Melt Exclusive: Anna Justen

Anna Justen, the Seattle-born singer-songwriter, has been carving out her own artistic path in Montreal for the past few years, and, with the recent release of her debut album, MiCHOU’S DREAM, has burst fully onto the scene as a dynamic, introspective, and sonically intriguing young artist.

From the album’s intro, “to SLEEP, to DREAM”, to its ear-catching singles, such as “Individualism” and “Peppermint”, the project intertwines various aspects of Justen’s life and childhood that serve to paint a larger, more complex sonic picture.

In the interview below, Justen discusses her new project at length along with its immediate reception and her emotions in the wake of its release.

The transcript below has been edited for the sake of brevity and clarity.

1. So your new album, “MiCHOU’S DREAM”, dropped last on May 8. What has it been like in the immediate wake of the release?

It's been really great, honestly. There’s been so much support from people reaching out and having listened already, and I feel super grateful for everyone who's immediately hopped on to listen.

I had a listening party on Wednesday, the night before it dropped, and that was one of the best nights of my life. It was so much fun sharing it with everybody, and my friend made a menu that was album-themed. There was a cocktail called the “Nightmare.” That was a Dark and Stormy with black edible glitter in it. That was super sweet.

So many people came out; it ended up being like 40 people there, which was really cool. And I did a little acoustic performance at the end.

I basically just drank a lot of champagne and celebrated, and it's nice. I feel like, in the past when I've released projects, it's felt a little underwhelming upon releasing it. Even if I have a little party with my friends, there's a sense of it being underwhelming. But this just feels like it's being born again. And now it's getting a second life outside of myself, in the world. So I am really excited for the next year of [the project] existing.

2. And some songs from the album have already gotten placement on Spotify-curated playlists, right? How has that felt?

That's been awesome. Getting on “Lorem”, I've been wanting to be on that playlist since I started releasing music. Ever since I knew what “Lorem” was, I was like, “Put me on there”. 

It feels super exciting, but also I don't want to base my worth or the worth of the music off of whether or not it gets playlisted because that's so fickle. You never know if it's gonna stay on the playlist or if it's gonna get dropped next week, but it's cool for the moment.

3. How long have you spent working on the album? What has that process been like for you?

Some of the songs were written five years ago, but the actual concept for the album came in 2022. I was just kind of figuring it out until around the Spring of 2023, and that's when I really started working on it. So throughout my last year of school I was making the album. And it was actually nice because, at the time, I was in creative writing classes.

I feel like something about being in that environment and around that creative mentality was helpful to understanding and piecing together the story of the project; it informed my own vocabulary and understanding.

There are several songs on the album that we made in the Spring of 2023 during finals season, I mean, making “Peppermint” for example. Instead of doing my finals, I stayed up for like three nights kind of manically making all the vocal glitches in “Peppermint.” I still passed though.

4. From the cohesiveness of the project, it’s definitely evident that it has a unified theme or direction. What was the concept you were pursuing with it?

It began when I was looking at all my dad's art; he used to make art in the nineties. And there was one painting of his called Poko's Dream. Poko was my parents' cat before they had me. In [the painting] was this skeletal creature, and I just felt really inspired by the concept of this cat's dream and this skeletal cat. So I was just kind of pondering making an album or an EP called Poko's Dream. I wasn't sure.

Then, unexpectedly, like a week later, my childhood cat Michou died. He was really quite young, and he had cardiac arrest in the heat of the sun. In that moment, when we were in the vet with him, I had a moment. I was like, “I'm making it Michou’s Dream.”

Then, from there, that kind of evolved into thinking about what Michou's dream is. Sonically, it's the sounds that he heard growing up; it's my parents' voices that are kind of seeping into the world. But metaphorically, what is his dream? Michou was always a really shy cat, and my household was very loud, fighting a lot, screaming; of course that's not all it was. There were also happy times, of course, but there was a lot of pain and turmoil. Specifically, I felt like a lot of that came from my relationship with my dad; there were just some difficulties in that relationship. And Michou was my dad's cat and was really attached to my dad.

I felt like it would be his dream to see us get along and work together and find peace in all of that turmoil and pain. To talk about it and work through it and bring it out in the light. Of course, really, that's my dream; that's what I wanted. So I think I've been approaching it this whole time as, “Yeah, this is my cat's dream, but it's really me.”

