Trashy Annie came crashing onto the Austin music scene in 2021, led by 2023 CMA of Texas Americana Artist of the Year and trumpet player turned rock star Annie Davis. Annie, at 44 years old, decided to pick up her first guitar and write her first song during the pandemic. She fell in love with songwriting and jumped in headfirst. 4 years later she is touring the country and leaving a path of glitter in her wake. She named the band Trashy Annie after people on social media criticized her for wearing clothes that were โtoo youngโ for her. Annie quickly raised a big glittery middle finger to the haters, built herself a badass rock band, and hit the road, to the delight of their rapidly growing fan base. Check out the exclusive interview below:
1. Your roots can often shape your journey. Can you share a story or moment from your early life that had a significant impact on your path into music?
Trashy Annie: I grew up on welfare and food stamps, so when I had the opportunity to learn an instrument alongside all of my classmates in the 5th grade, I was ecstatic but I know I could never afford to rent an instrument. My elementary school had one instrument left to loan me, an old beat up trumpet. I cherished that thing like a prized possession. But I couldnโt afford music lessons, so I sat through an entire year of band practice pretending to playโฆholding the horn up to my lips and pushing keys down without making a single sound. The summer after 5th grade, I went to visit my grandfather in Texas. He had been a bugle player in the Air Force, and taught me how to play The Stars at Night over the course of a week and I was obsessed.
When I got back to Portland I taught myself to play and I took that horn everywhere with me like Pete Maravich and his basketball. I fell head over heels in love with music and eventually put myself through college on trumpet scholarship.
2. Did your musical journey begin with formal training, or was it more of a personal exploration? How has that shaped your unique approach to your craft?
Trashy Annie: I have always loved to learn and to teach myself things, and music has been no different. After a nearly 20 year hiatus from music to go out into the world, get a doctorate and start a company, I bought myself a drum kit (the instrument I had always longed to play as a kid) for Christmas in 2019. I taught myself to play in hopes of joining a rock band at some point. COVID-19 ground my dream to a halt. When the world shut down, I decided to buy a guitar and learn to write music. It was a fast and furious slide back into the world I always knew I was meant to inhabit. I was terrified of singing in front of people and had never even attempted karaoke. But my newfound love for songwriting helped me overcome my fear. I knew I wanted to learn how to deliver my own messages through music, as opposed to writing for other people. I have learned to love the stage, partially because of the connection to my fans and my band that canโt be replicated anywhere else, but also because every live show reminds me that I was strong enough to overcome a paralysing fear and turn it into a strength.
3. Who were some of the most influential figures in your early musical life, and how did they inspire your sound? Also, whatโs the story behind choosing the name โTrashy Annieโ?
Trashy Annie: I have been inspired by such a wide variety of artists that I always find this question hard. I love everything from NWA to Simon and Garfunkel, and in some way all these different types of artists have influenced me well before I ever picked up a guitar.
The name Trashy Annie came to be after I released my very first song under my name, Annie Davis, at 44 years old. It was a terrifying thing to put my art out into the world for the first time, especially in my mid 40s, but I knew that I would never be able to conquer my fears without allowing my most vulnerable side to show. I wrote my first tune, Runninโ, all with one chord because that was all I could play at the time. I took lessons on production, learned how to use Logic Pro, and co-produced the song with my awesome friends at Austin Music School. I was so proud of it that I made a little DIY music video for YouTube, just to teach myself another necessary skill. After all of the learning and fear and vulnerability put into that first song, I was heartbroken when the very first comment criticized me for my clothes being โtoo youngโ for me. After about 15 minutes of massive self doubt, nearly taking the video down and the song off of Spotify, I completely turned a corner in my mind and decided that I would never let anyone tell me how to dress, no matter my age, size, or anything else. I decided to lean in and thumb my nose at the haters. The name Trashy Annie was born and I have never looked back. My first album is titled Sticks and Stones. The back album art is entirely made up of screenshots of the mean things people said to me on social media (with their handles ;) and the front album art is a big, glittery middle finger.
4. What do you believe sets your music apart? How would you describe your sound to someone discovering you for the first time, and what emotions or experiences do you hope to evoke in your listeners?
