Interview: Ana Popovic Blues Power

Interview Ana Popovic Blues Power

By Martine Ehrenclou

Internationally acclaimed contemporary blues guitarist, singer and songwriter Ana Popovic found herself staring down the challenge of her life in the fall of 2020. She was diagnosed with breast cancer, a disease her mother died from only three years before.

In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, Popovic asked herself if she should give up her career, questioning her path forward as one of the most respected guitarists/performers in the world. With the support of her bass player and musical director Buthel, they began writing songs on Zoom. In between her 14 chemotherapy treatments and flying back and forth from Los Angeles to Amsterdam, Ana’s amazing strength and power to overcome emerged. The result is her new album Power, out May 5th on ArtisteXclusive Records.

Popovic and Buthel co-wrote and co-produced Power, which was mixed and mastered by Grammy Award-winning producer Jeremy Bishop Hicks. The songs range from rock and blues to gospel, funk and sultry jazz. Joy and the celebration of life and music permeate each of the tracks.

Originally from Serbia and now based in Manhattan Beach, CA, Ana Popovic was described as “One helluva guitar player” by Bruce Springsteen. She’s appeared on covers of Vintage Guitar and Guitar Player magazines and topped the Billboard charts numerous times. Two of her albums were named “Pick of the Week” by USA Today, and is an eight-time Blues Music Award nominee.

Ana and I talked by phone. I asked her to share her story and how her new album Power reflects her journey.

Ana Popovic
It’s been the roughest two years of my life so far. I had an easy life until 2020, and then literally when it rains, it pours. When the whole world was stuck with the Covid situation, on top of that, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was just coming to terms with my mother passing three years before that.

It was just like a punch, a huge punch. What do we do? Are we moving back to Europe? Maybe I should just retire and do something else. Can I even tour? You don’t know at that time how your life’s going to look. There was a big question mark about everything.

Buthel, my bass player, he was like, “You’re thinking of retiring? You can’t retire. You were born to do this. We should just write. Let’s get on Zoom. Let’s write.” Really, without him, there wouldn’t have been this record, that’s for sure.

Rock & Blues Muse
What a great guy

Ana
Yeah. We took it day by day. At first my news was devastating. We cried and we laughed. We just got on Zoom and started writing. We had conversations about everything. We talked about music and how we’re passionate about what we’re doing. We talked about all the other issues in the world including female empowerment and racism. We just started writing from what we felt. And to me it was not even important to bring out this record. It was more for me. Am I going to release it? Am I going to tour behind it? It was not important at the time. We were writing for ourselves. “Strong Taste” was in the works before that. “Queen of the Pack” was in the works, meaning it had 14 lines.

Rock & Blues Muse
Love that song, by the way.

Ana
With “Queen of the Pack” it was like, I’m a band leader. I like my band to be tight, as tight as possible. We are famous for it. I’ve got bands on two sides of the ocean. I work with people that do their homework at home. I show up, I don’t want to teach you the song. You need to know the song.

One time we were having trouble with some previous band members. There’d been a rough night when we said things. It was unusual for me because usually with my band, it’s a smooth flow.
But with these people, they didn’t do the music right. The next morning I’m in Starbucks. Buthel says, “You know what? Whatever you did last night, that’s right.” He says, “You crack that whip. You’re the queen of the pack.” I was like, “What did you just say?” I wrote it down. It’s really a song about hardships I guess, what women go through leading a band or any other corporation.

Rock & Blues Muse
Especially a group of all men.

Ana
You got to put your boxing gloves on. It became almost like an anthem. My daughter, who will be a business lady and she’s going to surpass me in many, many ways, she’s 10. I can leave my household to her when I leave for the shows. If she would ask me for a tip on how to do it one day, then I would say, “This is the song. This is the message to you. You can do it. You got to toughen your skin and go to it. You’ll be fine.”

Rock & Blues Muse
That’s a powerful message for her.

