The Upful LIFE Podcast – Ep.081 : The Return of ANNA MOSS [solo project, debut LP, + Handmade Moments]
Link Tree to streaming this episode
Welcome back the lovely and talented singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Ms. ANNA MOSS. One-half of beloved political folk-hop duo Handmade Moments, the NOLA-based chaunteuse has launched an absolutely sensational solo project under her own name, leading a larger band on guitar and vocals, and she released a fantastic debut LP ‘Amnesty’ in March 2024. We checked in w/ Anna at the end of a jam-packed summer for a lengthy, spirited, occasionally raw and vulnerable convo about this dynamite new project, her career evolution, the precarious path to manifest this music, among other associated topics du jour.
Anna Moss was first featured on this program Episode 020 (June 2019), where the focus is almost exclusively Handmade Moments, and her musical/personal journey up through that juncture. Ep.080 picks up where we left off, spotlighting her new chapter: writing solo songs, her killin’ band, crucial collaborators, and more. Then we probe a bit deeper beneath the surface to unpack some heavier matters and perspectives, too.
- 00:00 – Ep. 080 Preview
- 02:30 – HURRICANE HELENE RELIEF – iamavl
- 06:00 – The Upful Update
- 15:30 – Introducing ANNA MOSS
- 20:30 – conversation w/ Anna [80min]
- 1:41:00 – Afterglow x Vibe Junkie JAM
Asheville’s Hurricane Helene Recovery
MUSIC INDUSTRY RELIEF FUND: donate via iamAVL
“With the world outside her window rapidly unraveling into chaotic madness, Anna Moss found herself holed up alone in her New Orleans home during 2020’s unprecedented global pandemic. Frozen in a state of paralyzing panic, crippling anxiety, and isolation, she was armed with only a guitar, and the voices in her head. A working musician her entire adult life, touring gigs and studio sessions had suddenly screeched to a harrowing halt.
Online, friends and fans sparred feverishly, screaming at each other and into the ether, while the realities and insecurities of her precarious situation sent the singer/multi-instrumentalist spiraling into a deep depression.
Manifested from the nadir of her own darkness and demoralization, Moss mined a medicinal muse from within, incessantly writing on guitar and rediscovering her salvation in song. Intimate, delicate, dreamy, messy, a flurry of new tunes began to flow freely, slowly liberating Anna from the suffocating clutches of her own despair. Emerging from the ashes of this traumatic, dehumanizing spell: a phoenix of deeply personal compositions that would eventually comprise Amnesty, Anna Moss’s solo debut LP released in March 2024 via Empire Records.
An intoxicating gumbo of bedroom pop and existential R&B, Amnesty is at once Anna’s potent opening salvo and a righteous rebirth, too. Paeans born of an emotional purge peel back the rawest, realest layers to reveal ruminations on an artist’s humanity. Throughout Amnesty, Moss treads distinctly different topography than with the idiosyncratic Handmade Moments—her long-running political folk-hop duo with partner Joel Ludford. Rich in ethereal harmonies, subtle sensuality, and melodies majestic, her album’s stripped-down, organic-soul sound leans into throbbing basslines and pulses with a buoyant thump.” (c) B.Getz, May 2024
Anna Moss ‘Amnesty’ LP feature via L4LM