“Full of Life”: Annika Bennett Talks Artistic Freedom, John Mayer, & Her Debut Album ‘Live From Mother Earth’

Annika Bennett sits down with Atwood Magazine to talk about her debut album ‘Live From Mother Earth,’ writing music for yourself, and holding on to the moments that make you feel full.

‘Live From Mother Earth’ – Annika Bennett

I wanted to make a folk album and I’m so glad I did. It feels very honest and real. It doesn’t feel like I’m trying to be anything but myself.

There is something so inspiring about meeting someone who is doing exactly what they are meant to be doing.

Someone who is so skilled at the thing they have chosen to do with their life – because it is the thing that has always been innately in them.

This much is clear with Annika Bennett. You may know her from opening for Sabrina Carpenter, co-writing songs “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl” with Chappell Roan or “Look At That Women” with Role Model amongst many others – but what you should know her for is this album, Live From Mother Earth, out October 18^th, 2024.

Bennett has achieved something special with Live From Mother Earth.  The greatest artists have the ability to stay true to themselves amongst the chaos of the industry and the pressure of rising to success. Bennett has this, which is why this album is so cutting, beautiful, different and real. She pulls back the curtain on the carefully crafted writer revealing the most authentic version of herself to date.

With songs of nostalgia like “Without the End” to the gut punch that is “Girl Who Ruins Everything” to the serenity of “Oregon,” Bennett has built a world of truth with Live From Mother Earth. It holds something for everyone because it is human and real.

Bennett is a songwriter at her core. Her melodic muscle and angelic voice are cherries on top of her lyrically blessed brain. All these pieces coming together are what make her an artist who cannot be replicated. Live From Mother Earth is something special – we implore everyone to listen.

We were lucky enough to sit down with Annika Bennett to talk about her debut album, working with John Mayer, making moments live forever in music.

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:: stream/purchase Live From Mother Earth here ::

:: connect with Annika Bennett here ::

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“Strong Enough” – Annika Bennett

A CONVERSATION WITH ANNIKA BENNETT

Annika Bennett: Hi! Thank you so much. I actually haven’t listened to it for like a month. I’m at a point right now where I’m just like – I hope it’s good!

Annika Bennett: Yeah. My producer and I were both this way where it’s really hard for us to shut off the critical brain when listening. So I don’t want to listen now when they’re done just to be like “Wait – should this be louder.” So, I’m trying not to listen right now and then when it’s out I think I’ll be able to listen.

Annika Bennett: Yeah! I think it will be fun. I feel better about it than I have about anything I’ve put before.

Annika Bennett: I feel like this album, for me, on multiple levels, is me trusting myself. I’ve always made music for myself. I’ve always written songs alone and had this very insular world with myself. But also, the whole time I’ve done music, I’ve co written for other artists. And that’s how I pay my bills, and I love doing that. It’s taken a lot for me to devote the time and energy to make this album for myself.

There are all these things that people in the industry say about needing virality before you drop an album, and for a long time, that held me back. Three years ago, I wrote an entire album that I never put out. I released some of them as demos, but never the actual full album. It was always “too early” for me to release an album. Not to knock any of my past work, but even with “Power, Sex, Dreams” or approaches to other songs I felt like I should be doing something more pop because I do have that muscle – but this album I really took a step back and asked myself what I actually wanted to do based on how I felt and who I am. It became clear that I wanted to make a folk album and I’m so glad I did. It feels very honest and real. It doesn’t feel like I’m trying to be anything but myself.

Annika Bennett: It wasn’t always song one, but it always had that little intro, which was actually me when I was 11 years old.

Annika Bennett: That was me! We have this video of me and my sister when I was 11. We were recording a song I wrote at my friends house and that’s the actual audio of my sister counting me in.

Annika Bennett: Yeah! That wasn’t always the first song though. I messed with the order so many times, and then it just hit me that it had to be the first song. That was me as a kid – it’s also one of the oldest songs on the album. I wrote it in Nashville 6 or so years ago.  It also felt fitting as the first song, because it’s something that I just continue to grapple with, and all of my friends do too. It’s a song that I feel has met me at many stages of my life, and it’s cool because I don’t have that with a lot of my songs. With a relationship song, you eventually end up getting over it. You can still love the song, but it doesn’t hit the same way. This one always hits me the same way – you’re always trying to find a balance of trying to be something and also taking care of yourself.

Annika Bennett: Thank you! I have a high voice – you can tell from even talking, but yeah on this album there were a few points where I was like – let’s just do it.

Annika Bennett: Thank you! I had to fight for that a little bit. I wanted it to feel jarring. You don’t always see the end coming – sometimes it just hits you. I wanted the song to feel like that. I wanted to f* everyone up a little bit.

Annika Bennett: Thank you. This song, and I mean really all of these, were very stream of consciousness writing. I also liked how the writing took me on a journey with this one. Originally, when I wrote it I was very much thinking about this one relationship, which is what the first verse is about. And then in the second verse, I was like, why am I talking about Nashville? Then I was like, no, this is right because I feel this thing with many eras of my life and experiences. There’s something about looking back at things that just lets you realize how amazing they are. And a lot of times it’s really hard for me to see it in the moment.

