In i was never yours Karin Ann explores a more relaxed, roots-driven sound, incorporating elements of Americana, folk influences, and a cinematic sense of restraint.
Her track all my money builds on this momentum, intensifying the themes of impermanence, movement, and emotional clarity.
We caught up with Karin Ann to talk choosing freedom over comfort, weaving cultural lineage into Americana forms, and why writing only begins once control is released.
Any experience in life shapes you and teaches you something and that’s no different in collaboration in the studio…
I was never yours feels like freedom laced with heartbreak. Was it more complicated to write about letting go — or more challenging to actually live it?
This song doesn’t represent heartbreak to me and my lived experience. I think it was harder admitting to myself that I might be the bad guy in someone else’s story because I was never in the position to break someone else’s heart before, but it was a very freeing process writing i was never yours.
The production – co-produced by Benjamin Lazar Davis and written by Karin Ann alongside Harrison Whitford and Benjamin Lazar Davis – blends folk, country, rock, and cinematic edges. Which part of that sonic DNA felt most natural — and which pushed you outside your comfort zone?
It all felt very natural, the whole song came together very fast and very naturally. We just kind of played around in the studio until it felt right.
You’ve said the song is about choosing freedom over comfort. In your own life, what did that choice actually cost you?
I would rather leave a situation than settle for something that’s not right for the life and standards I have for myself.
Pedal steel, fiddle, stomping beats — the track flirts with Americana. Was weaving your Central European and Middle Eastern roots into that sound a clash or a revelation?
I grew up in Slovakia and a lot of Slavic folk music has a lot of fiddle and elements of people dancing our traditional folk dances and middle eastern traditional music has a lot of rhythmic instruments and beats to it so it’s all weaved in my identity, In the past, though, I was a little embarrassed by my identity because of the experiences I’ve had and the reactions I’ve seen from a lot of people toward people with the same background as me. I think in the past few years I’ve learned that there’s no use fighting who I am and I’ve decided to embrace it instead – which also means blending together all kinds of cultural elements I know with elements of music I love.
Your debut through the telescope hit heavy themes: gender, identity, and mental health. With this new era, are you softening the lens — or sharpening it in a different direction?
Writing helps me process the world and my life. I never plan what I write about, I let it come to me naturally so whatever I’m dealing with in my life at the moment is what people are going to hear.
Storytelling drives your music as much as sound. When you sit down to write, do you think like a songwriter or like a screenwriter first?
As I mentioned I don’t plan or force these things, whatever comes to me comes to me.
You’ve already worked with actors like Ashley Moore and Gus Kenworthy, plus directors like TUSK. How much does your acting work bleed into the way you craft music videos now?
I never felt myself in lip-syncing videos so thinking about music videos as short movies that are a visual representation of the themes I’m talking about was extremely helpful to me as a creative. Until I started thinking like that, I wanted to stay away from making music videos.
Collaborating with names like Suki Waterhouse and Benjamin Lazar Davis — what’s the key thing you steal or absorb from co-writers versus what you constantly guard as your own?
Any experience in life shapes you and teaches you something and that’s no different in collaboration in the studio, but I don’t think I can point things out so factually.
I don’t believe in God featured Imogen Heap. Do collaborations like that feel like mentorship, mutual exchange, or straight-up sparks you can’t predict?
I don’t really like remixes and I actually enjoy Imogen’s remix for i don’t believe in God so that in itself speaks volumes and as I mentioned previously – you learn something from every experience you go through in life.
Looking ahead — do you see Karin Ann as a genre shapeshifter forever, or are you secretly hunting for a sound that finally feels like home?
My goal is to make art that’s authentic to me at the time of making it, whatever shape that takes or whether it changes or stays the same – I don’t really care about.
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