Vietnamese singer-songwriter My Anh on the art of growing up and her debut album, 'Em'

My Anh is a singer-songwriter and producer whose ability to blend musical genres have made her one of Vietnam’s leading Gen Z stars. Her highly anticipated debut album, ‘Em’, will be released on all streaming services this January 11th.

T: I want to begin by saying how refreshing your music is and that I admire your transparency throughout your music production process. How’s life?

M.A.: It’s good! I was up until 5AM yesterday talking to my best friend, Kieu Anh, about the meaning of life. I don’t know how we got there and I’m definitely in need of sleep, but I’m very excited for this interview. Everything’s been really exciting because I’ve been preparing for my upcoming album ‘Em’.

T: Yes! In previous interviews, you’ve talked about how the making of a song is deeply personal to you and your emotions. How does the process usually begin for you?

M.A.: Every song is different, just like how every emotion and experience is different. I try to stay as raw and authentic as I can be. If I’m starting with an experience I’m going through, I’ll start drawing a mind map with keywords of how it’s making me feel and the visuals I get from those emotions. Then I’ll go from there and hum a melody or start building a beat. The starting point is often hardest for me to nail down what exactly it is I want to write the song about and how I want it to sound. Once I’ve got it though, the process flows more naturally.

T: You’ve emphasised authenticity as something artistically important to you. What has it been like to share such personal emotions out into the public sphere and receive opinions about it?

M.A.: I’m fortunate that my parents also work in the industry, so as a child I always knew how things functioned with the press and media. But knowing is one thing and actually being in the scene is entirely different. Artists nowadays don’t simply release music and perform, there’s a lot of social media and branding involved. I think it took me a long time to get to a point where I felt the need to actively use social media.

T: How do you ground yourself throughout all that noise?

M.A.: Since my debut, I’ve received this wave of opinions. They’re not all bad, some people genuinely want to give you advice. But I think no matter how much you try to mentally prepare yourself, you’ll want to eventually take a step back, which was what I did for a month with my social media. In any industry, really, there are going to be conflicting interests between you and your audience that sometimes don't align. There’s always pressure to make music that might be more commercially successful, which is definitely advice I’ve received. But how I deal with it is by taking a step back from everything, which I didn’t know how to do before. I do a lot of mind maps, which is my go-to de-stress method

T: So, you are gearing up to release your highly anticipated debut album. How are you feeling?

M.A.: I'm nervous and excited! Our team has been working very hard for this project and it feels quite surreal that it's finally coming out. Thank you to everyone who's been patiently waiting for me. I feel like this album really comes from the heart and I hope you’ll feel my growth and find comfort in feeling confused, which is what the album mainly explores. There are also elements of full-circle moments I’ve had. The opening track of the album opens with an interview I did when I was 5, where I’m asked if I like singing and I go, “Yeah!”, which is where I started. I feel like I’ve been able to return to that core passion and simplified my love for music and accept the fact that I’ll keep at this. We will keep losing ourselves over and over again, but at some point we’ll return back to that state. Once I started accepting that that was the nature of time and life, I felt good.

T: It’s good to see you take breaks. I respect that you’ve taken time to hone your craft and focus on producing a full body of work despite the industry norm to continuously drop singles. How do you do this successfully?

M.A.: I stay close to my family. Most of the industry activities take place in Saigon, which is a great place where artists can grow and there’s lots of opportunities. But I decided that I wanted to stay in Hanoi to reset myself. I think it’s hard to move past this fear of missing out, at least in this field, because all our achievements are very public. I’m pretty sure this is a collective feeling, and we’re all trying to survive by making a living from our craft. I’m very fortunate to be a freelancer, so I have more control, whereas other artists who are signed to a label face different expectations that I can’t comment on. For me, I remind myself that I do have a plan and know what I’m doing. I just hold onto that feeling and through therapy have been referring to my inner child as ‘My Em’ (Little My Anh). The album title is ‘Em’, which directly means ‘me’, but also refers to my inner child. So I’ve been practising separating myself and my inner child, and viewing her as a little sister that I should take care of.

T: I think that’s a great way to recondition how you talk to and view yourself.

M.A.: Right. It’s hard to see ourselves as a being. For a while, I couldn’t separate my professional and personal life because I myself am the product, so it can be difficult to see myself as a person and simultaneously a product that requires branding. But I feel good now because I think I’m learning the skills to navigate that and finding joy in little things.

T: On the topic of mental health, where did you find the strength and creativity to continue working on such a large and quite anticipated body of work?

M.A.: Oh, I didn’t. When I took a pause from social media, I also stopped doing music entirely. It was such a hard decision for me because the industry requires you to stay super active all the time. In the beginning, I felt a lot of guilt, thinking about all the what-ifs that are attached to pausing any career. Music is my whole heart, but I’m more than my career and there’s an inner child waiting to be listened to. I was working on other hobbies during that time, like crocheting and cooking. I used to think that doing anything that didn’t benefit my career would be a waste of my time, but through that period I realised how important it was to have interests outside of music, for the sake of balance.

T: Will your album be a mix of English and Vietnamese songs?

M.A.: Yes! Totally. But I'd say ‘Em’ is the Vietnamese part of my identity. After "Em", I'll let y'all know the other bit.

T: Lastly, can you give us something to look forward to from ’Em’? Maybe a favourite lyric or production detail?

M.A.: I want to maintain suspense, so I’ll just say that there’s a lot of ‘My Em’ on the album. Lots of nostalgia and childhood sounds. I hope that people will be able to identify with my personal evolution of exploring different parts and layers of my identity and being accepting of that, as well as finding themselves in the artwork.

T: Well, thank you for having me, we’ve had a really lovely conversation. I’m excited to hear your album!

M.A.: This was really nice, thank you.

This interview was conducted in July 2023. To read an extended version of this interview, click here.

Vietnamese singer-songwriter My Anh on the art of growing up and her debut album, 'Em'

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