Life & Work with Anthony Poli

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

Hi Anthony, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started playing guitar in 6th grade. My Grandpa had been trying to get me to play guitar in my own house, there was always Grateful Dead or the Beatles spinning on a record, so I was always surrounded by music. Before my grandfather died, he gave me the guitar I began playing. He passed away right before my first show, and I still think about how he never got a video or even got to see me start playing. My grandma would always tell me how he was watching over and when I bought my first real guitar, I modeled it exactly like the one my Grandpa gave me- and that’s when everything started. I was super blessed with the opportunities I had in high school. A larger music program at my school offered music production classes, and I took them both semesters for all four years. My teacher Mr. Gemkow got me to start writing, and everything changed from there. I played many sports that I lost interest in, and My Gemkow guided me in the direction of songwriting. I didn’t even really sing in high school; I just wrote, that is until senior year when I wrote my first song, “Dream,” and everything since then just sorta happened from my using one 30-dollar mic. I started making demos and picked up a bunch of different instruments, and by august of 2021, I released my first EP, “Sunset Vignette” I wrote all the songs and played every instrument. In college, I met some amazing people and started playing a couple of shows at places like The End, 5 spots, and drummer. Since then, I released another single, “Slow Days,” and am on track to release much more.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been fairly smooth?
There have been many bumps along the way; before college, I struggled a lot with seeing the bigger picture, and my decision to go to college in Nashville was very difficult because that meant going all in for what I believe in. My mom has been my strong biggest supporter since I was very young, and she has told me my whole life I am capable of anything; without her, I would not be anywhere I am now. In college, there were a couple of setbacks in finding a rhythm with people and weeding out the ones who would help me get to where I wanted to be. Music is such a vulnerable thing, and I love and do hate it. You have to sort of have this weird ego because, without that, it’s easy to get very lost and very easy to get self-conscious.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
The whole psychedelic thing has been my itch for as long as I can remember. The air in the music creates this feeling that is warm or cold or soft. It just doesn’t happen in other genres. For me, music is about a connection. I see it that people like the Grateful Dead just give their 100% selves to the music. This certain vulnerability comes with making music, and I love to embrace that while I write. I try to find certain perspectives you won’t always hear about. Being a heavy instrumentalist makes my creative process quite interesting. I write by starting with something on the guitar, then adding drums and piano and synths, and then I start vocals. After all, if the instrumental doesn’t have its energy, if it doesn’t omit a certain emotion without the lyrics, it just isn’t worth it to me to add vocals because there isn’t a drive in your core to create what you are trying to say. Playing other instruments is also great because I can feed whatever emotion I’m trying to create into those other instruments, and they all come together as 1 aura.

Risk-taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Honestly, as things had picked up in college, it’s crazy that I had never sung before I got here. Even as I was writing and making music in high school, I was never a singer. I thought my voice was just not a voice people wanted to hear. At my first show, I was SO nervous. I had never sung before and was about to perform my own music in front of a crowd. It was surreal. In my mind, I view risks as almost some sort of accidental mistake. As bad as that might sound, I feel these accidental mistakes need to happen. Sometimes there needs to be an error to create beautiful things because without taking that jump or even stumbling, you will never have anything to climb from the ground. I am a very big overthinker of literally everything I do, and sometimes those quick choices are the best ones.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anthonypoli/
• Other: https://linktr.ee/Anthonypolimusic -links to everything 🙂

Image Credits
First picture (red) Sam Wilson