An Interview with Argentine Indie Artist Ana Schon

All photos courtesy of Will Ingman (@claritycontrolphoto)

This interview has been edited for clarity & conciseness. 

Ana Schon, an indie recording artist based in Boston and Buenos Aires, Argentina, blends influences from Latin American music and jazz with US/UK alt-rock. She’s been creating music her whole life and works both as a solo artist and part of the duo, Borneo. Schon’s solo work combines all the best elements of the two genres that most influence her style with stand-out writing and vocals. She started releasing music with Borneo in 2019 and put out her first solo song in 2020. I had the opportunity to sit down with Ana over coffee to talk about her music and upcoming projects. 

Lucy Spangler: You're originally from Argentina. How did growing up there influence your music?

Ana Schon: A lot. I grew up in a household that had musicians – My dad is a producer and an engineer, and that has really shaped the way I look at music because I always saw it from the side of the people who make it, and it was a very musically bilingual household. We listened to a lot of music from Argentina, but also a lot of music from the US and the UK. My mom was a huge David Bowie fan growing up, and I think, rhythmically, Argentinian and Latin American music are super varied and super specific. I think the way it's written has really influenced my songwriting process more than anything else. I'm part of a duo called Borneo that is based in Argentina. We mostly write from the perspective of Argentinian and Latin American folk, which is really interesting in contrast with the more rock-based stuff. 

LS: What is it like to write in those two different styles? 

Schon: I don't think about it that much. I think the songs, themselves, can really lend themselves to whatever you want to do with them, and I do write rock in Spanish. There's stuff coming out that's a little more rock-based, in Spanish and Spanglish – which I'm really excited about because I haven't done that much [with these elements] before. 

LS: How did you first get into making music? Did it come naturally, having grown up around producers?

Schon: It did – singing came really naturally. It was just one of those things that I didn't even think about. I just started doing it. There are videos of me singing full songs at like, two [years old]. I don't know what I was doing… I did plagiarize when I was a kid. When I was four, I was in the car with my dad and I started singing this little jingle, and he was like, “that's really good, you wrote that?” I said yes. And I didn't. It was a commercial, and I just stole it. So, I guess that's how it started.

LS: You have such a large body of work between your two projects. What is the difference for you between doing solo work versus working as a duo?

Schon: I think working in a duo is a lot more self-contained because we don't really have other people involved. But also, it takes a lot longer to get stuff out, especially now that we're in different countries because we have to send stuff back and forth and coordinate a lot more than just sitting in my room and writing and producing a song. At the same time, the stuff that I do solo usually involves a lot more people because there are more instruments and more [components] going on. I tend to work with producers and instrumentalists more. I got together with my friend Donovan the other day—he's part of my band—to ask him, “Hey, can you help me figure out a part for this new song that I'm working on?” Which is something I wouldn't really do if it's part of a project that I already have with other people.

LS: That's so interesting, I would assume that solo work would be more self-contained and less collaborative. Would you say there are pros and cons to both processes? 

Schon: Absolutely. I feel like when you're writing with somebody else, the songs usually get better faster because you're critiquing each other. You're like, “Maybe let's try this instead?” You can play off each other. You can play off each other's strengths and weaknesses. And when you're on your own, you have to go back and edit a lot more. 

LS: What is the songwriting process like generally for you—especially with your newest song “Medicine,” which has a pretty clear story arc—how do you tap into that? What is the process like from beginning to end?

Schon: I started writing “Medicine” from the breakdown bridge section. It was part of an idea I had to do a longer thing with more songs involved, which I never ended up doing. I think the song was just better stand-alone. I had the idea of, you know, the moment of realizing that everything is actually wrong. Then, I was just in the shower and started coming up with the phrases. It's something about the hot water, the loneliness, the echoes, you know? But with a lot of songs, it's usually just a melodic phrase or a lyrical phrase that has a melody or rhythm attached to it. Sometimes it comes from a riff. One of the songs on the album started entirely with a riff and then [I added] writing over that, which was fun. But, it really varies – a lot of the time, it’s just [beginning with] one idea and seeing where that idea can go.

