Brazilian new-age composer, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Anaya won the Best Film Score at the Indie Cinema Awards 2022. We talked to Anaya and discussed the healing power of her music, her influences and her career.
How does your music and videos help people to feel better?
“My music can make people go to their hearts and from there the love starts coming. It provides a deep contact with themselves while listening wherever they are.
When my husband passed away I first felt as though I had vanished. I went to listen my own music and then started creating a song completely dedicated to him. I was creating and crying at same time.
Music has one of the highest vibrations and here’s why: When you play an instrument, say, strumming a guitar, it makes objects vibrate. You have notes and they vary in frequency. The note itself doesn’t change, but the sound (pitch) will be different, based on the type of instrument used; for instance, the same note will sound one way on a violin, but another way on a flute. The number of Frequencies are also very important. They can have a special impact on the listener. That’s why I use very often the 432Hz frequency in my keyboards. It is a healing frequency.
As a result, you vibrate, feel happy and heal. The power of music has always been recognized by the science community, starting with Einstein who often talked about the often close relationship between math, science and music. He said he sees his life in terms of music, and when a scientist says that, maybe we need to pay a little more attention. These days, more and more surgeons are using music to reduce anxiety and fear among their patients, and Anaya’s music is used by The American Health System hospitals.
Tell us about how your love of music began and how did your musical career develop.
My musical career started at the age of 7 when I was playing in our high school band. I started composing at the age of 12 Bossa Nova Style popular music. I appeared at festivals and played at friends’ parties and on public TV.
Later I studied music at a conservatory and also with several private teachers. I studied at the “Musimed school for lyrical singing” in Brasília. They still sell 3 song books with my sheet music of my own compositions.
From 1978 to 1998 I stopped composing and I worked as a consultant and lived abroad for many years. Sometimes I performed at friends’ parties and at hotels. I studied a lot at that time, including music. I went to many conferences for 3rd millennium technologies in several countries in Europe and in the USA while working at UNB. I went on behalf of the University of Brasília and I also taught many courses abroad.
I had to retire early for health reasons. And as a way to cure myself I bought a keyboard and that’s where Newage and neoclassical music started. The first musical composition I created was dedicated to God for giving me one more opportunity to be with music. It is a symphony called Tedeum.
Then I started creating one song a week. I registered on various music sites under the name AnayaMusic. These sites disappeared with the advancement of technology except CDbaby and the creator Derek Sivers encouraged me to join. From there on, everything about music was in the US. And I had to change too and adapt. Here in Brazil, the only site that remained standing with the technological changes was The Composer’s Club and I still have songs with them. Almost all other sites are gone.
When I returned to compose, the creator and former owner of one of the largest distribution platforms Derek Sivers found me on the internet around 2001. He asked me for my ISRCs so I could register my songs but I didn’t have those. I asked the association of musicians in Rio which I was affiliated with and they couldn’t provide me with codes and they sent an OS software I couldn’t use. In the meantime CDbaby contacted me and said I could do it online with a user friendly software.
And I did and I am with them to this day. Derek Sivers also wrote a manual on how to act as an independent musician and I followed it to the letter. As a result I was very successful, I joined American academies, signed up on several important websites and was Top 10 in the USA, France and other countries.
In the meantime, my father died, my mother died, my dogs died and so did my husband. And I needed healing. It was shortly after I met Suzanne Doucet, from the New Age movement that my music career took another turn. And I also started to win a lot of awards with my music video versions.
I am also a member of NARAS/ Recording Academy/Grammys, ASCAP (American Composers Association), HMMA (Hollywood Music Media Awards) and LIT-Little Talent Awards.
What is the story behind your “Love” video?
I always wanted to make a tribute to my lovely deceased husband and perhaps write a book about him. But the book was never written and so I had this inspiration of creating a video as a tribute to him. He died some years ago but I feel his love is still here.
My hubby was born blind but got to study medicine with psychiatric specialization. He had a high level of consciousness and I learned a lot from him. I studied also Chinese medicine in a Holistic university and used to give classes in healing Wushu -martial arts and that keeps me fit and healthy.
Which composers and musicians inspire you?
Schubert, Beethoven, Massenet, Vangelis, Steve Halpern, Kitaro, Tom Jobim.
The artists that inspire me are : Havasi,Maksim, Enya, Yanni.
Can you describe your creative process and how you create your music? How many musical instruments do you play?
A feeling comes to me, I do nature walks, images start appearing in my mind, I do meditation, and then the whole creation comes and I start to develop a musical theme and I stay few months on that and the musical variations of the theme. After that images, it starts coming strongly to my mind, the archetypes of the images and the script to the video comes with the images. After the music is ready, I do a draft and then the whole video starts taking life. I have a team work for Sound design, Pedro Tavares and for image design, Marcio Alves , and a creative consultant Suzanne Doucet.
I play keyboards, piano, guitar, flute and sax. I do all arrangements and production.
Can you tell us about how you worked with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra?
We worked online in a virtual mode with a tech platform studio in Los Angeles that linked to Prague Orchestra and to me in Brasil. All was done online. The conductor that worked with me was Steve Salani and he used to translate the language to English for me, it was a great experience.
Thank you for your time Anaya!
More information about Anaya and her music –
