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"I have to make each song in a way that fully serves its message and world" - An Interview With Anja Kotar

The Bay Area artist on turning books into songs, classical melodies into new worlds, and waiting into an act of creation.

By Eugenia RoditisMusicngear Editor

Somewhere between a bookstore shelf, a bedroom studio, and a fairytale orchestra, Anja Kotar is building a musical world entirely her own. The Bay Area-based singer-songwriter, producer, and classically trained pianist turns bookstore discoveries, forgotten classical melodies, cinematic imagery, and the details of everyday life into richly imagined pop.

With her new single A Study In Waiting, the latest chapter of her At The Bookstore project, Kotar explores the romance of waiting without putting life on hold. We spoke with her about building orchestras from a bedroom, resurrecting classical melodies for modern ears, creating music for the long term rather than the algorithm, visual storytelling, artistic success, dream collaborations, and the freedom that comes from finally making music on your own terms.

Eugenia Roditis, Musicngear: A Study In Waiting opens with a 30-second orchestral introduction before your voice even appears, something that’s becoming increasingly rare in an era of short attention spans. Did you ever feel pressure to shorten it, or was preserving that fairytale opening non-negotiable from the beginning?

Ha! A few years ago, I absolutely would not have included this intro. I was hyper-focused on “optimizing” my songwriting, trying to hit all of the current trends in an effort to improve my algorithmic discoverability.

Then I released my song “Tuscany,” which did not touch on a single one of those parameters. It was a slower, acoustic guitar-driven song with a guitar solo in the middle, entirely different from anything I had released before, and it went on to become one of my most-streamed songs.

That experience was a real inflection point in the way I approached creating. As I got older and began producing more of my own songs, my perspective on why I was making music in the first place also changed. As dramatic as it sounds, once a song is released, it is going to exist forever, long after any individual trend or algorithmic iteration.

I realized that I had to make each song in a way that fully served its message and world, rather than cutting it down to fit the mold of whatever was current at the time. I now use music as a way of documenting my time on Earth, capturing the unique culmination of the people I have met and the places I have seen that have shaped my singular perspective. Even if no one listens through the entire 30-second orchestral introduction, I know that I will hear it in 30 years and still be excited about it.

Musicngear: The entire At The Bookstore project is inspired by books, covers, genres, and discoveries made while browsing bookstores. Has a book ever completely changed the musical direction of a song after you’d already started writing it?

I have always begun each song after discovering a particular book cover or title, so I would not say that a book has completely changed a song after I had already started writing it. It has been extremely interesting to use this approach, though, because I have inadvertently found myself writing about topics and metaphors I probably never would have explored otherwise. 

A great example is my song “Dinner Parties,” which was inspired by a soft pink book cover with a photograph of Jackie Kennedy at its center. That image triggered the idea of strength being strategically disguised behind softness. It is something deeply personal to me, but also a subject I probably never would have thought to explore in my music had I not encountered that particular cover.

I realized that I had to make each song in a way that fully served its message and world, rather than cutting it down to fit the mold of whatever was current at the time

Musicngear: The verses weave Edward Elgar’s Salut d’amour into a contemporary pop song. How did you approach that balance between paying homage to a classical piece and making it feel like an organic part of your own musical language?

I grew up studying classical piano, so I was always secretly hoping I would find a way to incorporate that background into my current work. I first dipped my toes into interpolating classical music while working on my calendar project a few years ago, when I released one song per month, each named and themed after that month.

That project really pushed me to utilize these beautiful melodies from the classical canon and, hopefully, revive them for a modern audience. For example, the verses of my song “March” interpolate the melody from Vivaldi’s “Spring,” while the pre-chorus of “July” uses the melody of the “Habanera” from Bizet’s opera Carmen.