Trashy Annie: I missed rock and roll. The new world of music is full of digital drum loops, autotune, AI generated lyrics, and beat makers who sell out shows with nothing but a laptop on stage. To me, this feels SO far away from the seedy underground rock clubs we used to go to before the internet. We would line up for shows and chat with our friends in frenzied excitement, hoping our fake IDs would get us in. We would crowd-surf drenched in sweat, sing at the top of our lungs, and be blown away by guitar players who learned how to shred BEFORE Guitar Hero was ever a thing. Nowadays people are on their phones half the time, or worseโฆwatching the entire show through the camera lens. I try to make music that makes people FEEL something. Happiness, anger, fear, love, nostalgia, I donโt careโฆjust SOMETHING.ย And most importantly, I want them THERE, present, and fully in the moment. I like to think we create an environment that allows for shutting the stress of the world out for an hour or two and just enjoying a shared experience.
5. For most artists, originality is first preceded by a phase of learning and, often, emulating others. What was this like for you? How would you describe your own development as an artist and music maker, and the transition towards your own style, which is known as ROCK?
Trashy Annie: When I bought my first guitar, I taught myself a couple of chords. I apologize in advance to the country fans, but that tends to be the type of music easiest to write when you only know three chords. Donโt get me wrong, a good songwriter can write a HELL of a song with a chord or two. I began by writing sad songs. I had lost my dad to cancer, and COVID was in full swing.ย I was isolated and had been forced to lay off 90% of my companyโs employees. I struggled with a lot of head garbage and music became my outlet. But I always knew I wanted to play rock and roll. It wasnโt until I was able to build a band as the world was opening back up that my writing started to change. I still get saddled with the โcountryโ label from time to time. Partially because my songs are story-driven, partially because I was born in Texas and have a little bit of a twang to my singing, and partially because I DO write the occasional country tune. Iโm a big fan of most genres and I like to keep my fans engaged. If they hear a hard core metal tune, followed by a rap song, followed by a country song, they tend to keep coming back because they want to see what the hell we are gonna do next. Itโs fun for our fans and itโs fun for us.
6. Music often transcends entertainment. Whatโs your view on the role and function of music as political, cultural, spiritual, and/or social vehicles โ and do you try to affront any of these themes in your work, or are you purely interested in music as an expression of technical artistry, personal narrative, and entertainment?
Trashy Annie: I write a lot about hookers, coke, dildos and one night stands. Iโm confident that no one should be leaning on my lyrics for political or spiritual guidance.ย
I write from the heart and I am not afraid of ANY subject, but I tend to write about things that can be taboo subjects for women to talk about. My most recent release, Some Strange, was co-written with Thommy Price who spent the last few decades playing the drums for Joan Jett. I took the lyrics in a direction you donโt often hear. Iโll let you check it out for yourselves, but the gist is that itโs about getting a little on the side and the challenges of navigating the seven year itch.
7. Do you feel the rewards of your musical career match the energy and passion you invest in it, or are there different kinds of fulfillment youโre still seeking?
Trashy Annie: I wish that music, and art in general, were more valued in the world financially. It is a struggle to tour and to produce music of a high caliber because there is an unending supply of competition. When people will play for free just to get on a stage, it quickly becomes a race to the bottom. The DIY generation we are in musically has been a double-edged sword. Everyone can make music and put it out in the world, which is awesome. But the challenge is that EVERYONE can make music and put it out in the world, which creates a LOT of noise to cut through in order to find your audience. Dave Grohl has always said that talent finds a way, which I truly believe. I treat music like a business. Itโs a fun business, but it is also one of the least lucrative and hardest industries in the world to succeed in. The biggest rewards for me at this point in my musical career come in the form of things like packed venues,
fans we have made an impact on, randomly seeing someone on the street wearing a Trashy Annie shirt, and my favorite reward of allโฆ comments from fans like this one, which I got early on in my journey and have never forgotten: โYour music makes me feel less alone.โ
8. Can you walk us through your creative process? From the first spark of an idea to the finished track, whatโs the most essential part of your process, and how do collaboration or external influences shape your work?
Trashy Annie: I am a bit of an oddball in my process. I donโt always know how or why ideas pop into my head, but the common thread I have heard from other artists that I wholeheartedly agree with is that once we get an idea, we become absolutely obsessed with it until we get it down on paper. I like to keep my phone upside down in the mornings and not look at any type of screen until I have had a couple hours to sit and think and write. My best songs have come to life in these quiet pre-dawn hours between being asleep and awake, so I covet that time. Writing Some Strange with Thommy Price was my first collaboration and I loved it!
