Background
Annah Mac was born and raised at a sheep farm in Tokanui, 60 kilometres from Invercargill, New Zealand.
Annah Mac was born and raised at a sheep farm in Tokanui, 60 kilometres from Invercargill, New Zealand.
She began playing and writing music at the age of six. When she was nine years old, she won her first of three Gore Golden Guitar Awards. While attending St. Hilda's Collegiate School, she won the national schools' Play It Strange competition for performing a song she wrote, "Blue Butterfly". At the age of sixteen, she won the Smokefreerockquest Female Musician Award. At the age of seventeen, she moved from Southland to Auckland to pursue her career as a musician.
Before the age of nineteen this Southland girl had already been mentored by many of New Zealand's top producers, opened for Kelly Clarkson and The Script before eighteen, at seventeen honed her songwriting skills on a U.S. scholarship that took her to Nashville and the South By South West festival in Texas, and won the Smokefree Rockquest Female Musician Award and Play It Strange competition at sixteen and fifteen respectively.
Annah says that her songs are a mix of personal experiences and stories told from the perspectives of close friends - a sentiment that is clearly reflected in the lyrics of her debut album, ''Little Stranger''. Annah recorded the majority of the album at Roundhead studios with internationally renowned American producer Brady Blade, working with Josh Fountain from Kidz In Space at Woodcut Studios, and Wayne Bell and Ben King at The Lab to finish other tracks.
Current single ''Celia'' is an upbeat fun song, originally written for a high-school friend. It has since had new life breathed into it by the influence of Annah's inner-circle learning how to juggle their current friendships with new love interests. ''Celia'' superbly showcases her catchy pop sensibilities amidst handclaps and a carefree vocal-hook, all the while complementing Annah's lyrical sincerity.
While her peers are yet to even begin ticking off their bucket lists, just-turned twenty-year-old Annah Mac is impatient to share her debut album. She might consider herself a ''Little Stranger'', but Annah's big dreams and girl-next-door personality will have everyone demanding to become better acquainted with the girl that put their deepest thoughts and aspirations into music.
Annah's live band includes: Jesse Sheehan: Lead Guitar (Rockquest winner '09 as a solo artist, The Electric Confectionaires) Haddon Smith: Bass and Keys (The Electric Confectionaires, toured as session musician with Dave Dobbyn, Brooke Fraser, Gin Wigmore, Capt. Kirk) Rob Fenton: Drums and Percussion (The Electric Confectionaires).
"Little Stranger"