I had always thought “Salut d’amour” was one of the most mystifyingly beautiful melodies ever written. It is mystifying because it feels so simple when you play it, but so magical when you hear it. I had previously included it in the outro of my song “November,” but I always felt that interpolation was a little bit of a cop-out. It bothered me that I had not managed to incorporate it more seamlessly into the actual body of the song.

I think of “A Study In Waiting” as my redemption. 

Musicngear: You wrote and produced A Study In Waiting entirely in your bedroom, yet it sounds remarkably cinematic. Since our readers are passionate about music production, could you walk us through the gear and software that shaped this song? Which instruments, plugins, microphones, virtual libraries, or pieces of hardware became indispensable during the process?

Aah, thank you. That truly means a lot! I grew up loving musical theatre and Disney, so lush orchestral arrangements have always been a deep musical preference of mine. I have tried to create songs in this style multiple times and have learned a few tricks along the way.

I produce everything in Logic Pro and play all of the instrumental parts as MIDI on my keyboard, then manipulate and shape the sounds inside the DAW. My audio interface is an Apollo Twin. I do not use pre-made melodic samples or drag-and-drop instrumental phrases from libraries, which I think is partly connected to my classical upbringing. I absolutely adore sitting at the piano and figuring out melodies, harmonies, and countermelodies myself. I like knowing exactly what I am playing, and I always seem to uncover so much hidden music theory along the way.

I write and arrange everything myself on my computer, then send selected MIDI arrangements to live musicians to record. For “A Study In Waiting,” Victor Balconi recorded the live acoustic guitar and bass, while Yoed Nir recorded the live strings.

To achieve the larger orchestral sound, my songs usually feature a combination of live and MIDI strings. The live strings add humanity, slight rubato, and expressive details such as tremolos, while the MIDI strings add breadth, scale, and the feeling of a much larger ensemble.

I now use music as a way of documenting my time on Earth, capturing the unique culmination of the people I have met and the places I have seen that have shaped my singular perspective

Musicngear: You also directed and edited the music video yourself. Do you see visual storytelling as an extension of your songwriting, or do music and film activate completely different creative instincts for you?

Absolutely! I think much of that comes from my love of theatre and film. Having a visual representation of a song helps me create its world as consistently and thoroughly as possible.

The visual story usually begins extremely early in the process, often before I have written any of the music or lyrics. I like to envision the characters, their clothing, the locations, the lighting, and the overall atmosphere. Songwriting then becomes an exercise in creatively and effectively describing what I can already see in my head.

The rest of the creative process, from the production to the artwork and music video, becomes an extension of that initial visual. It is really just a matter of finding ways to realize that world in the real world.

Musicngear: Every artist encounters obstacles that aren’t obvious from the outside. Looking back at your journey so far, what has been the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome, and what advice would you give to artists facing that same hurdle today?

One of the biggest challenges has been accepting that every artist’s journey is genuinely different. Everyone tells you that when you are starting out, but I do not think you ever fully believe it. There is still a part of you that searches for a formula, studies the careers of other artists, and assumes that if you follow the right sequence of steps, you will eventually arrive at the same destination.

When I was younger, I wanted to play stadiums and become famous. That was what success looked like to me. Over time, my perspective shifted almost completely. I realized that what I truly want is a quiet life with enough solitude and freedom to create the musical soundtrack to my own existence. I want to document my life, the people I love, the places I have seen, and the ideas that have shaped me. That may not resemble the career I imagined when I was younger, but it feels far more honest to the person I have become.

My advice would be to keep questioning whether the version of success you are pursuing is still genuinely yours. Sometimes we become so committed to an old dream that we do not notice we have outgrown it. There is no single correct shape for an artist’s life. The important thing is to build one that allows you to keep creating work that feels meaningful to you.

Musicngear: When A Study In Waiting is out in the world, what would success actually look like to you? Are you aiming for streaming milestones, editorial playlists, blog coverage, live opportunities, or something less measurable? What’s your strategy for giving the song the best chance of reaching those goals?

