After writing for major artists such as Illenium, Noah Cyrus, Hailee Steinfeld, BTS, Steve Aoki, and more, Annika Wells finally takes her turn in the spotlight with her first major-label debut single, “F Being Sober.”
The intoxicating, melodic track spreads the message of living life to its fullest, and not wasting a single day because you don’t know what to expect tomorrow. Wells intends to delve deeper into that message, describing her new single as an “umbrella for the message of the entire project – which is basically to march to the beat of your own drum.”
“I wrote this song with Giulio and another friend of mine after Thanksgiving,” Wells tells Celeb Secrets. “I was talking to my aunt and she was asking me when I was going to get a real job. And I came back to LA and was like, ‘Guys, I need to get this song off my chest! and that’s how [F Being Sober] came about.”
Along with her single release, Wells dropped a homemade music video for the track featuring her two best friends who are also mentioned in the song!
Celeb Secrets (virtually) sits down with Wells to hear more of her journey into the music industry, her favorite songwriting memories, and a teaser of her upcoming material. She also reveals a juicy tidbit about one of the cowriters of “F Being Sober!”
Don’t forget to watch Wells’ homemade music video for “F Being Sober” and read our full Q&A below! Let us know what you think of the track by leaving a reaction at the bottom of our post or tweeting us @celebsecrets.
Follow Wells on Instagram and Twitter to keep up with her and her music.
Celeb Secrets: Celeb Secrets here with Annika Wells! How have you been doing? How has quarantine life been like?
Annika Wells: “I’ve been great! I mean, all things considered. This quarantine has given me the opportunity to step back, reevaluate, and think about the things in my life that are really important and worthwhile. I was able to step back only really starting to continue to work on things that I truly value.”
CS: That’s really nice to hear! You’ve obviously had a huge journey with music, what has the journey within the music industry been like? I’ve read that you dropped out of college, how has that experience affected your journey?
AW: “It’s kinda funny, because my mom is actually a college counselor. So, it wasn’t the most expected thing. It wasn’t necessarily that path I always thought I’d be on. But when I was a sophomore in college, I released this song – I just made a Spotify account and uploaded it. I produced it out with a fellow classmate of mine, Giulio Cercato, who is now my main collaborator and he does everything on my project. We produced out this song somehow within a couple of weeks, it ended up on the Spotify Global Viral and it kind of randomly blew up. Kind of overnight, my life just changed and I went from just being a student in college in Boston to suddenly having emails in my inbox from all these management companies and labels and publishing companies.”
CS: Also, Congratulations! This is your first major-label debut, that’s amazing! So, what was the story behind “F Being Sober”?
AW: “So the way this song kinda came about, I feel like it has been an accumulation of a lot of things. But I feel like it’s kind of an umbrella for the message of my entire project. Everything I want to say – which is basically to march to the beat of your own drum. Screw what society says, screw what anybody says about how you should live your life. Do what feels good to you and just embrace the weirdness and embrace the awkwardness and just live your life to the absolute fullest.
I wrote this song with Giulio and another friend of mine after Thanksgiving, actually. I was talking to my aunt and she was asking me when I was going to get a real job. And I came back to LA and was like, ‘Guys, I need to get this song off my chest!’ and that’s how [F Being Sober] came about.”
CS: I love that. With this being your first major-label debut, what’s it been like working with a label vs being completely independent?
AW: “It’s been amazing, honestly. I’ve been solo for such a long time and just been figuring out everything on my own and kinda just guessing about what I should do and doing a lot of the heavy lifting myself. It’s so nice to have a team behind me, who just knows what they’re doing. It’s really validating that after all this time, to have a team of people who truly believe in my project and can push it out into the world, I’m so so grateful that I found Vol. 1 and Epic.”
CS: That’s really good. How does it feel to finally have your own music out there?
AW: “It feels so cathartic. I feel like I’m letting out a sneeze that I’ve been holding in my entire life. I’ve been writing music since I was like 7 or 8 years old and now, finally – I’ve done some features here and there too as well and those projects have been amazing and I’m so grateful for everything they’ve done and I’m so proud of the work that I’ve done as a songwriter and as a feature artist – but to have my own project out here, finally, and just say exactly what I wanna say in the way that I wanna say it – I almost have no words. It feels absolutely amazing.”
CS: I really love to hear that. That just makes me more excited to listen to your music. Along with your debut single, you also released a homemade video for the song. What were your favorite moments filming the video? I really enjoyed it, by the way!
AW: “I’m happy you liked it! That was so much fun. The video is basically my two best friends and I, we’ve been the closest of friends for over a decade now. The three of us are just completely inseparable and their names are also in F Being Sober, in the second verse, shoutout to Kelsey and Amy, cause they’re my best friends. I feel like a big part of the message of the song is just to embrace the people around you. We’ve always had bucket lists since we were in high school and keeping these bucket lists has held us accountable for living our lives to the absolute fullest. I want people to see the real me and to let them know that it’s okay to embrace the real them. I thought there’s no better way to do that than just to film the reality of Kelsey, Amy, and I just running around doing dumb stuff.”
CS: That’s such a great message! You’ve mentioned earlier that you’ve featured on a few tracks. You’ve written for a bunch of artists including Illenium, Noah Cyrus, Hailee Steinfeld, as well as a track for BTS and Steve Aoki, which, by the way, I absolutely love that song. What were your favorite memories writing those tracks?
AW: “I think one of my favorite memories is writing sad songs with Illenium. We were just crying the whole time, and it was so honest. I came to his house after a breakup and we were just pouring our hearts out.”
CS: I love that. What is the difference between writing songs for another artist and writing songs for yourself?
AW: “I get a similar sense of catharsis from both, but when it comes to writing music for me, I get to put my truest self out there, which is just so exciting. I absolutely love helping create other artists’ vision and helping it come to life. I really enjoy that process as well, but writing for myself is so awesome because I just don’t have to hold back. There are so many wacky, crazy, inappropriate, embarrassing things that I’d like to put in music all the time that not everybody is always willing to do, and I totally understand that, but when it comes to my project I can just let all the guards down and let all of it out.”
CS: So, with “F Being Sober,” is that a taste of what’s to come in the future and letting yourself out there?
AW: “Oh, yeah. I mean there are definitely many factors to my project and this is just one of them, but F Being Sober is a good example of what’s to come.”
CS: Is there anything else you can reveal about your upcoming material?
AW: “We’ve got some cool features on the way. It is heartbreaking and embarrassing and uplifting and it’s the kind of music that will make you want to dance and cry at the same time.”
CS: Since we are Celeb Secrets, do you have any secrets or fun facts about “F Being Sober” that we wouldn’t know?
AW: “I don’t know if there is much juicy information that I have about it, but my one tidbit would be that I did write it with my ex-boyfriend.”
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