Zoe Brown: Welcome to the CXO Time podcast. I’m your host, Zoe Brown, and today we have a special guest, Annie. She is a talented recording artist, co-creator and executive producer. With her extensive career in the music industry, she is a true pioneer in blending creativity with leadership. Let’s dive into her world of music and entrepreneurship. Hey Annie, how are you doing today?

 Annie: How are you? Thank you so much for having me on.

 Zoe Brown: Yeah, glad to have you on. So I just wanted to thank you for joining me for this episode. It’s so exciting to have you here. And for those who don’t know, Annie, she’s the powerhouse behind the incredible brand I am as the driving force of the group, her leadership is all about creating a space where creativity flows and every member’s voice is heard. So I can’t wait to dive into all the magic behind it.

 Annie: Thank you.

 Zoe Brown: So my first question is, Annie, can you please tell our listeners about the beginning of your career and how it all started?

 Annie: Sure. I don’t know whether you are familiar with my history or not, but I, of course, will dive right in. So I come from a musical family. My father is a producer and a singer songwriter himself named Terry Cashman, aka Dennis Minogue. That’s where I get my last name from. And he’s had a very successful career over the years. He produced all of Jim Croce’s records, and he’s had a very successful solo career. As Terry Cashman writing the hit Talking Baseball, and was also in a group called Cashman and Cashman and West, and they had a series of hits over the years, too. So that’s kind of where I got my first love of music, but also my sister and my brother in law are in a wonderful band called the Violet mine. White Knight is their record and it’s out now, so please go, please go check them out. They’re amazing and I sing backgrounds with them sometimes. And my cousin is also a musician as well. And she has her own group too. So it’s. It’s a musical group. All of us.

 Zoe Brown: Yeah. That’s great. Wow. Amazing. Thanks for sharing. And you’ve come a long way. No doubt.

 Annie: I’ve tried. Yeah. I’ve been I’ve been doing this a bit, so I’ve had a lot of experiences and it’s been a wild ride. That’s all I’m going to say.

 Zoe Brown: Yeah, that’s really amazing to hear that. So my next question is like, how did you develop your signature sound and who were some of your biggest musical influences, if I may ask?

 Annie: I have a lot of musical influences that span a lot of different genres. So I can’t pick just one. You know, I’m a rock and roll girl at heart, so I guess I would choose, you know, bands like the Black Crowes, Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, LED Zeppelin and in that, you know, in that genre. I love those bands. And, you know, Sheryl Crow is also an amazing artist for me. Joan Osborne, Patti Smith Fleetwood Mac is another group that I love. I can’t just pinpoint it to be one person. Janis Joplin also, you know, for her, time was incredible and still remains an icon and very influential. You know, then there’s Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan and Tom waits. There’s just too many to mention. But kind of. Yeah, I have them all in my arsenal, you know? So if I need to pick something from them from time and again, I try to. Whether it’s in singing or in songwriting.

 Zoe Brown: Yeah. Perfect. Totally incredible. So my next question is that how do you work together to create the band’s dynamic energy on stage and in the studio? Because on some days it might be hard to keep motivated and keep the band’s energy high. So how do you manage it all?

 Annie: Yes. That’s a great question. It can be challenging, especially when you’ve been doing this a long time and you’ve been doing you know, some of the same songs. You have to kind of bring a new freshness, freshness to it, you know it can be very challenging at times when you are trying to keep things fresh and original and new, especially when you’re doing, you know, some of the older songs over and over again you know, acts, major acts that have had hits that have to play them over and over night after night, because the audience wants to hear them probably run into that same issue. So we work very hard in trying to expand and develop and reinvent the same songs that we play night after night, so that they’re fresh and new to the audience as well as to us. And I’m very lucky that I have an incredible band that I’ve been playing with a very long time that are very innovative and creative.

 Zoe Brown: Yeah, incredible. I love that. So moving on. I would love to know what advice would you give to aspiring women navigating the music industry today?

  Annie: Well, it’s it’s it can be very challenging and very complicated for for all musicians to navigate the musical landscape as it is now. It’s very different than it was. But for women in particular you just have to remember to, you know, you are not less than you are just as good as your male counterpart. And you just have to be real and true to yourself and authentic and keep going no matter what. Because the road is challenging for women in all facets of life, and you just have to keep the faith. Really. You have to keep the faith and belief in yourself. That’s the best advice that I could give.

 Zoe Brown: Wow. That’s such a powerful perspective. And I must say, I love how you approach things. It’s clear that your leadership really fuels the band’s success.

 Annie: Oh, thank you so much.

 Zoe Brown: So now looking back on your journey as a singer songwriter performer, how have you evolved personally and professionally over the years?

 Annie: Well, I’ve definitely become a better songwriter, for sure. And a better singer. The more that you do it, the better you get at it. So the more songs you write, the more in touch with your creative side you get, the more in touch with yourself you get. You grow as a person, your experiences grow, and hopefully your writing reflects that. And, you know, I make sure that I grow as an artist, that I learn from my bandmates because they are better musicians than me. And I, I want to play with people better than me. And to partner challenges me as a songwriter because he’s such an incredible songwriter. I want to give a shout out to my band, by the way. You may get to that question later, but I want to give them a shout out now. So my guitar player is Nunzio, Signore. He is an unbelievable musician, an unbelievable creative force and I’m so lucky to be playing with him all these years. He’s he’s the guiding light that brings our band forward. He really is. And it’s just wonderful to interact and play off of his ideas and he just life to the music. Then there’s Brian Karp, who’s our bass player, and he is the rock, the foundation, the solidness that we need. That brings us all back to the ground, as it were. When we’re going off in different directions. Brian is is wonderful to hold everybody steady and be like, no, guys, we gotta we gotta, gotta end up here. And he’s so creative and it’s just a wonderful friend as well. And then my partner, who, you know, helps write all these songs and who I write all the songs with and creates the musical direction that we’re going, you know, forward with and also produces the records with Nunzio, especially this one. And just does all of the editing, any fixing Sing any samples that we need. Any edits? He just. He just does everything. He’s just an incredible musician and incredible. And that’s Nick’s learn from him every day. So I’m just really fortunate to be playing with these guys.

 Zoe Brown: Wow, that’s so inspiring and amazing. Yeah. Like when you have a great team and great people to work with, everything goes smoothly. And in the end, it all works out.

 Annie: Yeah, hopefully that’s the goal anyway.

 Zoe Brown: Yeah, absolutely. So this brings me to my last question for this podcast, Danny. Like what’s next for the Annie Minogue band and your creative endeavors? Like, what are your future plans? Are there any exciting projects we can expect on the horizon?

 Annie: Yes, we are completing our fourth album right now called suburbia, and that will be out later this year. We just released our latest single from that record last year called now. So if you haven’t heard it please go to all social media platforms and stream or buy now. No pun intended. And we’re just going to be working on the tour for this year in order to promote the record. Really, that’s really our main focus for everything right now is the new record.

 Zoe Brown: Wow. That’s interesting. Wish you all the best. With all the songs that you would come up with.

 Annie: Thank you so much. I really appreciate you having me on today.

 Zoe Brown: All right then. Yeah. Take care. Have a great one.

 Annie: Take care. You too. Bye bye. Bye bye.

 Zoe Brown: And that’s a wrap for today’s episode of the Kcsa Time podcast. A huge thank you to Annie Minogue for sharing her incredible journey and creative vision with us. If you enjoyed today’s conversation, don’t forget to subscribe! Until next time, I’m Zoe Brown and that is the CXO Time podcast.