Can you give me a little musical history of Anthony David?
Anthony David: I've been writing songs all my life. I'm from Savannah, Georgia. I played around a little bit, then ended up in Atlanta in the 90s. I started singing a little bit when I was in the army. I didn't know I was going to get into music so heavy, but I liked it, you know what I mean? When I moved to Atlanta I met India.Arie. She was not a serious musician at that point. She didn't really play anything, she just sang. We were just friends, and became good friends, but I'd never heard her sing. She started singing about three years later and we both started playing with the guitar. We both had an appreciation for singer-songwriters and all. I was managing her for a minute, and then I was writing songs for her, and our songwriting really took off. I still do some writing for her but now I write more for me. And I also started playing in another band called El Pus. El Pus got signed to Virgin. India got signed to Motown, then I went on tour with her. Meanwhile, the El Pus record is almost finished. I intented to work with El Pus and work with India, and then finish up my own project. That would finish that whole triangle out. When I was on tour with India, on her latest tour, I sold a lot of independent stuff. Then Brash music got in touch with me. So now my album's out on Brash.
You were in the army?
Anthony David: Yes.
Where did you serve?
Anthony David: I did the whole Desert Storm thing.
Really?
Anthony David: Yes, I was there in '89.
Wow; that's really interesting. So how long have you been writing?
Anthony David: I've been writing all my life, really. I started writing stories when I was a kid. Then later I moved into writing songs, but I didn't really know that I could like sell them or anything like that. I just wrote stories and then they turned into songs at some point. I wrote a lot of poetry when I first moved to Atlanta.
You moved to Atlanta from Savannah. Did you ever consider moving to any other cities or was Atlanta a natural place for you?
Anthony David: I moved from North Carolina; I was stationed there. I was in New York for a year and a half. I just wanted to live in a bigger city. I came to Atlanta to visit one time and I thought it was great and it's close to home, so I just moved here. Plus I liked all the music that was coming out from there at that time, like TLC and all that stuff.
What other instruments do you play besides the guitar?
Anthony David: I write tunes using the keyboard, but I don't know how to play the keyboard. I barely know how to play the guitar. (laughs) I just write the songs on it. I make it up as I go along. I don't really play anything. I fiddle on a lot of stuff, but that's about it.
Anthony David: No, I write everything. I can write pretty well on the guitar, and I can make my songs. I can hear a lot of things, but I'm lost on some things too.
Tell me about some of the other musicians you worked with on the album.
Anthony David: Marcus Jefferson plays bass on most of the songs. He also produced eight or nine of the songs. He's like a right hand man to me. He's worked with a lot of different people on the Atlanta scene and he's worked on a lot of India's stuff. He worked on a lot of Sleepy Brown's early stuff. And he's a great singer and songwriter himself. I also worked with Julie Dexter; we did a song together, "Fifty-Fifty Love."
Julie's a fantastic singer.
Anthony David: Yes, yes, she's been doing quite well on the scene for a while. And I just worked with a lot of people in the city that I'd gigged with before, you know.
Who played the flute on "Water?" I love that one.
Anthony David: There's a guy called Alex Lowe who worked on some of the production for the album. He plays flute and asked me if he could play on that song. I was like yeah, cool. And he just got up there and did it, you know.
He did a beautiful job; that's a great song. So do you have a favorite song from the album?
Anthony David: Right now it's "Fifty-Fifty Love." I kind of like "Heart Strings" too; that's a new one. I've had some of the other ones for several years actually. I've played them on stage quite a bit.
On an average day, how much time to you spend in the studio?
Anthony David: It depends on the period. I pretty much write whenever I want to be creative. I've tried to change my habits some. So now, if I'm just sitting around reading or something, I'll think, "Oh, I need to write something." But if I don't have anything to say, then I won't go in. It just depends.
You've been performing live for quite some time now. But you were a little uncomfortable performing live when you first started.
Anthony David: Uncomfortable singing, period.
Why was that and how did you overcome that?
