Annie Of The Canyon

Words by Willow Shields Photographs by Ryanne Mena

I had been meaning to chat to Annie Frampton aka Annie of The Canyon for weeks and weeks. When it finally happened, it was at six in the evening for me and eleven in the morning for her. I sat at my kitchen table, the dark winter night looming behind me through the back door. But when I logged onto the zoom call I was met by the personification of a ray of sunshine. 

Annie and I chatted for a little before I started asking real questions. The snippet of her home I was allowed to see through the screen made me insanely jealous. Beautiful photographs lined the walls and one of those huge, presumably vintage silver curved lamps stood in the background. I began by asking her about growing up, “I grew up in San Diego, California. Which was fine, San Diego’s beautiful but I think I always wanted to live in Los Angeles, I always felt a bit of a calling here. And as far as music goes; growing up, my mum always played really cool music for me. Elton John, Bonnie Raitt, Earth, Wind and Fire, Carole King. I think I knew every lyric to Carole King’s Tapestry album before I was five years old. When I think of my childhood I think about those albums, those artists. I got into songwriting when I was a teenager because I was emotional and liked that as an outlet.” I then dug further into her connection to Los Angeles, “I moved to LA right after I graduated high school. I used to always joke that I wanted a moving truck in the parking lot of my high school graduation, I was so ready to go. I actually moved up here with my mum because she was ready to move up here as well, so I was also going to college in New York so it was kind of an odd move. I moved up to LA for basically the summer then moved to New York to go to school, and then when I’d come home from school I’d be coming home to LA. I was lucky enough to come up to LA a lot growing up, my parents lived here until I was born basically. But I did feel such a kindred spirit here, something connected me to LA so I was so excited to be here, finally.” 

As she talked I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face, have you ever met one of those people - even for the briefest time - and you feel instantly connected to them, as if you’ve known them for your whole life. I felt a spark of that with Annie. Perhaps she is just one of those people who give everyone their whole selves, the kind of person I wish I could be. That got me thinking about the reputation that LA has, filled to the brim with celebrities and people who will stab you in the back to get what they want. I asked Annie if she had come across that, and how she deals with it. She told me, “I haven’t really experienced that to be honest, I find LA to be really inspiring. For the most part, everybody here is creative and pursuing a dream of theirs. And I think that’s really the case, I feel like everyone you meet is doing something cool and inspiring. I guess I just haven’t really experienced people being that cold or mean, that I think there maybe is a reputation of. I find quite the opposite. I think in LA, people are really willing to help you as well, maybe I’m lucky! But I really haven’t experienced the egos or anything. When I was living in New York, people were a little more cut throat and you really had to work for what you wanted. In LA, you still have to work for what you want but I feel like there’s a support system here and people are willing to help and introduce you to people and it just seems like a supportive environment, for me!” 

Getting back to music, and specifically her musical journey. I asked her how she has evolved in her songwriting, as an artist. “It’s interesting because I started writing songs when I was a teenager, really with the hope of being a songwriter. Just behind-the- scenes, strictly a songwriter for other artists. That was always my goal or dream in life, and then I got a little bit distracted with working in the music industry and I worked in music management, in publishing, and all over the place. I kept going back to songwriting though, like ‘this is my dream, this is what I really want to be doing’. And then as I got a little bit older and I couldn’t quite break free from the music industry I guess, it kinda dawned on me how much I really needed songwriting in my life but I wasn’t quite sure how to navigate it at that point in my life. Releasing music as an artist was the craziest idea in the world to me, for years and years I never ever thought that I would ever do that and so that was the leap that I felt like I needed to take to take myself serious as a songwriter and to really honour my dream, was to put that music out there as myself and see what happened. Even if nothing happened, it felt like the necessary next step to take it all seriously and stop putting on the back burner.” 

Wanting to know more about her relationship to her music, I asked her which one of her songs, that she’s ever written, is her favourite. “Probably the first song that I released as Annie of The Canyon, which is Santa Barbara. It was one of those songs that I almost feel like I didn’t write it. It just came all of a sudden through me. I was actually on my way to work and I kinda got the idea for it in my head, then a couple of little lyrics started coming through. I grabbed my guitar and I just started writing it and it just flowed out of me. And I was definitely late for work that day and that’s fine, because I felt such a connection to this song and I was so excited. Even the recording of it, I wanted it to be like the way I wrote it so it’s just guitar and not a great recording but it was the truest form of this song that I could put out into the world. So that was the first one that I released and very exciting for me. But that song, I almost feel disassociated from it because it doesn’t even feel like I wrote it. But I did! It felt meant to be, otherworldly almost.” It dawned on me at this point of the interview how magical Annie really is, as a person, as an artist. In less than half an hour talking to her, I became her absolute biggest fan. 