Ana
To all the girls and the future queens. Yeah, I love that song too. It’s one of my favorites. “Luv’n Touch” is something that happened after that. It’s really sentimental. I mean you have a person and you need that person, you need to be close to somebody in your toughest moments.

Rock & Blues Muse
Your jazz guitar is beautiful on that song. And the horns.

Ana
Thank you. Of, course the Gospel influence is very new. I haven’t done that before in my music. Detroit has been my biggest discovery throughout my 14 chemos. I would fly to Detroit and record, and fly to Dallas and record. But Detroit, all the Gospel influences that come from Buthel and his family. Of course Chris Coleman, he’s one of the best drummers in the world right now and played with everybody, Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, Rachelle Ferrell. He played most of the drums of the record.

It was very touching. I spent a few days over there and met everybody and rehearsed in their basement. It was just a wonderful experience and without anybody really knowing what I was going through except Buthel. That was an easy way to maneuver the situation because we were just focused on the music. We didn’t need distractions, no pity party. We just needed space and time to just work on the songs and think of the arrangements.

Rock & Blues Muse
You have another song “Doing’ This” that says it all about how much you love playing guitar and your music. How did your music help you through the cancer diagnosis?

Ana
Through the years I would hear from my fans, “I have this and that happened in my life or sickness or loss or whatever, and I feel so down. Then I came to your concert and it just gave me so much energy.” So, I was aware what music can do. I’m known for talking to the fans after the show. I’ve done it for 20 years. I know a lot of those stories because I talk to my fans, right?

But this is the first time that I experienced it in my own skin. It was such a difficult situation. Concerts stopped because of Covid. My family lives for music. Then on top of that, the loss, and my diagnosis. Since that conversation with Buthel, I decided to turn all my negative thoughts and all my sleepless nights towards music and towards the new record, my guitar, songs, horn arrangements, towards music video directing. It just preoccupied me.

Rock & Blues Muse
You turned something dark into something so light.

Ana
Yes, absolutely. At that time, it’s like you can go any direction. You can have a pity party record. You can have a nostalgic record. But what I really wanted was, if this was my last record for any reason, what are the songs I’m going to put on there? I absolutely wanted to be positive and happy. That’s what I am deep down. I’m a positive person. I have a wonderful life. I made it possible to have a great family life, next to music-life on the road. I juggle that, I think pretty successfully throughout the years.

I want to spread that message. So, absolutely every dark thought was just turned with the help of music. What is that one passion I have in life? What’s that main thing that makes you smile in the morning and makes you get up out of the bed? For me, that’s my guitar, that’s my music.

Rock & Blues Muse
You’re an inspiration for women. With songs like “Recipe For Romance,” you’re telling women that no matter what they’re enduring, they can still feel good in their own skin and still feel attractive and sexy. When did you decide to start empowering women? Part of this album seems like empowerment to me.

Ana
For sure. It’s been in my life for quite a few years. I come from a line of very strong women. Some of them, of course, they didn’t have jobs. My grandmother didn’t have a job. She was a housewife, but at the same time she was very strong. She had ideas about how her life would’ve been if she had a chance to work.
Then my mom, of course, has been a quiet feminist. She didn’t go around teaching people what to do in Serbia. But if you ask her, she was very much a strong woman with her mindset on feminist issues. So, it’s natural for me to just go in that direction.

But also playing guitar of course, which has been considered in the past, a male instrument, which we are all working on to change. I still want to see it. When I open music magazines and guitar magazines, there are still 99% men. I don’t have anything against my male colleagues. I love my male colleagues, but I want us women to work more on really making it 50/50.

Rock & Blues Muse
I’m with you one hundred percent.

Ana
Not just guitar. I mean everything used to be considered a male instrument. It was very hard to push yourself among your male colleagues. In the past, I had all kinds of experiences with that. There’s been guitar players in Europe that would say, “Well, I would’ve been on her stage if I could wear a skirt.” I’ve heard it all. It wasn’t easy for the universe to accept that the band can be led by a woman. Of course, I had a whole female empowerment record a few records ago, with Keb’ Mo’, Like it on Top.