LS: I was hoping to hear about the debut album. What are some things that we can expect and look forward to? You said you're branching out into Spanish rock and incorporating Spanglish, is there anything else? What was it like working on a full-length album, as opposed to writing singles?

Schon: First of all, yes, it was very different. I’ve wanted to do an album since I started making music. I think singles are really good in the economy that we're in right now – the musical economy we're in. But, there's something about a full-length project where the songs are [specifically] chosen. There's an idea behind them, even if it's not a concept album, even if it's not a story; that's really special. So, I wanted to do it for a really long time. I had an idea for the songs that I wanted to have on an album, it just completely changed as I wrote stuff that I thought was better. In terms of what you can expect, there's more English than Spanish, which is not necessarily what I was going for – it just kind of lined up that way. There's stuff that's a little more electronic, which I'm excited about. There are a couple ballads, and then a couple of the songs that I've been playing live that I think the people who know me already know. I think it's an interesting overlap between stuff that you might already know and stuff that's new.

LS: What, specifically, about releasing your own music excites you? It is very personal, kind of an extension of yourself. Is that nerve-racking or would you say it's more exciting?

Schon: Definitely, a lot of stuff I’ve released so far isn't super vulnerable. I think a lot of the newer stuff is, which makes me kind of nervous, and is interesting because I don't think of myself as a very public person. But, at the same time, I think that connection you find with someone who's listening to your music and who is really understanding what you're doing is priceless…there's nothing like that.

LS: Would you say that a goal or a hope you have is that people will listen to your music and have that depth of experience?

Schon: Yeah, I feel like finding people who have a really deep connection or really intense emotional connection with the stuff I'm making [is so much more valuable], than just being able to sell a ton of tickets or be famous on TikTok. Even though I do want to be able to live off this. A balance of the two would be great to figure out. Not giving yourself away completely – I think that's a really big thing for me too. You never know what's true and what is a complete fabrication, and I think releasing “Lying To U” in 2021 kind of set the tone for that.

LS: How did you meet your band?

Schon: My band, up until now, has been entirely Berklee students. My drummer Matias is my roommate. He is lovely. He's so funny. Such a guy. We went to the same music school back home and then [he] transferred here. We just knew each other and lived together – he knew I was an artist, and he was a drummer. When I started playing shows, there was no competition: it was going to be him. The rest of the band members have really switched around a lot. I tend to play with friends, but I really value people's independence and the ability to do what works for them and let go of what doesn't. So, people have come and gone, which is kind of why I call it “the reunion” because the idea is that people can come and go and still be a part of the same thing. It was also one of those things where it's the same word in Spanish and English, and they mean similar things. So, if I wanted to play shows in Argentina with my solo stuff, I could.

LS: Do you think that getting to jam onstage with your friends is an element of what makes live shows so fun for you?

Schon: Yes, definitely. It just feels like being friends, but more. I think I really feed off the crowd's energy [during] a show. We played at Wonderland, I think that's the one you saw. There were a lot of people who had never seen us before. There was this one kid at the very front who, every time we did a hit or an arrangement, would freak out. I made eye contact with him a lot because I noticed he was doing that and it was so entertaining to me. He passed the energy, so being the person who's causing that is very fun. Also, [specifically with “Medicine,”] people have started learning the lyrics to the outro. At first, it was just my close close friends – before it came out. Now, there's some more people who know the lyrics, and hearing everybody scream “the world is going to end” at the very end of the song is… there's nothing like that. 

LS: You have visuals for “Medicine.” Was this the first time you dabbled in that element of releasing music? 

Schon: I’ve always done visual and audio-visual stuff. I used to draw when I was younger, and I haven't had the resources to do it here. Visuals and video and stuff like that have always been my other big passion. I always knew I wanted the visual materials for “Medicine" to come from live stuff because I think that's where the song really shines. So, short answer: no. It was the first time editing together a bunch of material from different places.

LS: Any final thoughts for us?

Schon: Listen to the album, there's more music before the album comes out that I hope you hear! Also, shout out to the band. The people who are in it now [are] Matias Moar, Donovan Milner, Tristan Harrison, and Juan Riera. They are so lovely and so talented and so amazing.