I then asked her to define her personal style, she giggled and began, “I would say the late sixties, early seventies all across the board. So whether that’s the Laurel Canyon, kind of what I’m wearing today. Or the more rockstar-y velvet or even a little bit of punk sometimes. Which is a little more late seventies. But I feel like my vibe is just a late sixties, early seventies girl.” Feeding from that question, I wanted to know how her fashion and her music interact with each other, “I think they really go hand in hand, it’s really true to who I am. And it’s what I just gravitate towards, for everything. My home decor, the music I listen to, it very much goes hand in hand. But I think with my style, the most. I think that’s always been something I liked from a young age, that was important to me and where I found a lot of joy. I think it just makes sense. I like to think of my music of having that kinda Laurel Canyon singer/ songwriter flare but with a little bit of that outlaw country or cosmic country vibe. That I also think is represented in what I wear.” 

Sensing we were now in the silly portion of the interview, I asked Annie a question I’ve been asking a lot throughout this issue. And she took a different route than most others with her answer, “If I were a sea creature, I would probably be a starfish. Because they’re cool, a cool shape, a cool style. But they’re just chilling, they’re relaxing, just a part of the environment! I’m not saying I’m cool, I’m just saying I’d want to be a cool starfish!” Annie and I continually giggled our way through the questions and answers, I asked if she collects anything and if she would call herself a collector, “Accidentally for sure, probably band tees! I’ve always said, if I had just so much money that’s what I’d spend my money on; authentic vintage band tees! I love them so much! I have quite the collection. I was doing laundry the other day and just every t-shirt I folded was another band tee, it was like five Rolling Stones tees in a row, which was a bit much.” Then, speaking on where she would go if she were to travel anywhere in the world right now, she would go “right back” to Paris. “I was sad to leave, I loved it so much. It was my first time there and it was so inspiring and lovely and cool and everyone I encountered could not have been nicer! I was kind of shocked, because they have a reputation there I think of being a little rude. And that was the opposite of what I encountered! Everybody was so warm and lovely, I do not speak French well and they were very sweet about it. It was just amazing, I loved it so much! So, I’d go right back to Paris!” 

I had some sense about Annie’s listening habits, but I wanted to delve deeper. “Do you have a top 5 of artists who you’ll love forever?” She answered, “Number one is Gram Parsons, not everybody knows who he is, he died really young. He was very instrumental in that cross of early seventies singer/ songwriter and cosmic country vibe that I was talking about. So I love him so much, huge inspiration for me. Then Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones are tied for me, ish. Oh no, I love so many! I love The Eagles. I love Lana Del Rey so much, I think her songwriting is just amazing. I saw her the other day actually! I didn’t say anything to her, it was at a flea market and I saw her and she was so sweet! Everybody that came up to her, she was so thoughtful with them and so smiley and so sweet, and I just love her, so much! Last one, probably Stevie Nicks. Oh, no! Stevie Nicks is tied with Sheryl Crowe, for me. There’s one album by Stevie Nicks, that’s a solo album that is the most underrated album in the entire world. That one changed my life, it’s called Trouble In Shangri-La. so that’s my top five-ish!” Trying to get a sense for Annie’s character outside of music, I asked her what a typical night out for her would look like, “I’d be my husband and my mum probably! Those are my favourite people to hang out with. There’s a hotel called the Sunset Marquee, and it’s so cool. It has a lot of music history there which is really cool. They have a photo gallery of all this cool rock and roll photography and there’s this tiny little bar, there’s this piano player that plays there one night a week and it’s a massive sing-a-long, it’s so fun! Before that, I might go to my favourite restaurant called Pace (pauch-ey) and it’s in Laurel Canyon, it’s so cosy and cool, and intimate. They have the best food ever too. So it’s pretty boring but I’d probably just go to dinner there and then go and sing a bunch of songs and the Sunset Marquis little tiny bar! Then come home and suffer with my cat and eat McDonald’s.” Finally I asked Annie if she had a colour palette for her life, what would those colours be? “It changes, a lot. Overall though I’d say, yellow, orange, brown and some pink but I’m not quite sure the shade of that pink. At this moment, that’s the vibe.”