Conversations with Anthony Smith

Today we’d like to introduce you to Anthony Smith.

Hi Anthony, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I started writing songs in Jr. high school. My family always had a mandate that everyone would have to learn how to play the piano and sing. As much as I didn’t really want to, it was kind of natural to do it and eventually, it became fun. My senior year in high school, I had some friends and we felt like we wanted to start a singing group, but we needed music.

One of the guys in the group got a Yamaha keyboard for Christmas and he brought it to my house. I kept that keyboard for months because I was the only one in the group that knew how to play it and learned how to work it. I produce store first few songs on his keyboard, and then my sister after seeing how serious I was about production bought me a keyboard. I called my first production five in the morning because I stayed up all night until five in the morning making the beat, and I wanted everyone to know. A few years later, I was working at a car wash where music production just happened to be one of the favorite pastimes of the employees. I’ became cool with one of the guys that was leading the musical charge there and he gave me some software called reason. I was hooked from that point on. Trying my best to duplicate the sales of my favorite producers, mainly Timbaland.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I feel like it has definitely not been a smooth road, but I feel like I have better shock absorption now. I haven’t reached the level of success that I believe I will one day, but I will. And even if the road is bumpy at that time, my suspension will be strong enough that my ride will be smooth.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I do a lot of different things. I think that I’m becoming some sort of serial entrepreneur or business trailblazer. Music has always been my first occupational love, but I have ventured into video, fashion and I am preparing to venture into podcasting. I think my specialty is my ability to be creative in different spaces. I attribute that to having a lot of different genre influences and a desire not to be pigeonholed or limited in my expressions. I think the thing that I’m most proud of is my growth. Five years ago, I gave up everything that I had worked the previous decade to build. I walked away from a job and a life that had become extremely toxic. When I did this, I didn’t have any money, I didn’t have a car, but I did have a beautiful wife, a great family and faith. Since then, I have been rebuilding and pushing myself to become the man that I’ve always desired to be, and the growth on this process is the thing that I am the most proud of. What sets me apart from others is that I prefer to set the curve then to follow the trend. I have never been a successful trend follower. The more I try to duplicate someone else, the less effective I am. So just the desire to go left when everyone else goes right is a natural separator for me.

What does success mean to you?
Success for me is freedom. To not be confined to defiance by or dependent on a failing system. And then to take that freedom and make it contagious so that others can experience freedom too.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: Instagram.com/recompsmith
• Facebook: Facebook.com/recompmediainc
• Other: [email protected]