Meet Anna Macan

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Anna Macan. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Anna, so excited to talk about all sorts of important topics with you today. The first one we want to jump into is about being the only one in the room – for some that’s being the only person of color or the only non-native English speaker or the only non-MBA, etc Can you talk to us about how you have managed to be successful even when you were the only one in the room that looked like you?

Being a Filipina-American guitarist, I’ve often found myself in rooms where I’m either the only girl or only person of color or both. When I was a kid, I definitely felt self-conscious about it and felt like I had to prove myself all the time.
A few years ago I attended a multi-day guitar retreat because one of my favorite guitarists at the time was doing a workshop. Out of 50+ attendees, she and I were the only women there.

I think about that a lot and how if she wasn’t there, there would be no women at all during that event. It was a major turning point in my life and has definitely changed the way I operate – I can be the only person that looks like me in the room, but now I want to start holding the door open for anyone else who looks like me to come in – and that comes with putting myself out there and creating and collaborating more. I think that whole mindset has definitely pushed me to become successful in my music journey.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I am primarily a guitarist, but also compose songs! I’m a member of the bands Pinay Voltron and Ripplings and have played guitar for many Bay Area and international artists, including Ruby Ibarra, Acari, Kimmortal, Kamiko, Queen Zel, Phil Q, JintheQueen, KAT, and many more.

Currently working on writing and releasing an EP with my band Pinay Voltron as part of our Balay Kreative grant award. Additionally, I am working on releasing a few singles with my other band Ripplings, which is an instrumental math rock band that blends my tappy finger style guitar techniques with unique melodic bass lines and polyrhythms.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Courage – being brave enough to try new things and go to new places has given me so many opportunities. Sometimes you gotta say yes to random people on the Internet and drive 300+ miles to do a gig with them (spoiler alert: they will become your lifelong friends)

Open-mindedness: I’ve learned a lot from being open to playing with many people and many different genres. My solo stuff and the way I compose music is very very different from some of the music that I perform with other artists, but I’ve learned so much by playing so many various types of music and have gotten to be a much better musician because of it.

Collaboration – meet other artists, collaborate with them, repeat. You’ll create community along the way, and that has been one of the most important and special things I’ve found in my music journey.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

I enjoyed reading The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. Doing the exercises was really fun and engaging for my creativity. She also said something along the lines of “Our internal artist is always our creative child” and I try to put that into practice whenever I’m composing a song. I’ve actually composed a song based on this quote, with the mindset of my inner child playing with the tools I’ve gathered through the years.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @annamacan
• Other: Spotify for my band Ripplings:
  https://open.spotify.com/artist/3eCZNPPFKKQg3wppLS0KYP?si=jpPuMyGLSRePGQHnbo4RIA

Image Credits

Brian Dublin
Leopoldo Macaya
Gianpaulo Pabros
Franz Barreto