Michael John Anthony

Scottish singer songwriter doing his thang

Michael J. Anthony has been developing as a songwriter since the early 1990s. His quest has taken him from Glasgow, Scotland to the Golden State of California. Michael has had five Soundclick #1 hits. He tests his unique brand of folkie introspection and wry humour on local open mic crowds and measures his success on how many people get up and order coffee during his sets; the answer is not many. On the art of songwriting, Michael is upbeat and expansive. "It's the most liberating form of expression I know. Everyone has important songs in their lives. Ever since I was a kid I wanted stake my claim in this wonderful cultural lexicon." Michael got his first musical instrument, a toy keyboard, when he was four. When he was fifteen, Paul Simon songs like "Slip Slidin' Away" and "American Tune" were washing through his head, "And it seemed like the perfect way to reach people, the way these songs reached me." "All my songs have an emotional anchor point, even the absurd ones. People connect with them. Songwriting is my first love. I enjoy the craft, ruminating over word choice and toying with audience expectation. I think songwriting can learn a lot from moviemaking both in terms of its systematic approach and also time expended: you get ten writers working on a screenplay which makes a polished product. If a solitary songwriter wants to compete with that quality, he usually has to do the work of more than one person. Some call me a perfectionist but to me a piece of work is finished when I can't improve it any more. If you look at the songs the world loves the most whether 'Hey Jude' or 'My Heart Will Go On', a fan might play them a thousand times in his life, and there are millions of fans. I think to produce something as significant as 'Hotel California' is worth fifty drafts. It's worth a year of work. Simply put, thank God that Paul Simon wrote 'The Boxer'. The world is a better place because of that song. That's why I write songs.

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