Anthony David: Well I found my voice when I started writing. I used to try to sing other stuff, you know, different styles. My cousin Shawn was in Boyz II Men. And I tried to sing like them a little bit, but I didn't really have it down at that time. But I thought that you had to sing like them in order to sing. When I started writing my own songs I found that it meant more to me and that I could get more emotion out of it. When I first started singing, a few people I knew said I sounded like Bill Withers. I didn't know who he was by name, but when they played "Ain't No Sunshine" and "Lovely Day" for me, I was like, oh, I know those songs. And I felt like we had a similar thing in the way that we write and the way his voice sounds. It was definitely a boost to my confidence to hear him and know that someone with that kind of sound could be so successful.
Are there other singers that you heard that kind of inspired and encouraged you?
Anthony David: Oh yes, Anita Baker. I listened to her all the time in high school. I know all her songs. In the last couple of years I've really been into reggae music. I love old 70s reggae like Dennis Brown, Jacob Miller, Bob Marley. I like them because they're men, but they're very humble. I like that style. And they're very spiritual without being religious. I'm not a Rastafarian, but I appreciate the way that they approach their concept of God and women. And I love blues singers.
You've definitely got a bluesy feel to your music. Anthony David: Yes, there's a lot of that in what I've written. I was riding around a lot in North Carolina and listening to a lot of blues music then.
Who did the remix for "Georgia Peach"? It's got that "dirty south" thing going on in it.
Anthony David: That's Mark, Marcus Jefferson. He's working for Lil' Jon right now, producing. When he did this remix, he was in Miami, so he was in that "dirty south" frame of mind. Honestly, that version, the remix version was the one I first envisioned for the song. I was in another country and I thought about Georgia and I wanted to make something that had that southern sound. I like all kinds of music and I like that sound too, you know. So I wanted to bring that sound into my record.
What country were you in?
Anthony David: I don't know, maybe Paris or something, I was touring with India at the time. It could have been anywhere. It could have been Brazil; in fact, I think it might have been there. When I go some place I try to walk around and check out the local scene, just to see local people doing stuff. I was listening to the rhythms there and I thought, what would I share with them from where I come from. I was thinking about women and Georgia women and I thought, that's one of the things that I'd wanna share.
How do you think that soul music has evolved in the past decade and a half or so? There's this upsurge of what's called "nu soul", and now it seems like a lot of people are kind of getting a little more earthy, a little more raw.
Anthony David: A little more raw you think? Like who?
Well like you, for example, and India as well. Anthony Hamilton.
Anthony David: Oh right. You know what that is though. I think regional, like Stax and Motown. We live n Atlanta and we hear it that way. We heard Bobby Blue Bland, Johnny "Guitar" Watson and all those kinds of dudes. The Philly sound is what it is, and it's a great sound, but we can't do that, you know. That's not our sound.
Sure, that makes sense. Tell me a little-known fact about Anthony David that you don't mind sharing with the whole world. Anthony David: (laughs) A little-known fact, let me think about this. I've told you some stuff already, that I hadn't thought about recently, like my cousin, like Shawn and Boys II Men. I've actually got another cousin who was in that group Xscape.
Really, so you've got a lot of musical talent in your family. So what's next on your plate? Do you have a tour planned?
Anthony David: Yes, we have a lot of spot dates, I guess you could call that a tour. We've got the CD release party here in Atlanta. Then we've got Soul Fest, then a date in Jacksonville, then we're off to New York in October. There's some European stuff popping up know too, so that's going to be fun. I like to get out of the country as much as I can.
Yes, Europe will be a blast. You've got a website; how do you think the internet will affect the promotion and sales of your album? It makes music more accessible, but that can be both a blessing and a curse.
Anthony David: Yeah, I think it'll help with the album. I'm not one of them people that hates the internet and thinks all that downloading is bad. As a matter of fact I know from my experience, I've bought more music because of it, because I've been exposed to more music and I've been able to test it and see if I like it, and when I really like something I'll buy it. And if I don't, I download one of the songs. And so, you know, if you download some of my songs and somebody else uses it, its exposure, it's all good. So I think it'll help.
Anthony David: Oh yes. I think that the music is accessible and anybody can into it. I want to be liked and I want to sell records. But at the same time I won't do just anything. If I don't sell records I'll figure out a way to make a good living anyway, you know. I'm always going to make music, but yeah, I'd like to sell some records too. (laughs)