No metric has ever meant more to me than receiving a message from someone who tells me that the meaning of a song spoke to something they were personally experiencing. It is always so indescribably fulfilling, but also completely wild to think about. People in entirely different places on this planet, living lives that might look nothing like mine, can still converge on the same human emotion through a song.

Of course, streaming milestones, editorial playlists, and press coverage can all help the music reach more people, and I am incredibly grateful whenever those opportunities happen. But I think of them as pathways rather than the destination. The real goal is for the song to find the person who might hear their own life reflected back to them through it.

My strategy is to create as many thoughtful entry points into the song’s world as I can. That includes the music video, short-form visual storytelling, my email list, press and blog outreach, playlist pitching, and advertising. Because this song is part of the larger At The Bookstore project, I also want every piece of promotion to communicate the world surrounding it, not just ask people to stream an isolated song. I hope that presenting the music in a visual and narrative context gives people more ways to connect with it and, ideally, helps it reach the listeners who might need it most.

Musicngear: If you could invite three artists into the world of At The Bookstore for a collaboration, who would they be, and what kind of musical “chapter” do you imagine the four of you creating together?

What an incredible question!! Allowing myself to daydream a little, I would choose Justin Hurwitz, Lady Gaga, and Phil Collins. All three have been enormous inspirations and influences on my music.

Justin Hurwitz has an extraordinary gift for creating magical orchestral compositions and weaving emotion into music with such intricacy and vividness. Lady Gaga is a master at treating a song as a complete 360-degree experience, extending it into fashion, movement, performance, and visual storytelling. Phil Collins has an incredible ability to capture complex themes and moments in concise yet meaningful lyrics, paired with cinematic production that makes you feel as though you are watching a film while listening.

I imagine the four of us creating some kind of sweeping theatrical pop chapter, with a full orchestra, emotionally direct storytelling, dramatic visual world-building, and perhaps one enormous final key change.

The real goal is for the song to find the person who might hear their own life reflected back to them through it

Musicngear: Your music feels tailor-made for intimate theatres, concert halls, and cinematic spaces. Is there a venue, festival, or even an unusual location anywhere in the world where you’d love to perform these songs one day?

Daydream number two! :) I am originally from Slovenia and did not move to California until I was 14. When my brother and I were growing up, our parents took us to Verona, Italy, to see Aida performed in the Verona Arena.

To this day, it is the most magical live music experience I have ever had. I remember the natural acoustics beneath the star-filled night sky and the audience holding small electric candles that had been handed out at the entrance. The entire experience felt ancient, communal, and completely transportive.

Maintaining a deep and distinct connection with Europe is extremely important to me, so I would love to perform these songs in old churches, amphitheatres, and other historic spaces. Those environments feel like a physical extension of the world I already try to create within my music.

Musicngear: Imagine there’s a hidden bookstore where every shelf contains songs instead of books. You may take home only one “volume” to inspire the rest of your career. What kind of music is inside it, and why is that the one you’d choose?

I am going to sound like a broken record here, but I think it would have to be a volume of classical music with no vocals, only instrumental compositions.

There is such a remarkable abundance of spectacular melodies that the world has largely forgotten, still hiding in the nooks and crannies of works by the musical masters of centuries past. I find it endlessly exciting to imagine discovering one small melody or harmonic idea and giving it an entirely new life.

The absence of vocals would also leave endless room for interpretation. I could return to the same volume throughout my life and hear something completely different each time, depending on the chapter I was living through. Hopefully, it would always inspire me to transform what I found inside it into whatever my own life needed at that moment.

Connect with Anja Kotar
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About Eugenia Roditis

Eugenia's passion for music was ignited from an early age as she grew up in a family of musicians. She loves attending concerts and festivals, while constantly seeking fresh and exciting new artists across diverse genres. Eugenia joined the MusicnGear team in 2012.

Contact Eugenia Roditis at eugenia.roditis@kinkl.com

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