We had the pleasure of interviewing Tafari Anthony, and here’s what he had to say:
Q: What do you like the most about being able to create music?
ANTHONY: I love that I’m able to really work through my emotions and ideas through music. Often I’ll write songs and in the moment I won’t even realize that it’s me processing something. It could take listening to it months later to get the connection and truly understand what I was going through.
Q: What would you like your music to mean to people now and in the future?
ANTHONY: I really hope that my music offers a voice to people who may not always see themselves and their situations represented. Most of us are going through a lot of the same things, but there are so many different perspectives on the same issues. I hope that the way I see the world helps to bring light to someone who may be struggling to understand their own situation.
Q: What’s your favorite vocal training routine?
ANTHONY: For me, I love a good low-impact vocal warm-up. You’ll often find me doing vocal trills randomly, and buzzing. I’ve gotten so used to doing it that I forget it can seem like a weird thing to people when I’m just staring around casually and start to get going with it.
Q: I can imagine! What did you enjoy the most about creating “Heart Race”?
ANTHONY: Heart Race was a real treat to create. It came about pretty quickly actually. Breagh Isabel reached out to me about doing a co-write during the pandemic. We had never met before and did a session over Zoom. We connected instantly (which you kind of need to for a good honest songwriting session). We had the demo for a while and I had a dream collaborator in mind. I reached out to Derek Hoffman to see if he’d be interested in co-producing it and he was very excited about it. A few months later I was in the studio with him to do vocals and work on production. And that brings us to what you hear now!
Q: What is one aspect you would personally say is the most stressful about releasing new music?
ANTHONY: The biggest stress about releasing music these days is just trying to get seen. So much music is released on a daily basis it can be quite difficult to cut through all the noise. It’s also not very much in my personality to be like, “look at me, look at me!” so I have to really push myself to do this in a way that feels authentic.
Q: Who’s one artist you would love to work with at some point?
ANTHONY: Kelly Clarkson. I say this almost every time! I just feel like she’d be such a fun hang and also, could you imagine our voices together?! I’d be done!
Interviewed by Zoey King
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