Life & Work with Anana Kaye

Today we’d like to introduce you to Anana Kaye.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I suppose we’d have to go back to the summer of 2012, when Irakli (Irakli Gabriel, my musical partner) and I met in a little village called Sioni in our home country, Georgia. Irakli, who’d been living in the US, had come back to Georgia for a vacation and was staying alone at his tiny cottage. I was good friends with his cousin Nina, who suggested that I’d grab my guitar and that we’d go and visit him. It was summer, the school was out, so it seemed like a really fun idea. We got along great instantly, it was obvious we had a very special connection, not just musically – we did have similar tastes (Bowie, Dylan, Beatles) – but also personally – we fell in love. Long story short, Irakli ended up extending his stay in Georgia and moved back so that we could be together. We eventually moved to New York in the fall of 2013. It took me some time to adjust – it was a big cultural change, I was also getting used to speaking English in my everyday life but we did start recording soon after the move and put a band together. We released “Sentient” in 2016, followed by “Detour” two years later. In the fall of 2017, we decided to move to Nashville – yet another interesting twist and change of scenery. We both felt that we fit right in and haven’t looked back. Playing, writing, recording regularly, while at the same time working as videographers and photographers, something we fell into naturally after the release of our first album when we tried our hand at making music videos for our songs, it seemed to work.

The highlight of our Nashville adventure was meeting and working closely together with the great David Olney, a true Americana legend, singer-songwriter. Sadly and shockingly, David passed away from a heart attack while performing on stage in January of 2020, but before then we had already completed our album together – “Whispers and Sighs”. 2020 was as hard as one can imagine under these circumstances and all that followed, but somehow we managed to get it together and release the album in March 2021 with the help of an indie record label Schoolkids Records (based in Chapel Hill and Dublin, Ireland). The album was incredibly well received and we were humbled and honored by the positive reviews from the national and international press, as well as some warm responses from fellow artists and musical heroes. So here we are…

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Whenever the road feels smooth, you can rest assured something will come up to shake things up. Sometimes it looks like it’s smooth to other people, you never know what’s going with people’s lives. Yes, there’s been plenty of families and some health stuff to deal with, but we feel like keeping most of that private. Most definitely, David Olney’s passing was a huge shock to Irakli and me, we had become very close friends during the process of working together, and writing these intensely personal songs together that became “Whispers and Sighs”. We lost a dear friend but also a creative partner, and those kinds of deep connections don’t happen very often in life.

As far as work goes, the obvious struggle these days for independent artists is how to earn a living while keeping true to your calling. There are times when you just don’t know where the paycheck is coming from while bills are piling up, so it’s important to stay focused and keep at it and keep the faith. Mildly put!

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Irakli and I work together – pretty much on everything. We’re songwriters, performers, recording artists, videographers and photographers.

Our recent album “Whispers and Sighs”, with David Olney – is something we’re most proud of. It’s a thrill and honor to work with such a well-respected artist in the Americana songwriting community, but it’s especially incredible since we’re in such awe of David’s incredible catalog. Working with him was really a dream come true.

Similarly, we’ve done a series of music videos for the legendary Irish band “the Waterboys” and have written some songs with their leader Mike Scott and have joined them on stage. Irakli has been a huge fan since he’d been a teenager, so yes, that’s a pretty big deal!

Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Yes, I would say that taking a chance and moving first to the US, NYC was a big risk – we left our families back in Georgia, (albeit at different times) – a whole new world to me. And then, to Nashville… Irakli and I often talk about it, neither of us is particularly a daredevil, we don’t do extreme sports or anything like that but generally in life, it’s a good idea to assess potential dangers and do all you can to avoid them but then to act without fear. It’s all easier said than done!

My friend, songwriter Jenna Torres, once said that even though everyone knows that to songwriters songs are their babies, what they don’t know is how long it takes to conceive, nurture and grow them, to finally give birth to them and so many times there’s no one there to catch them once they’re out in the world. That hurts a lot, so I feel being the kind of artists we’re aspiring to be, creating deeply personal work and putting ourselves out there, is pretty scary and risky to begin with.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ananakaye.com; www.duendevision.com
• Instagram: anana kaye

Image Credits
Mary Ellen

Matthews jeff

Fasano Dimitri

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