We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Carson Anthony a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Carson thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I didn’t always know that music production was my path. In my youth I was an academic. I was well-read, achieved a high GPA, and was determined to pursue law, accounting, or some other easily praised, high paying career. I was an exceptional writer, with an affinity for poetry and literature. I had endless accolades to exhibit and yet, all I felt was an endless emptiness. Despite the fact I was doing everything right, I couldn’t shake the thought that it just didn’t matter; maybe life didn’t. I carried within myself a void that grew the longer it went unfed…

I was 16 when music found me. Well, perhaps more accurately a girl did. And wow did she had the most tenaciously terrific taste in tunes. I was hooked. Every song she showed me was better than the last. My body, mind, and soul were opened up to a world I never knew existed. A world of indie-rock, self-produced projects, and radio hits I had missed while my head was buried past the ears in some dead poet’s longing sonnet.

I had been playing guitar for a couple of years, and while I knew the basics, I now had the passion and love for the medium backing me as I began writing my first songs. My background as a writer in school felt like it had found purpose for the first time as chords and couplets found a home in my notebook. I became passionate about the craft, feeling butterflies each time an emotion or belief was pulled from my depths and put to page. Songwriting flowed, and only deepened my appreciation for music as an art form.

The void that fueled my self-doubt and existentialism wasn’t gone, but it felt a whole lot smaller as I wrote. My daily journaling was replaced by daily poetry and practice. By the time I began producing my best works, time began to slip away as I spent entire days in my closet recording, or mixing at my desk. While typically I get burnt out from a new hobby in a month or two, I have been writing, producing, and performing music for over 5 years now. I have so much further to go, as I am just now starting to get paid from Spotify and live gigs.

The longevity of the interest is what made me realize I need to pursue songwriting and production as a career. I was never able to picture myself content spending 8-12 hours a day in a courtroom or spreadsheet, and as a writer and romantic, dread would have eaten me up and spit me out. I would have speed-ran my midlife crisis. Music is the only thing I have found in life that I could do all day, every day, till the end, and die with a smile on my face and without regrets. I only get one life. I want to spend it fulfilled. Art may be difficult profession to make a living off of, but to a true artist, it’s pursuit is non-negotiable.

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.

Honestly, I am still getting into my industry. I moved out at 18 and have been developing my art and career on the side for the past 3 years while working full-time to pay my bills. I released my first album “Upside Down” last year, and have been playing at farmer’s markets, various events, and small venues to raise funds for my next album. I am currently applying to production studios in Arizona in hopes I can get access to professional knowledge and equipment.

My projects stem from a place of passion and honesty. Whether you’re listening to me live or recorded, I just love to be singing something I wrote. Everything I write is from scratch. Everything I have produced has been by hand, stitched together over countless hours, listening and relistening countless times. Everything I write means a lot to me.

I only wish production didn’t take so long because I have so many more songs caught in the production pipeline I wish you could hear. That being said I have plenty of projects in the works, including multiple demos being released currently.
Getting work in the industry, in live gigs and production, will speed this process along. If you’re reading, I’ve probably written a song you would love, I’m just working on getting it to your ears!

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I have spoken to countless individuals who are either struggling on their path as a creative or who doubt they have enough inspiration within themselves to even begin the journey. Either way my advice is the same: Fall in love with the process, not the product. The rest will work itself out.

Art of any kind is a form of expression that comes from passion. I don’t write a song because I think it will make it big, or because I think people will like it, or even because I think I’m particularly good at it. I write because I love the act of writing so deep to my core I have no choice but to practice the art. I have spent hours on the most mediocre piece of work, ended up deleting the entire file, and ended the night with a smile because I consider it time well spent. If my goal was to make money off of that song, I would have been really discouraged. Fortunately my goal was just to scratch my creative itch.

So if you’re a photographer, take photos for your own enjoyment on a daily basis, not just for your clients. If you’re a musician, learn a song because it means something to play it. You get the idea. Get in touch with what drew you to creative expression in the first place.

Having this mentality makes consistency and discipline so much easier. If you want to truly master anything it takes thousands of hours. Focusing on the product is a surefire way to get hung up. Your first defeats will seem like an obstacle on your journey, when in reality they are the journey. You have to mess up to learn for next time, and you have to work from a place of passion. Fall in love with climbing over those hurdles and you’ll get a whole lot better at jumping over them.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Just recently I had to move back home to live with family in order to try and make my dream work. For context, I had moved out of the house after graduating high school, and have been financially independent since. A few months ago I moved from Phoenix, AZ to Missoula, MT because I had a head in the clouds idea that a change of scenery and people would be the magic shake up I needed to do things differently and finally make it big in music as a live musician. I wanted to start a folk band, and book more gigs at the great bar scene up there.

Yet surprisingly, after moving states, no magic was to be found. Instead what I found was perspective. Since Montana was not shaping up as I had hoped, I ended up doing much more thorough, dedicated research into the music industry to try and find a real answer to success. I had realized that my passion was in the production side of the profession, and with my background I could secure an internship and start making the necessary connections with those already making a living off of music. However, not all of these internships pay, and they aren’t found in small cities like Missoula.

So after a move I thought would change my life I’m right back where I started. Not only that, but I’m living with family which feels like a massive step backwards from my previous independence. However, for the first time since I started writing songs, I now know exactly what I need to do to make my dream work. That perspective would never have come without taking enough wrong steps to know what the right one feels like. There’s no such thing as a mistake, just a lesson learned.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://carsonanthony.com
• Instagram: @carsonanthonymusic
• Soundcloud: Carson Anthony
• Other: TikTok: @carsonanthony03
  Spotify: Carson Anthony
  Apple Music: Carson Anthony
  Email: [email protected]

Image Credits

Photos by G Muller Photo