A Bout with Breast Cancer Couldn't Keep Ana Popovic From Performing and Recording

Described as "one helluva guitar player" by none other than rock icon Bruce Springsteen, singer-guitarist Ana Popovic began her career way back in the ’90s in Belgrade. Popovic, who studied at the Utrecht Conservatory of Music at the Netherlands, has released several albums with both Hush, a band she formed in Belgrade, and as a solo artist.

Having established herself as a dynamic performer both in the studio and on the stage, Popovic ran up against a huge obstacle in the fall of 2020 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, something she didn’t immediately reveal to either her fans or her bandmates.

After 14 chemotherapy treatments and flights back and forth between her L.A. home and Amsterdam to receive treatment, she was able to keep playing live and writing new material; Popovic and bassist/co-producer Buthel Burns connected on Zoom to write the material that coalesced as the new album, Power, which is due out later this year.

“It was a very difficult time because we were just coming out of COVID, and I was getting ready to play again,” she says via phone from her Redondo Beach, CA home. Ana Popovic performs at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 13, at the Kent Stage. “We had never stopped playing. We did socially distanced shows; we took it all because we live from this. When I found out [about having breast cancer], it was like your world is about to crash. I didn’t know if I would ever tour again. You rethink your life and the most important things. Coming to save us was writing songs.”

Popovic approached the album as if it might be her last, and that impetus gives the material an additional sense of urgency.

“I knew I had to make it good,” she says. “It’s an inspirational thing. I wanted to try my very best and play the songs I wanted to play and no other way. You really listen to your inner self. I think that’s the most important thing. You don’t do it for nobody else. I think some interesting music comes out in situations like that. It gave me a certain strength and a certain power to go through the whole thing. Many women go through it, and the bottom line is that you have to take the change that your body goes through and make the best out of it and reinvent yourself. I have a 20-year career, and my fans are used to me looking a certain way.”

When she finally did break the news to her fans and posted a photo of herself with a hat that covered up her short cropped hair, some older fans objected to the new look.

“The amount of bullying online was amazing to me, and I would just laugh at it,” she says. “Their thoughts about me wearing a hat were the least important thing happening in my life. Elderly men were the worst. They should take care of their own looks.”

During the recording process, Popovic discovered the Detroit scene and tried to incorporate a Motor City vibe. She even enlisted musicians from the area to play alongside her and her Dallas-based backing band.

“Detroit is such an amazing place, and people play very differently,” she says. “With every record, I discover one city musically. In the past, it’s been New Orleans and Memphis and Nashville and L.A. I had never recorded in Detroit. [Co-writer] Buthel [Burns] is from Saginaw, and some of his friends and cousins are on the record. They’re amazing musicians. We want back and made it a family thing.”

Driven by a nasty organ riff, the opening track, “Rise Up,” finds Popovic singing, “Hard times, they will come, but they were not meant to last.” It's one of many inspirational tunes on the album.

“‘Rise Up’ is the only song on the album that I didn’t write,” Popovic says. “I feel like it is about unity. That is what the world needs. It’s about standing up to everything that is wrong with the world today. We have so much further to go. We changed the music to that so drastically. It’s not my lyrics, but I feel them personally. I stand for unity and change. It’s what our sound is. It’s a wonderful song and very, very powerful.”

Spirited horns drive the hard-hitting “Power Over Me,” another album highlight.

“I love horns,” she says. “I have a six-piece band, and I travel with horns. I’m very particular about horn arrangements. ‘Power of Me’ is a very hip horn arrangement. Usually, I’m more old school, but on that song I doubled the horn lines on my guitar for ‘Power of Me.’ It’s fun to play."

With its Stevie Ray Vaughan-inspired guitar riff, “Queen of the Pack” finds Popovic giving life lessons.

“’Queen of the Pack” tells you how it should be done,” she says. “You shouldn’t doubt yourself.”

The album’s eclectic nature is intentional.

“I wanted to touch different sounds,” she says. “I wanted to touch sounds that I haven’t before even though I have put many records out. These songs are more poppy, but they are all rooted in blues. I haven’t done much of this style, which is a jam of funk and gospel and blues and rock all together in the same mix. Detroit and Dallas inspired me. Those musicians in Dallas and Detroit are amazing and very different. They’re the motor behind these songs.”

Popovic says the band’s new sound has invigorated her and her band mates.

“We already started playing the new songs, and it’s amazing,” she says. “It’s a nice, refreshing thing. Everyone is excited about the new sound. That’s the key is to keep the band hungry for new stuff. We had 150 shows in 2022, and we already have 60 on the calendar this year. It’s going to be a great year. Music is food for my soul, and an important part of my life. It’s amazing to finally tell the band the background story about what happened. They never suspected because we just kept going. It was very emotional. Hopefully, it is an inspiration for everybody, so that no matter what life throws at you, you make the best out of it and hold on tight to whatever your passion in life is.”
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