Meet Anthony Cruz | Music Producer & Songwriter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Anthony Cruz and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Anthony, what is the most important factor behind your success?
I am not a “successful” musician in the sense where I have achieved global notoriety or accumulated immense wealth from my catalog. It’s easy to feel like you’re not a real musician if you don’t have a monstrous amount of song streams and monthly listeners. Nowadays, I feel successful because I’ve embraced the fact that I am a real musician regardless.

I’ve poured a thousand plus hours into my craft. I get to turn the ideas in my head into very real, audible art. I get to look back on my vast catalog of beats and songs and hear the evolution and transformation over the years. I have a day job, go to school, and write music when I have the precious minutes available and inspiration to match. Every bit of it is real.

It really starts with ditching the “imposter” syndrome and giving yourself the kudos you deserve. Whether you’re touring the world or recording music in someone’s dusty garage, you’ve succeeded at being a musician.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I used to record for local musicians around town with a studio that fit in a backpack. I live in a small farm town, so we don’t have a bustling music scene and commercial grade studios. We would set up shop in garages, basements, laundry rooms, and a hotel conference room once (without permission of course). I didn’t make a dime during those days, but I learned a lot and really sharpened my skills. Eventually, I wanted to tell my own stories.

I had already been making beats for a long time and started forging my own sound, a mixture of retro synthesizer sounds, spacy guitars, and chill hip hop drums. It was weird being the one singing into the microphone for once, but it added a whole new dimension to my songwriting. I’ve gotten the comment once that my beats themselves tell stories, but you can create this whole new level of imagery of emotions with your words. Several demos later, I wrote a little album called “The Waves” and put it into the world in 2021.

The part of my story I’m most proud and excited about is the grassroots music festival that local musicians and myself put together for our local musician community called “Rock It in the Pocket Park.” It is definitely one of a kind for our area, and it actually saw it’s third annual installation this year. It’s awesome to see an underrepresented group in our neck of the woods get a platform to celebrate who they are and what they do.

It has all been a fun and exciting journey. The music bug comes and goes, but never truly stays away. I have more stories to tell, and more real world experiences to create. I have a lot of big ideas for the years to come, and a fun one that I hope we’ll see in 2024.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I live about 3 hours from Denver, Colorado, so I’ll have to shout out my own little corner of the world here down in Southeast Colorado. Lamar, Colorado is a small farm town, with cool people with cool ideas on the come up. One of our historic hotels, called the Cow Palace, was recently renovated and has some of the best food in town and great atmosphere with their Tavern 1301 restaurant. Cody Cooks is an awesome BBQ food truck where you can get insane pulled pork. We also have an endless list of Mexican food.

As far as entertainment – I have to say, I don’t feel like there is a huge list of fun things to do as a young adult. There’s a lot of cool rec activities if you’re into things like softball or soccer, but I feel like there is a lot of opportunity to serve the underserved, so to speak. I joined a non profit board called Lamar Partnership Inc this year who has an awesome group that want to see this town grow into something more. I’m learning a lot from them and I hope I can fuse some of that knowledge with my own to bring new exciting opportunities into town.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
All of my love and respect goes to my parents. They wouldn’t let me fail in life even when I tried. They had a lot of anxiety when I didn’t go to college right away and started diving nose deep into song writing (I don’t blame ’em), but they support me and all of creative endeavors now. That or they just got used to the assembly line of wild ideas that is this crazy brain of mine. Love you mom and dad!

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fromacruz/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3rCQ-Wreamk-j3KXpKlmsw