I am raising a boy and a girl. Of course I want my girl to know that she can do anything she wishes for. I want my boy to know he needs to respect the other sex. But at the same time, I want him to be strong as a man too. So, I am on both sides.

Rock & Blues Muse
What’s it been like for you as a female guitar player? I saw you perform at the Experience Hendrix tour. You were the only female guitar player performing on stage.

Ana
They’ve been very kind and very supportive, all of these guys, absolutely.
It was wonderful to be there. I wish I wasn’t the only female artist at that time, but I was, on multiple tours. But hopefully it’ll change around and they’ll want more women.

But it was a hell of a lineup and incredible guitar players that I admire very much. I mean Buddy Guy and Joe Satriani and Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and Billy Cox. They were all just better than the best. Everybody took it so serious and really gave their A game. I just tried to do the same. I mean, Zakk Wylde was the most followed guitar player on social media, that’s for sure, more than any blues artist, but he approached the gig the same way– very serious with a lot of homage to Jimi and respect to Jimi’s music.

Rock & Blues Muse
Hendrix was a big influence for you. How about others?

Ana
So many. Albert King and Albert Collins and Freddie King and Clapton and Gary Moore. I’m looking back in the day when I started, who were my influences. Elmore James, Robert Johnson, Howlin’ Wolf. I grew up listening to roots, American blues when I was three, four years old. That was just a natural thing in my home. Buddy Guy, Junior Wells– we listened to those records, plus Koko Taylor, Etta James, Ronnie Earl, Stevie Ray Vaughan. It’s really hard to pinpoint one or two. I mean, it’s been a village.

Rock & Blues Muse
How did you branch out from the Blues to jazz, and R&B? I was listening to “Luv’n Touch” and the guitar is so good on it. I really enjoyed the jazz influence.

Ana
That came naturally. Ronnie Earl is probably the first bluesy, jazz guitar player, that I heard very early in the game. Then I went looking for other phrasings of the blues guitar. And then Kevin Eubanks. John Scofield, of course, he had a few blues records that were right on the edge. I just loved it. I love hit music. I really love when I come back home from the tour and my husband and my son, they play me a playlist. They were like, “Mom, where have you been? You haven’t heard this song?”

Rock & Blues Muse
Tell me about the significance of your album title Power. Why did you choose that title?

Ana
We were going back and forth and then Buthel suggested “power.” I thought, that’s exactly what it is to me, this record. It is the fuel, really. It was the fuel for me to get out of the bed and do things. It was giving me power through the weakest days.

I have a family right here in L.A. My treatment was in Amsterdam. Then sometimes I would do the chemo treatment, get on the plane and fly the same evening. It’s like, how can you do that? In between, I’d make a stop in Detroit. What can make you do that? Just music. This music really.

My treatment was hard on my fingers, so they were giving me just the treatment so that my nerves don’t die out completely. That happens.
That was their biggest concern, so I can keep playing. It takes a lot of effort to play guitar.

Throughout this whole thing is, what is the fuel? What’s the power? That’s those songs. Of course, from my passion about the subjects that this world needs to tackle still. I can’t imagine being on the blues circuit and loving blues that started with African American people in the States and then coming across so many people who are just straight out against it. It’s like, how can you be a blues fan? It doesn’t make any sense.

I felt strongly that if this is the last record I’m going to make, I want to create a timeless cover.

Rock & Blues Muse
You designed your own album cover?

Ana
That was all my idea. I cropped it. I sent it to the designer. “This is what I want.” Even without the title, I want people to associate that two hands, black and white, is power. It’s powerful. It’s going to get the world to a better place.

Because there would not have been this record without my friend and musical director Buthel, so needless to say, it’s our project. There was no question in my mind. That was the right way to go.

For more information on Ana Popovic see HERE 

Watch “Strong Taste”