Anna Berlin

While many seniors are worrying about college acceptances and midterm reports, senior Anna Berlin has been enjoying the recent success of her CD, Anna Berlin: A Demo. A guitarist since the end of her eighth grade year, Anna made her first foray into the world of songwriting with the aptly named First Song, three years ago. “It basically just sounded like a copy of Kimya Dawson,” says Anna. “But it was a good try.” Even still, when asked who her influences are, Anna refutes the idea that she is easily swayed by the stylings of other artists. “There are people that I think are really awesome,” says Anna. “But I don’t necessarily want to sound like them. Like Johnny Cash. I think if I sang about being in prison I would sound pretty stupid.” Anna decided to start performing her songs at venues such as Serendipity Café. “I think I just didn’t know what else to do with them,” she says. “I think part of the reason why I started writing them is because I wanted to share them and that means playing them in front of people.”
Anna’s jovial ten-minute sample CD features five original songs that she has been working on for years. “People tell me my songs are kind of dark, but at the same time not too dark,” says Anna. “There’s value to them and they say something. I like when people say that.” Anna also uses her own artwork to decorate the CD casings and the CDs themselves. To get publicity for her album, Anna has employed a modern marketing strategy that wasn’t available to Johnny Cash; a Facebook photo album. “A lot of people didn’t know I had a CD,” says Anna. “I didn’t really know how else to get the word out.” The album features various MHS students posing with Anna’s CD, and a quote from each participant. “It helped a lot. It gets people to talk about it. They hear about it and they want it too, or they want to be in the album and they end up listening to my CD.” Anna only charges the amount it costs her to make the album ($1), and since the Facebook album, sales have purportedly been vast.
Anna hopes to continue her music career through college and beyond. “Hopefully in college there will be more places to play and reach out,” she says. “It’s been a really good outlet especially since I’m not really verbal when I’m bothered by something so hopefully it will continue to act as that.” - Montclair High School