Annika Bennett: That is so nice thank you. It’s interesting thinking about the writing process – I wrote so many songs for your album, and all the ones that I kept had this very instinctive approach to writing it, where I’m just singing what comes to mind and then using my writer brain to fill in all the gaps. “Dig Myself Out” was one of the ones where I was writing it and as I was writing it I was like, shit, I need a breakup with this person. It was very like me realizing things as I was writing it. There can be loneliness when you’re in love. Sometimes it’s worse than just feeling lonely on your own and that’s something that I’ve definitely felt a couple times – trying to convince myself that something is right, but deep down, I knew it wasn’t.

That song was just me being like, I know deep down, this is not my person. It’s either going to end now or it’s going to end a year from now. And then in terms of song structure – I kind of threw that out the window for this one. When I was like a little kid and I used to write songs it was just like f* all to song structure – you just write what you want. There’s a couple songs on this project where I really let that part of my brain have fun. This is one of the songs where the whole second half of the song doesn’t make that much sense structurally, but like it felt right. So I was like, let’s just do it.

Annika Bennett: I wrote “A Tree Falls” last year. John Mayer is kind of like the songwriting blueprint for me. He has been since I was a teenager. I have said this to him in somehow not a fangirl way, but he made me take songwriting seriously. I connected to his songs in a different way than other music. He has an intentionality about the way he lays out a concept and explores it that connects with everyone. I genuinely really studied his songwriting when I was a teenager, and it shaped so much of how I approach writing. He found “Mad Woman” and reached out on Instagram, and then I asked if I could send him other songs for feedback. I sent him a handful of songs on the album that were demos and he gave production notes on them. Then I sent him “A Tree Falls” when I wrote it. It was just a demo and I really didn’t know what to do with it. He offered to help and I was like uhh yes?! We did a couple days in the studio and he got a bunch of his guys to play on it and it was so fun. He’s such a joyful creator. He gets so genuinely excited by making things that are good. It was just so much fun.

That actually was the first song that I recorded for the album, and it really, really helped guide the rest of it. Spending that time with him and seeing his approach to working really helped inform me of how I wanted to make the rest of the album sound.

Annika Bennett: I still haven’t processed it. It’s crazy because he genuinely had a profound impact on my life and now I can kind of call him a friend? I feel very, very lucky.

Annika Bennett: The first song was “Daughters.”

Annika Bennett: As it should be – honestly. It specifically was a live version of “Daughters” and that specifically is what got me. I remember being in the car with my parents and being like, you guys listen to this!!

Annika Bennett: One reason why I love writing alone is because I think you can write something and not know where it’s going and just be like, hold on, I’m just gonna follow it a little longer and see if it leads me somewhere. That song was another one I wrote super chronologically. I started writing it and was like, why am I singing about coffee? And then that line led to the “I want to be so much more than me.” I was like, the f* is this?! But then I kind of realized what it meant. I want people to interpret the song however it hits for them, but for me, that song is about a relationship that I walked away from, and then having that feeling of hoping I have it in me to stay at some point with someone else. I’m someone that’s always kind of chasing something a little bit, so for me, this song is romanticizing people who really can appreciate what they have, appreciate simplicity and home and comfort and all of that. So with, like, the coffee – I still don’t know how to make a good cup of coffee. It always tastes like dirt.

Annika Bennett: Yeah – at some point I’ll get domestic. I’ll get a French Press.

Annika Bennett: I love that. Thank you.

Annika Bennett: Yeah, definitely. So one of my best friends in my whole life. His name is Taylor (Taylor Mackall) – he actually played piano on a bunch of songs for the record and got the band together. We met when we were teenagers because we both loved John Mayer, full-circle. Taylor’s dad lives in Oregon and he’s like a second dad to me. His name is Steve.

Annika Bennett: Yes – that’s Steve. Last year, I was feeling super burnt out and so I went up to Oregon to stay with Steve. He has this little cabin that’s next to his house in the middle of the mountains in Oregon. I stayed there for a week. I would just write songs in the cabin and then Steve and I would make dinner. It was really nice. I was going through a lot of shit at that time, and we just had some really, really meaningful conversations. I wrote that song on the last night that I was there. There was this feeling I was having that had been growing all week. I wanted to hold onto the feeling. I felt so full of life and removed from everything else. I really appreciate the times where I can feel like that – I wanted to put it into a song so I would always have it.

And I was just like, wait, I need to, like, I want to hold on to this feeling, because I still feel like that’s. Times when I get out of LA, yeah, I sometimes have these really, like fulfilling experiences that have nothing to do with like career or social shit or like romance or anything, just like feeling full of life and, like, friendship, love.

Annika Bennett: Yeah. And the cool thing about Steve – he does voice overs. So he lived in LA for a long time. He did the whole entertainment industry hustle for like, 30 years, and then just moved up to Oregon and is just vibing there and is happy.

Annika Bennett: Yeah. I think there’s a lot of things that we all chase. It’s like – I cognitively know that that’s not what happiness is, but I think I still need to prove it to myself.

Annika Bennett: I’m so excited for it to be out. I’m also working on the deluxe right now, which is fun.

Annika Bennett: Yes! If you find yourself in Europe this fall – come to a show!

Annika Bennett: Of course – thank you!

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:: stream/purchase Live From Mother Earth here ::

:: connect with Annika Bennett here ::

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