Iโd never use lyric sheets or an iPad on stage; I memorize my songs in their entirety. What I recently realized is that I always struggle with remembering lyrics to my newest song until I have written another new song. It feels like moving one song onto the hard drive of my brain to free up the RAM needed for a new one. Itโs the weirdest thing but now that I understand that is how it works I am even more committed to constant writing of new material.
9. Whatโs been the most challenging hurdle in either your personal life or music career, and how has it shaped you as an artist?
Trashy Annie: Starting a rock band, learning to perform and write music, and touring the country in a van at almost 50 years old is not for the faint of heart! I love time on the road, time with my band, and every show we play. However, I am still a CEO, I still run every day, and have a family. It is hard to find the time to give to everyone that needs me, and that can be stressful. No matter what I am doing I am ALWAYS thinking about music, whether it be tour logistics, or a new song, or content creation, or band management or some other issue. Music is like a toddler that always needs attention. You just cannot leave it to its own devices without constant management or it will wander off and then stick a marble up its nose (I know this from experience).
10. On the flip side, what moment or achievement in your career so far has made you feel the proudest, and why? And letโs talk about your latest release and future plans.
Trashy Annie: One of my proudest moments was standing on a stage in Lubbock Texas in 2023 receiving the Americana Artist of the Year Award from the CMA of Texas. It was surreal and one of the coolest things that has ever happened to me.
True story: we got kicked out of the venue for playing what I thought was our best song at the awards ceremony. It turns out that old school country folk apparently did NOT appreciate the lyricsย โmotherfuckinโ tip jarโ as a lyrical hook the way we rock and roll cats do. That was the moment I knew I probably needed to buy an electric guitar and some leather pants.
11. With social media having a heavy impact on our lives and the music business in general, how do you handle criticism, haters, and/or naysayers in general? Is it something you pay attention to, or simply ignore?
Trashy Annie: In my opinion, if you donโt have haters and criticism you donโt belong in professional music, and DEFINITELY not in rock and roll. This is a grungy, dirty, envelope pushing genre that never plays it safe, and that is exactly why I love it. The haters donโt bother me at all (anymore).
Trashy Annie was forged by the hate and judgement of social media and it has shaped me for the better and given me thick skin. I hope to be a beacon of light for those who feel they are too old to chase a dream, or for those who are worried about what people will say. Who freakinโ cares?! We have this one short little life, grab that tutu and rock it!
And I fully subscribe to Joe Roganโs rule: NEVER READ THE COMMENTS
12. Creative work in a studio or home environment, or interaction with a live audience? Which of these two options excites you most, and why?
Trashy Annie: I love being in the studio, but nowhere near as much as being on stage. For me, being in the studio is a means to creating an amazing show. The studio is a way to refine the songs and the live show. Sitting around in sweatpants talking about whether you want a power chord or a 7 chord until 2 in the morning, collaborating with talented musicians and producers who are also often close friends and bandmates, and working (and reworking) songs you may have already done 100 times live just to get them even better, has its own magic for sure.
Being on a great stage with a crowd singing your songs, surrounded by some of your closest friends, driving through the night to make sound check the next day, and eating fried chicken from a gas station at 2 AM as the big reward for a great show?
I donโt think you can find that in any other industry and there is nothing like it.
13. Do you think it is important for fans of your music to understand the real story and message driving each of your songs, or do you think everyone should be free to interpret your songs in their own personal way?
Trashy Annie: I rarely ever explain my lyrics. I have my reasons for writing what I do, but I want the listener to interpret things in whatever way it speaks to them, because THAT is what is truly powerful about art. I would never want an artist to have to explain their painting to me, and lyrics are no different in my opinion. Funny storyโฆ I wrote a song called Sugar for this upcoming album and there is a line in there about โgetting fatter every dayโ and my husband decided it was definitely about him (it wasnโt) and ended up losing 50 lbs over the next year and getting super healthy again all because of how he interpreted a song that actually had nothing to do with him. I love music for this reason, the song means whatever it means to YOU.
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