It's young Anna's dream to not have that turmoil but through the lens of this innocent viewpoint of a cat who, regardless of the screaming and the pain and the fear, was still a loyal creature always and loved purely despite the pain and the violence. Basically that's the concept of the album; it's his dream metaphorically.

5. At what point in the writing process did you realize you were reckoning with your own childhood? How long did Michou remain a character removed from you personally?

Pretty much all of the songs were separate from the concept of the album besides “Nightmare”, which came well into the process because I felt like there needed to be a nightmare in the dream, obviously. And the intro and the outro and “Shadow” were also kind of connected to that world, but the other ones were all ones that I had just written on my own.

And I think a lot of those were naturally me grappling with these things just because that's a lot of what I write about. I would say at least 30% of the songs that I write have to do with my childhood, addiction, alcoholism: things that I experienced growing up. 

It's easy to write these things and then make the song and put it out and not feel super connected to it throughout that whole process, but there was a moment, when I put “Peppermint” out, I was in L.A, and I flew back to Seattle for my dad's birthday. I was on the plane listening to the song, and I just started sobbing just thinking about the version of me that had experienced that pain. “Peppermint” is probably the most telling story of all of them, just being very direct about alcoholism, and remembering those moments and the pain that I felt and having been able to turn it into a song that people listen to and appreciate and love and that I love. I don't know, I just got super emotional, thinking about myself in that situation and how proud I am of myself that I was able to get through that and now turn it into something beautiful.

6. It's interesting that many of the songs were written apart from the process of the album itself. What do you think unifies the project as a whole?

I think, sonically, the production and the approach to the production on all of the songs kind of unifies them, and a lot of that is thanks to Milan André Boronell, who was able to really understand the vision and help me make it real.

I think it was just a feeling that I got from each song. I have like 100+ songs written, and these ones were just the ones that felt right.

7. Milan produced the album, right? In addition to his technical skills, what did he bring to the creative process of the album? How is the album different as a result of his work on it?

Honestly, he just has an approach to the way that he creates that is so free. He's very free in his creation, and he feels like a very open channel for the source of creativity to come through him. I think we became really good friends in the process as well, and I think just bringing in the care of a close friend also is a part of it.

There's something about working with Milan that is unlike working with anyone else that I've ever worked with, just because something about his presence is so calming, and I never had one single thought as I was recording the album, like “What is he gonna think of the way that I'm singing this,” or,“What if I mess up or I need to do this differently?” I never was in my head; it was so free and pure creativity and exploration. That also allowed me to feel comfortable and free to hop on the computer and produce parts of the record on my own. 

Also, one thing that I think makes him very unique is that we did not use any references in this process. We always felt that the music needs to come through and bloom on its own, apart from everything else that already exists.

Milan’s point of view, which I now share, is that we already inherently bring our own references in, just because there is certain music that we love and that becomes part of our musical vocabulary. So naturally, there was influence, but there are no explicit references. And I think that's a huge thing that he brings.

8. Do you have a favorite song from the album right now?

I mean, genuinely each song on the album has been my favorite at some point, but I would say currently it's “Nightmare”. I think it's the craziest. 

But it was actually my least favorite for a while. I had to re-start it from scratch on my own. I had my friend, Greg, record drums on it remotely. He's in L.A. and he is insane, so having those drums really brought it to life.

But “Peppermint” also is, to me, the one that represents the album the best, just in the way that I think it bridges the folkier side and the more experimental side. It was my favorite for a long time. But yeah, it’s “Nightmare” right now.

9. It might be too soon to ask, but what do you have planned next?

I have a lot of plans. Not sure how it will all unfold yet but I do have the concept and the cover for my next record, and I do want to start recording those songs. I'm gonna be doing some sessions in L.A. when I'm there, and I want Milan to hopefully stay involved to whatever capacity he's capable.

I also have a plan for a different version of MiCHOU’s DREAM, but I don't wanna say too much about that. 

I also just wanna do collabs with people. I have some collab songs coming out on other people's projects, and I'll be releasing my own collabs as well. I don't know, I'll see. I don't wanna rush anything, but I also don't wanna lose momentum. It's kind of a hard place to be in. But it’s a great place to be in.