We were lucky to catch up with Anthony Morgan recently and have shared our conversation below.
Anthony, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
By far the biggest risk I have ever taken in my life is when I left my job of 10 years at AT&T at the end of May 2022. I’ve learned in life that sometimes when you get too comfortable it’s time to get uncomfortable. There were those that disagreed with my decision to leave. I myself thought at first “What have I gotten myself into?” However, then I had to remember why I left… It was becoming a struggle to focus on my Full Sail University studies where I’m working towards my Audio Production degree. In addition to this, I found it was becoming more of a challenge to focus on my creative side as a Producer/Engineer. I started realizing how much working for Corporate America actually didn’t align with my future goals and intentions. I also started to feel mentally drained, exhausted, depressed and most of all I wasn’t happy. In life we have to remember to live otherwise time flees and that is time we can’t get back… especially after losing my grandfather at the end of June who was my last living grandparent. In the 6 years I’ve been living in Atlanta I’ve lost both of my grandparents in that time… Furthermore, when you begin to realize what the problem is in your life that’s holding you back from the best version of you, you must take action or else you may find yourself saying “I should have, I could have, I would have…:” I don’t really like to be a should have, could have or would have person because it’s all past tense and we can’t fix the past… we can only look ahead and learn from the past.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I developed a strong love for music before I even knew how strong that love was… I grew up into a family that played all of the Motown classics and to hear them say it “Oldies but goodies…” As a result, I believe that is definitely why people say I have more of an old soul. Back in 2003 two of my cousins who are huge fans of the underground Hip-Hop scene stayed with me for the summer. It was at that time where the seed was planted and with each year that has passed I’ve only grown and elevated in my craft as a engineer, producer and artist and I’m so truly grateful for that because it’s what I’ve spent many years praying about… Today I have two albums out.. .”Essence of My Energy” and “Faith” which I dedicated to my grandmother as a result of how incredibly faithful she was… Whenever I have the time in between my school work I enjoy mixing songs for other artists and currently have a portfolio of mixes I’ve done for other artists via my Instagram @4thg3ar under the highlight “MixedBy4th” I even had the pleasure of creating a mix for Milan Christopher from VH1’s Love and Hip-Hop Hollywood which I certainly am so grateful for that opportunity. In addition to this, I also am credited for recording and mixing a cover of “Everybody wants to rule the world” by MayDay Muse and Pasjiea Marie for the YouTube Series On The Way Up: Atlanta directed by Devonta Lamond. I love audio engineering because being an audio engineer is being a problem solver… Recording sessions may sound great even as a rough mix… but once you’re crafting the final mix there will always be little small details that need to be paid attention to in order to craft a mix that the artist will cherish forever. In terms of what sets me apart… I spent quite a few years developing my signature sound which is certainly what I believe sets me apart… my sound as a producer is not heavily trap influenced… I’d like to think that it’s more of a boom bap sound with a more modern approach…. There is so much of my work that the world has yet to hear but God has been working on me throughout this whole time and I had to get more aligned in his will in order for things to begin to make sense the way they do today… I’ll say this… “The best is certainly yet to come!” The visions that God has been giving me lately has forced me to realign and refocus in his will for my music journey. One of my biggest goals before the close of this year is to finally put my beats up for sale via 4thg3ar.com. Furthermore, I finally finished a special project called “Inspire” an EP that ultimately I’ve had to push back due to some storms and challenges and circumstances in my life… including the loss of my grandfather and some car repairs that cut into my budget for the project. Nevertheless, the storms we go through in life can be inspiring in it self because it’s what we learn through our storm that can help Inspire others… I realize now that God is using me one of his strongest warriors to inspire others as my journey of life plays out. Finally, I’m most proud of my growth and connecting the emotion and feeling of creating with the technical understanding as well. I give credit to Wavy Wayne an amazing Audio Engineer for teaching me so many things I know today through his Wavy Seals Elite program. It’s because of Wavy Wayne and Adam Long that I’m able to engineer my own music now and engineer for artists and that’s something I never imagined I would be able to do when I first started producing. I always relied on going to a studio to fulfill the engineering process… As a result, it’s also made my ear better trained as a producer as well and my own beats much cleaner and sonically pleasing. My mission is to “Share my life experiences and connect it with what I do musically” Today, I’m focused on graduating with my Audio Production degree Fall of 2023 and embracing this wonderful music journey along the way… I want all my people to know that I truly love this craft and I’m never going to stop doing what I love and what I feel God has called me to do. Also, continue to tune in to 4thg3ar.com which will be used a hub of all things “4thg3ar” as the puzzle pieces finally start to come together!
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
I’ve learned not everyone will understand your journey as a creative because everyone is not able to see the vision that God has given you… My mind was molded in Corporate America up until I finally left my job and actually was able to divert my focus to my craft. Non-creatives will scratch their head likely thinking what a dumb move on my part. I’ll say this… time is fleeing and the last thing I want to do is look back on my life and finally realize what I wasted most of my time doing instead of focusing on my biggest dreams and aspirations. We have been given only one life to live and I like the idea of spending it actually living and focusing on what matters most to me in life. For me that is God, Self (Spiritually, Mentally, Emotionally, Physically)” after God and before Family
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
More recently, I wanted nothing more than to release my “Inspire” Ep. A project that was to be released in May of 2022 and pushed back to July of 2022 has yet to be released. My faith is typically always tested before the release of a project so that’s something I’m used to. This time was different though because I lost my last grandparent, I had more than $1500 in car repairs which cut into the budget I had for the project. In addition, I now use my vehicle to make money via UberEats, DoorDash, Amazon Flex and Walmart Spark so it’s imperative I have a moving vehicle so I can catch the best offers, support myself and keep the wheels moving. Ultimately, I would fix one issue with my car and another issue would present itself. From a mechanical perspective these parts were due to be replaced so I remained steadfast and resilient. Step by step I was able to take care of these issues… I realized that God was using this very dark storm to help Inspire others so I went live on Instagram and titled it “Through the Storms of Life…” I realize now I must share inspiring stories and connect with people in inspiring ways before I can share this body of work with the world. Each time there was an issue with the car I made sure to always focus on a plan instead of drowning in those depressing thoughts. We have to activate our faith in trying times because the mind receives what you think, feel and say. As a result, we can sometimes program our mind to not look for ways out of a situation when we face challenges and difficulties based solely alone on what we tell our mind.
Contact Info:
- Website: 4thg3ar.com
- Instagram: 4thg3ar
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/4thg3ar
- Twitter: 4thg3ar
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZowyKcyG_buxFLr0aBziKQ
- Other: Tiktok: @4thg3ar