Meet Anderson Hao | Songwriter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Anderson Hao and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Anderson, can you tell us more about your background and the role it’s played in shaping who you are today?
I’m from Columbus Ohio! I had a lot of freedom growing up that I feel like a lot of my friends growing up in cities didn’t experience. Both a blessing and a curse of course, I was left to my own devices for most of my childhood. I spent my teenage years following bands from city to city on tours and I got hooked on that feeling (hence the career path). I always felt comfort in writing and I think it just made sense to become a songwriter in a lot of ways. I’m grateful to have come from a place with so much open space to experience and grow. I had a lot of room for trial and error.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am very new to what I do in the grand scheme of things. I’ve been writing all my life but only in the past two years did they start becoming actual songs and only in the past year did they become actual things I shared with the world. I try to make everything I make as accessible as possible while at the same time making it based on my real life experiences. I had a friend tell me once that it’s the most specific weird experiences that you put into your work that people relate to the most and that stuck with me. I think every story is worth telling. I grew up feeling incredibly isolated and music was the place I found community, I want to create that same feeling for others. I am finishing up the roll out of my first EP, What a Hard Winter! in the next week and I am super excited for people to hear what i’ve been working on for the whole of the year thus far. It’s really honest and I think it paints a super clear picture of where I was at when I made it and that’s really all I can ask for from my music. I am completely a product of the people around me. My friend Sam was one of the first people to encourage my artist project, he’s a producer and artist and writer and everything himself and he believed in me from the jump. I ended up self producing this bedroom lo-fi EP and pushing the songs on tiktok and from there Ari Rivera found me and took me on. I put out that EP January 3rd on soundcloud and we’ve been working on What a Hard Winter! ever since. It’s been kind of a whirlwind year honestly. I’ve learned a lot but I think the number one thing is that the entire industry is about people. I just love people and I want to encourage and help anyway I can and I think that comes back to me in a lot of ways. If you care and you’re genuine and you’re making art you love that’s all that matters. I heard this study about how the number one factor of a person’s quality of life is their close relationships. I am lucky enough to be able to work with the people I love and I try not to take any part of that for granted.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Ohhhh cool question. I am a vegan and my best friend who I live with is gluten free so we don’t go out toooo much but we do have some holy grails. As far as restaurants go, Sun Cafe for a sit down meal because the patio is so cute, H.O.P.E. for a takeout situation/ vegan comfort food, Monty’s if you’re looking for a fast food situation and Kaiju for sushi always (they just reopened after a kitchen fire and we ride for them they’re the best). ALSO we don’t really go here anymore because we moved but Reno’s in the valley has the best vegan pizza ever ever ever. We aren’t big on bars but we love to shop second hand, Bearded Beagle is great.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I think first and foremost the music collective I am a part of deserves credit. It’s made up of a bunch of extremely talented self taught musicians that I am lucky enough to be friends with. They’ve brought me into their world and made so much of what I do possible. I think you are the people you surround yourself with and I adore my people. Ari Rivera and I made this entire first EP of my artist project come to life in a garage in Ladera Heights. We spent five months meeting crazy deadlines with the help of everyone else in the house. Aaron Sayre mixed everything, Jerod Naranjo mastered it all. Kaleb Fulmer played cello and offered support and a hand to hold through the entire process. My friends and family have been incredibly supportive. So many hands on deck and I couldn’t be anymore grateful. My brother Parker Hao is an incredibly talented photographer and he shot the covers for all the singles and the project.

Website: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4ld59O2bX6oOVHoxVOCOpw?si=Iiqcy5ODQLimefdAj-Ea-Q

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mukshroom/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@mukshroom

Other: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/anderson-hao/1675436564

Image Credits
1st Image- Parker Hao and Olivia Parker What a Hard Winter cover- Parker Hao Headshot in sheer dress- Olivia Neil