Singer Adieu Anáis Lets Her Dreams Guide Her Career

We all dream, some more than others, and few of us follow our dreams and try to make them reality. Singer and songwriter Adieu Anáis did just that. When her dreams began to call her back to her roots in music, she listened to her subconscious and quit her job to pursue music full-time.

“I wanted to do music for a long time and got stuck in corporate America, and it sucked the life out of me,” says Anáis. “That was a time that I really realized whatever I thought I needed to do to be successful in life, work 40 hours a week, do this, do that, work my ass off. Nothing I was doing was serving my greatest good.

“I planned on doing music after I graduated and I realized I didn’t have the money to go and get stuff recorded. It was a weird spot where I couldn’t find a producer. I was like, I’ve got to get a job, I have to pay my student loans back.”

A lifelong musician, Anáis studied classical opera and worked incessantly to improve her skills as a singer. Starting at just 2 years old, she forced herself on stage, one place where she always felt comfortable.

“I basically have been singing since 2 years old; that was the first time I performed in front of people. Not anything crazy, I sang happy birthday to myself,” she says with a laugh. “I’ve always felt so comfortable on stage in front of people. I got my start in church, leading praise and worship. Then 10 or so years old, I basically was begging my parents to take voice lessons. At that point, my parents, we didn’t have a lot of money until my mom started her own business and because of that, I was able to go to voice lessons. That’s really part of the reason I was able to afford to go to college, because I got a scholarship, because of my vocal lessons.”

A free spirit at heart, Anáis remembers challenges that kept her from pursuing music after college. She spent years in a limbo, moving from job to job trying to find her place. It all ultimately led to health challenges that forced her to reconsider her path.

“I ended up in the ER because of it and that just really changed my perspective,” she says. “That’s why I made such a dramatic pivot. I said, you know, fuck it. It was like my body telling me, hey, I’m not supposed to be doing this. We’re basically programmed like we’re supposed to go to school, get this corporate job, make X amount of dollars, take this very specific life path. But it’s just not for everyone, and our bodies will tell us.”

As an artist with a deep appreciation for consciousness and health, her body began to tell her that a change needed to be made. She was having dreams of making music again.

“Making the switch came from my near-death experience with my health,” she says. “I realized I need to live my life for myself. I need to do things that bring me life and give me energy. I had a huge epiphany, like what am I living my life for? Now, I think it was kind of the final straw. I had to suffer in order to realize this wasn’t what I’m supposed to be doing. I just went all in for music. It was time to make that leap of faith.”

In her transition to full-time musician, Anáis struggled again with finding a producer she vibed with. When she took that leap, though, everything fell into place. She found out a relative was producing in LA and saved up enough cash to fly out and record four singles in 2023. In choosing the songs, she wrote new ones and even dug into stockpiles from her youth.

Her second single, “Shattered Dreams,” was one of her first commissioned pieces, which she wrote for her high school’s anti-drinking-and-driving program. Her third, “Aftermath,” released Oct. 27 (along with a surprise single released Oct. 21, “Echoes”), and “Victory Song” was released this year. The sound of her first single “Rain,” released in early 2023, also came to her in a dream.
“A couple nights before we flew out to LA to record I had this dream, and in my dream I heard rain fully produced,” she says. “I was like 'this sounds amazing — I love it.' It was like I was having a really insane episode of déjà vu. There’s a lot of bass and it was like a really sexy vibe and also really intense and dark and evocative.”

All of the songs have an ethereal essence, with lyrics that are deep and sensual.

“Each of them are very thought- and emotion-provoking,” says the artist. “They kind of have you question yourself in certain ways. But ultimately the things that tie them together are the elements of cinema. Very cinematic, dark vibes. Dark, cinematic, ethereal, and the contrast being in there is my voice, because I have a bright-sounding voice.”

She calls her music, “whimsical in nature,” which is apparent when listening to the tracks, not only in the sound but in the creativity behind her lyrics.

“I have an extremely active imagination,” she says. “So when I’m in the writing process, it’s very visceral. I’m seeing the things I’m writing about as I’m writing.”

The ethereal quality is ever-present in her music, all the way down to her name, Adieu Anáis, which also came to her in a dream.

“I was dating someone at the time and in the dream it was really dark and I was walking to his house by myself feeling really scared,” she says. “I stumbled upon a cave and inside there was this really whimsical and eccentric party going on. An orchestra was playing music and it was very bright. I walked up to the conductor and he was a French guy, he was like, ‘Oui, what would you like me to play?’ and I said Ernest Chausson, one of my favorites.

“As I’m about to turn my back to the party, I take one last look before I leave, and I see myself as a 4-year-old child, and I’m happy and dancing, and I wave to myself and the conductor waved to me, ‘Adieu.’”

Her voice chokes up as she pulls herself from the memory.

“Every time I tell this story I want to cry,” she says. “It was essentially my subconscious telling me, hey, if you stay with this person, you’re saying goodbye to you, the things you love. So the name is a reminder to, one, not say goodbye to the things I love and who I really am, and also a reminder to say goodbye to the things that don’t serve me.”