We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful J. Anders. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with J. below.

J., thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I feel like it all started with my motivation to tell stories. I would seek feedback and write about whatever was going on in my life at the time. I think I discovered my gift for writing music when I was about 14 years old. I would rap my songs to peers and they would laugh at my witty rhetoric and encourage me to keep going. When I began to record songs I didn’t know how to verbally convey the type of sounds I was hearing with the words in my head, so I decided to go to school for Audio Engineering and Post Production. Knowing what I know now, I think I would have went to school for Engineering way sooner than I did. The most essential skills I took away from school was the overall verbiage in the studio. Also having a clear and concise idea of what I wanted to do when in the studio was very helpful because it eliminated time and resources being wasted. Now that we’re in a completely digital age, I honestly feel like there’s nothing to stand in the way of learning more. With internet access, we can tune into “Youtube” university and learn all sorts of tricks and tips.

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

I go by J. Anders, I’m a songwriter, artist and engineer from Long Beach, CA and I’ve been influenced by music for as long as I can remember. I’m known for being a jack of all trades. I specialize in songwriting and recording, but I’m also an actress, website designer, and content creator for social media and brand awareness. I love to paint in my downtime and design clothing. What sets me apart is my talent. I don’t feel like I fit into any specific genre of music but if I had to place myself in a box it would be alternative hip-hop. I can write almost any genre of music from Rap, R&B, Neo-Soul, and Alternative. If Missy Elliot and Big Sean had a music child, I think it would be me. I’ve been most proud of going to school for Audio Engineering and Post Production but in the future I’ll be most proud of when I can write, record and act full time, and make a living off of my passions.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Society can be more financially supportive to individual artists versus the large music platforms. On average, Spotify pays rights holders between $0.003 and $0.005 per stream. If you do the math, it’ll take well over 1 million streams to nearly receive $3000. If you’re an independent artist who isn’t pulling over a million streams per month, then you obviously can’t make a living. Whenever a signed artist releases a new single they have a marketing team to push the single as well as “influencers” to help push. Then in return they are paid. The singles then rise in streams on major platforms. The record labels all have ties to the streaming platforms. Today, record labels make a fixed percentage of streaming royalties for the artist’s work that they produce and market. For major labels, artists typically only receive about 16% of the royalty payments from streaming services. Overall, if society stops being followers and relied on their own opinions of what’s “good music”, and actually play it, then independent artist could reach a wider fan base.

: Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

For me, music is life. I know a lot of people who say they’re musicians, artists or rappers but their consistency in making music is just not there. They don’t have a passion for music like I do. I don’t want to work a 9-5 job for the rest of my life. My main goal in life is to make music 100% of the time. I want to rely only on music as my sole source of income. I don’t need to be famous nor am I chasing fame, I just know that I want to write and create music while getting paid for my time and talents.

Contact Info:

• Website: whoisJAnders.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whoisjanders/?hl=en
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/whoisjanders?lang=en
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTSZEXoa87y67QGkqRgi9JQ/videos

Image Credits
Britney L. Small