As seen in Guitar Girl Magazine Guitar Girl Magazine Special Edition – I Belong – July 2023
I come from a musical family. My grandmother turned me on to singing and playing old time-y blues guitar while visiting her on summer vacations in Georgia. Like most players, after returning home to New Jersey, I started taking lessons at the local music store. Around 12, I began taking lessons from my late Uncle Rome Anthony, a genuine James Brown and Prince lover like me. I fell in love with players like Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen, Don Felder, Tony Iommi, and more. Now, in my early 20s, I have come to appreciate the diverse styles of many other musicians. My latest release, Chapters, has a Paul Landers metal-core vibe.
I’m inspired by creative independence, writing, and art. These avenues are a way to channel ideas and events in my life into an emotional time capsule. I can listen to a song I wrote a year or two years ago and get choked up remembering what happened in my life. Then later, having the opportunity to perform and emote that music with a live audience.
What inspires you to wake up every day and continue pursuing your dreams?
I’m inspired every day to continue the challenge of learning new ways to approach songwriting, the ability to support the lyrics and melodies with the appropriate vocal and guitar voicing, rhythms, and song structure, along with the emotional ride and energy.
Take us through your songwriting process. What types of environments do you feel you need to be your most creative?
My songwriting process has no particular rhyme or reason, except that I like having songs for different parts of life’s spectrums. If I go out dancing at a club, I’ll write an upbeat tune; when I see heartbreak and injustice, I’ll write to get my rage out. And if I’m in a relationship, I’ll write something sentimental.
I love driving down the interstate, rocking one minute and weeping the next. I’ll even do that within one song. Once I have a handful of tunes together, I’ll get together with the other Time Marches On, aka TMO, band members Farrah (keys) and Nicholas (drums), who also write songs and build from there. Some songs come together quickly, and others may take a month.
The environment in which I can be most creative is when I’m alone. When I start a song, I need to crawl around in my head first to bring the idea into being. Once I have a solid foundation, I like collaborating with the other guys in the band on keys and drums or with the producer in the studio. Lyrics can have different meanings to different people. I like to hear others’ perspectives on their interpretations (sometimes).
What guitars are you playing right now? Name your top two to three.
I use three types of guitars: my Stratocaster for clean or crunchy tones, my seven-string Schecter for metal riffs, and my acoustic Yamaha for country-style picking and ballads.
Finish this sentence: I believe in music…
deserves to be cherished. It deserves to be celebrated the way we celebrate. Personally, music influences my life every day. We have to protect it and our freedom.