everywhere.
Introduce the Sierra Annie Band.
We’re a country-punk band from Iowa who just recently moved to Nashville, TN. We specialize in classic country lyrics and punk rock riffs and hooks.
What’s your story?
Nothing too crazy. I’m just a girl from a tiny town in Iowa who’s been through a lot of tough crap in her life. I turned to music at a young age to cope and I haven’t looked back. Music began as a hobby because I spent a lot of time in my room when I was younger. Then, the way only music does, it just kind of turned into everything I ever wanted. I just recently moved to Nashville, TN to further pursue it and it’s the coolest thing for me.
Do you remember your first musical memory?
One of my earliest musical memories is at about 9 years old, I put out a bunch of chairs for my parents and their friends to sit in, and I forced them to sit and listen to me sing them my "songs” I’d written. I remember being so proud of them and thinking I’d written the next radio banger at 9 years old.
What did you grow up listening to?
I was exposed to a lot of Shania Twain, Reba McEntire, Incubus, and Blue October when I was younger, courtesy of my parents. As a teen, I got really into the punk-pop scene and listened to a lot of A Day To Remember, All Time Low, and The Used. (I still listen to all of these today.)
When did you start making music?
I started making music when I was too young to remember. Definitely around kindergarten.
What gave you the confidence to make the music you’re making today?
I love this question. The music I make today is so different for its relative genre that sometimes it truly does make me a little insecure. We’re a “country-punk” band, which, to my knowledge, hasn’t really been done a lot before. We like to think less about what genre we necessarily fit into, and just try to focus on making, well, damn good music, regardless of what genre it gets boxed into in the end. I could see us touring with artists like Shania all the way to All Time Low. My confidence itself has always come from my faith in Jesus. I know He’s enabled me to write, sing, play, and perform. The rest of it comes from seeing positive feedback from fans. It’s cool that we can appease the likes to two totally different spectrums of music.
You recently released your new single “Roses”. What’s the story behind this record? Who did you work with?
Yes! We just released “Roses” a couple weeks ago and it’s been doing insanely well for us. It was written to be an anthem for broken people. The song itself has the bones of a breakup song, but it can speak to any tough situation you’re facing at the time. It’s about breaking up with things like fear, rejection, toxic people, anxiety, depression, etc. I wrote this song about a year and a half ago, and Cameron (my boyfriend and guitarist) helped me bring it to life with instrumentals and production.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
I think living in Nashville has been really inspiring because everyone is doing the same thing as you. It’s a healthy amount of pressure that I haven’t really had before living here. Back in Iowa, it was easy to get distracted and kind of veer from music at times because not a ton of people were pursuing music around me. Here, it’s like, if you want it, you have to always be working for it. It’s helped me grow a lot.
You recently relocated in Nashville. How does this city shape your creativity?
Kind of similarly to the last question, it almost forces you to be creative at all times. Something I’ve been working on a lot more lately is just being more observant. The day to day things you or someone else does can turn into the most relatable song, and that’s really all country music is - a relatable experience for the listener. A trip to the Goodwill inspired me to write a song yesterday. My trip in the mountains on the 4th of July will inspire me to write, too. For a songwriter, everything is more than just an experience -it’s a potential song. Nashville has really helped teach me lessons in that field.
How would you define the music scene in Nashville?
A close-knit community of real life people. It’s cool how everyone is just genuine friends with everyone in the music scene. It’s a competitive, but genuine community.
What appeals you the most about music?
I love that I can express myself in any way I choose. The creative freedoms are endless. I can say whatever I want to whoever I want. It is the best outlet for release I’ve ever found.
Describe us your songwriting process. What do you like to write about?
I honestly don’t have a process. Songs really just fill my head and I sit down and write them in about 20 minutes. I don’t like to sit too long on a song, because then I think it loses the emotional aspect and the original feelings behind it. I always write about personal experience, or some sort of metaphor about something I’ve gone through or felt.
What do you want to accomplish as a band?
We want to make people feel things they’ve never been able to feel. I personally had a lot of emotions that I shoved down and tried to cover up for years. The only thing that helped me dig those up, unpack them, and deal with them the right way were a collection of songs that meant the world to me. I want to write songs like that for people. I want people to cry their eyes out to my songs and have the time of their lives at our shows.
In your opinion, what would make the world a better place?
I think a world without mental illness would be amazing. I think we spend too much time on our phones. I think we spend too much time worrying about what everyone else thinks.
Any upcoming project?
We’re working on recording and releasing our third single!!
What’s your purpose?
To spread the light of Jesus wherever I go. To be a helping hand and an emotional shoulder for people to lean on. To show people it’s okay to be a work in progress and it’s okay to feel sad sometimes. To be the same person in real life as I am on the internet. To make music forever and ever the end.
Connect with the band: