We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful James “J.Anthny” Barber. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with James “J.Anthny” below.

James “J.Anthny”, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I knew music was the only thing that would make me feel complete in middle school. I spent every waking hour I could learning how to write lyrics, what the business side of the music business was, how do artist split songs, who gets the bigger splits and more importantly how would I get paid through music and not end up like all the other horror stories you hear.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, I am a singer, songwriter, producer, and audio engineer. A child of addicted parents, spent my life in the system, coping with early challenges through music and through music, I channeled my life experiences, emotions, and victorious mindset, showcasing my artistic abilities. I’m a walking story of resilience, overcoming struggle, and a relentless drive for success. My transition from rapper turned singer is complete as I assume the role being the artist at the forefront instead of helping others from the back. I’m very proud of my accomplishments since starting this journey as a full-time artist, from over 500k streams throughout the DSP’s to gaining a true team behind me from my manager to my DJ which is essential in anyone trying to make it in this industry as you cannot do this alone. The key thing that sets me apart from most people is not my skill it’s never giving up and always finding a solution, which is another reason why i excelled as an audio engineer so long because I always had a solution to any of my clients’ problems. I’m a person who understands working for it, struggling to get it and even if it doesn’t pan out who you envisioned you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take!

Have you ever had to pivot?

The biggest pivot happened right before engineer school started as my dad wanted to know what I was doing with my life beside music because honestly, he didn’t see the vision of me being an artist. The main issue was i already made up my mind that I was going to do something in music because if I had to work a 9-5, I wanted it to be in music because I didn’t want to end like every other adult, I heard talking about a job they were at for 20+ years and hated it. I did research and literally looked up who got paid first in the music industry and it was the engineers. Now that’s not always but majority of the time they aren’t waiting on a lot of the factors that the producer and artist are waiting on to get paid.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The fact that I can share my thoughts, my feelings and anything else that I think should be out in the world with the world on a song. There’s no better feeling than people who you don’t know falling in love with something you’ve created because they relate to it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.janthny.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/therealjanthny
• Twitter: twitter.com/therealjanthny