Ana Popović is, if nothing else, resilient. She is, in fact, something of a dynamo. When the Houston Press last spoke with the Serbian blues guitarist a couple of years ago, she had recently completed treatment for breast cancer and, barely breaking stride, was back on the road, touring in support of her most recent album Power.
And that’s where we find her again, on a tour which will stop at Main Street Crossing on Wednesday, April 2. Picking up where we had left off, one of the first topics of discussion during our Zoom call was, how did that experience change you? What effect did experiencing illness, successfully beating cancer, and resuming an active performing and recording career have on her as a person and as a musician?
“Well, as you can imagine, there is never a good moment to go through that,” Popović says, speaking from her home in California. “That particular moment was right in the middle of COVID, so it was an added super-stress on top of everything else that was stressful. We were building a house, and the kids were, of course, home, and they were dealing with their own issues of being at home and not at school with their friends.
“On top of that, my treatments in Amsterdam were like – oh my gosh. I was flying back and forth to Holland for 14 chemos. You needed all these tests just to get on the plane. It was just a surreal experience. And then dealing with the loss of my mom, who passed from breast cancer four years prior to that, it was too much to handle, to be honest with you. But I think the making of Power completely put me back on track mentally.”
Since then, Popović has been exploring new musical vistas with a project dubbed “Fantastafunk.” Typically, Popović performs in a five-piece band, but in Fantastafunk, additional forces including horns, keyboards and background vocalists join the more basic lineup. “I was always a fan of big bands,” Popovich says. “The Allman Brothers Band. And I love Tedeschi Trucks. And I just felt that I was capable of fronting a band like that.
“It’s very busy being me. I have developed this mechanism which is, when I get into a stress mode or I wake up at 4 a.m. and anxiety kicks in, I just tell myself I can do it all.”
“When I made Power, that record, with its gospel influences and all kinds of soul influences and everything, was just screaming for a band like that, where I could really showcase those songs’ full potential. We had talked about bringing two crews together for years now – my American crew and my European crew – and they would all love to play together. And that’s where the idea came about. The music on Power really could have all this and not be crowded because it was written like that. It was written for a big horn section. Those hook lines just demand background vocalists and percussion, so it was an easy decision.”
Taking such a large band on the road is a challenge, both from a logistical and a financial perspective. Would Popović prefer to always be able to tour with Fantastafunk or other permutations involving expanded musical forces? “I love all of my configurations,” Popović says. “People love the five-piece because they can hear the guitar, and they come for the guitar. It’s really inspiring to be able to adjust on the spot, meaning that you’re going to play less or you’re going to play more. Or if you’re going to have the horns play more when the keyboard is not there. So I love the adjustment. I’ve been doing this for twenty-plus years, and my music is vibrant and it’s alive, and every different configuration makes it different and exciting for us.”
With an international performing and recording career, one particular challenge that Popović faces is balancing her work as an artist with her responsibilities as a mother of two children, a daughter who is 12 and a son who is 16. How does she do it? Popović says, “It’s very busy being me. I have developed this mechanism which is, when I get into a stress mode or I wake up at 4 a.m. and anxiety kicks in, I just tell myself I can do it all. I have really learned to manage the time. I don’t want to miss anything of the life at home with my kids. They are in such a creative time. I am enjoying the heck out of it.
“It’s music night every night. They’ve really got the bug for music. She’s singing, he’s making great songs. His band rehearses in the garage, and it reminds me of my beginning back in Serbia, when we used to rehearse in the garage. There’s no way I would want to miss that. I have a lot of shows on my agenda, but they are in segments of a maximum of 10 days, then 10 days at home, so it’s very structured, and the kids are completely fine with that. When I am back home, I am completely devoted to them.”
Popović reports that her children take full advantage of the easy access to all kinds of music available online, on vinyl and even on cassette (“[My son] just got a Walkman, with those orange headphones from back in the day.”). Does she listen to a similar variety of tunes? What is on her personal playlist? “Oh, my goodness, everything! The Pointer Sisters. And Steely Dan is always on.”
With regard to contemporary music, are there any artists that Popović can’t warm up to? “I tried many times to listen to Taylor Swift because she is an incredible artist, and I respect what she stands for. But her music, I cannot get it at all. But I am not in the group that she is selling her music to, although she is a remarkable woman. Of course I have huge respect for what she does.” Then Popović gets down to it. “I am more Beyonce, if I have to choose. I bought the tickets because my daughter [wanted to see her], so we are going to the Cowboy Carter concert. That’s going to be more like it.”
Ana Popović will perform on Wednesday, April 2, 8 p.m., at Main Street Crossing, 111 W. Main in Tomball. For more information, call 281-290-0431 or visit mainstreetcrossing.com.
For more information on Ana Popović, visit anapopovic.com.
