Q&A: Anaïs & The Hoops’ “Growing Pains” Evokes Nostalgia
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY KIMBERLY KAPELA ☆
CENTERING PLATONIC LOVE — Anaïs & The Hoops has unveiled the music video for “Growing Pains,” a standout track from her debut EP of the same name, offering a heartfelt reflection on friendship, nostalgia and the seasons of life.
Described by Anaïs as “a love letter to my best friend,” the song explores love through the lens of platonic connection. “Friendships shape us just as deeply as romantic love, especially the ones we carry from childhood into adulthood,” she says. “The song is a love letter to best friends and to growing up alongside the people who feel like home.”
The accompanying video, directed by Grace Pomilla and shot by director of photography Felipe Oliveira, brings the track’s themes to life in a whimsical 1950s-inspired dreamscape. Interlacing intimate on-stage performance footage with nostalgic childhood home videos, the visual captures the magic of growing up.
Shot at Purgatory in Bushwick with Anaïs’ full band and a cast of close friends, the production emphasizes the importance of chosen family and the comfort of familiar bonds. “It’s nostalgic, a touch melancholy, and completely dreamy,” Anaïs says.
Growing Pains is designed to transport listeners back to their childhood, evoking memories of both innocence and the lessons that come with growing older.
“From the very beginning, I wanted Growing Pains to have a nostalgic feeling,” Anaïs says to Luna. “I wanted it to bring people back to their childhood and all the emotions that come with that, as we grow and as we age.”
The EP’s sound reflects Anaïs’ diverse musical background, blending jazz-inflected vocals with introspective lyrics and pop melodies. Her years performing in jazz clubs in San Diego before moving to Brooklyn inform her expressive vocal style, adding depth and nuance to every track.
Since its release in September 2025, Growing Pains has resonated deeply with listeners, often in unexpected and personal ways. “It’s been really special to see how it connects with people so differently, depending on the places in their life where they’re at,” Anaïs says.
Growing Pains is an ode to enduring friendships and the beauty of growing alongside the people who make us feel at home. With its heartfelt lyrics, dreamy visuals and evocative melodies, Anaïs & The Hoops invites listeners into a world where nostalgia, love, and whimsy coexist — a world worth visiting again and again.
LUNA: Thank you for talking to Luna. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar with you yet, what inspires your artistic style and sound?
ANAIS: I love music from the 1950s and 1960s and jazz artists as well, like Billie Holiday is a big inspiration. I also learn towards more modern artists like Amy Winehouse that play within that realm of pop, rock and jazz influences.
LUNA: It’s been about five months since the release of your debut EP Growing Pains. How has it felt to watch listeners connect with the EP over time?
ANAIS: It's been really special. With Growing Pains in particular, I just wanted it to have a very nostalgic feeling that brings people back to their childhood and all the emotions that come with that as we grow and as we age. It's been really special to see how it resonates with people so differently, depending on the places in their life where they're at. You get to look at the project through a new lens every time somebody talks to you about it, because everybody's interpretation has been so different, so I've loved it.
LUNA: Now that you’ve had some distance from the project, are there any lessons from this release that you know you’ll carry into future projects, whether artistically or personally?
ANAIS: The biggest lesson that I would take from this release is to let things happen as organically as possible. When I first started the EP, it was earlier in my career in terms of recording my own music, and I was very like, it has to be perfect. I was nitpicking every detail, but the parts of the songs that I like the most are the ones that kind of where we're in the moment and we're just letting it happen. Maybe it's the first or the second take, but those are the ones that felt the most honest, and that I ended up going back to in the process after trying to rework it with my producer several times. I think just letting the music make its own way, versus trying to control it.
LUNA: Are there any creative or production choices on the EP that you’re especially proud of now, months later?
ANAIS: I think that the biggest thing that I was proud of was trying different things out, and trying to get out of my comfort zone. Me and my producer added some instruments that I've never had in the live takes of them, so we played around with mandolin on “Growing Pains.” I had just come back from a trip to Greece, and I was like, this is very Greek. Or having strings, just trying to play around and including as many people in the project as possible and seeing it from different lenses of other artists. I really love doing that.
LUNA: The track explores love through friendship rather than romance. Why was it important for you to center platonic love in this story?
ANAIS: Because I feel like it's not centered enough, and that's the relationship that I think we can all relate to. We all have the friends we've grown up with, or the friends we've made along the way in adulthood, but it always seems to be secondary to having a romantic relationship. Those are the relationships that guide us through all the different moments in our lives. I've been very lucky to have the best friend that I wrote about. I've been very lucky to have her in my life since the age of seven, so she's really seen me through all the awkward phases, through all the funky phases, and all of the special, but definitely that's a love that I think deserves to be celebrated more.
LUNA: The “Growing Pains” music video lives in a dreamy 1950s-inspired world. Shooting the video at Purgatory in Bushwick with close friends adds another layer of intimacy. What is the inspiration behind the music video and was your experience filming it?
ANAIS: The director, Grace Pomilla, and I, we sat down, and I had come to her saying, I want to have a bunch of different home videos. That's the only thing that I know for sure I want to have. She was saying she could imagine almost a prom vibe, because I've done a prom EP release show, and I love getting campy with my shows and with my music videos. She could see the nostalgia of prom, which is like a lot of folks’ big event before they become quote, unquote adults. Then that reminiscing feeling of watching an old home video and realizing things have changed, so playing around with those worlds of the present and past.
LUNA: Do you have a personal favorite song on Growing Pains — one that feels closest to your heart or most revealing of who Anaïs & The Hoops is right now?
ANAIS: I honestly do think “Growing Pains” is my favorite from the EP. I think it was the most meaningful. It was one of those songs where, when I sat down and I wrote it, everything came out because it just felt so honest, and I tried to keep it as close to that as possible when I recorded it. We added things in, but the lyrics always remained the same. The feeling always remained the same. That one felt very special. There's a lot of special ones, but that one for sure.=
LUNA: Looking back at Growing Pains as both a song and an EP, how do you think you’ve matured as an artist and storyteller since its release?
ANAIS: When I first started writing it, it was right when I moved to New York City, and I was in a lot of ways unsure about what I was doing, because I was in a new place, and unsure about what I wanted Anaïs & The Hoops to be. Through making this EP, all those things have become a lot clearer. While I was recording, I noticed I like bringing nostalgia. I like having that 50s or 60s sound in my music if I can, even if it doesn't feel like a track straight pulled from that era, just infusing it in my music. I think going forward, I can play with that a lot more intentionally with some of the songs that I'm releasing this coming year that nod to a lot of artists that I grew up loving like The Mamas & the Papas or Nancy Sinatra. I spent a lot of time figuring out what I was pulling from when I was doing Growing Pains and how to infuse that more in the music going forward.
LUNA: How do you hope listeners — especially your femme audience — can connect with or find power in this new era of music from you? What emotions or messages do you want to leave with them?
ANAIS: I think this new era is all about strength and being resilient through all the changes in life, and knowing that the path that you're on is the path that you're on. You just have to weave through it. Especially the songs that I've written that are going to come out in 2026 talk about overcoming heartbreak, overcoming difficult times in life and just keeping your sparkle through it all because it's so easy to have the hard parts of life do that, but it's important.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like that you would like to share with Luna?
ANAIS: I'm feeling good. I think there's something about the new year that always puts you in a hard reset. These last couple weeks, I've just been in this planning, hunkering down phase, where I'm trying to take a look at everything and set myself up as best as possible.
