Artist Feature | Anthony Celia

Tell us what first drew you to music, songwriting, and music production?

I grew up in a musical family. My dad is a drummer and was a gigging player when I was born. So, music was always part of my life. However, it was never forced on me. I didn’t start on the piano or anything like that. I remember my dad teaching me simple “boom chuck” beats on his kit when I was in early grade school. Then in 5th grade, I joined the orchestra because it sounded like fun. I was assigned to the upright bass because I joined the class late and bass was all that was left. I played classical and jazz up until my senior year of high school. In middle school, my dad got me an electric bass. That coincided with my discovery of punk rock. I was in a punk band gigging every weekend all through high school while still keeping up my classical and jazz chops in school. 

I picked up guitar in high school and started writing for my band, even though I was the bass player. I never sang anything I wrote. It wasn’t until I was 18 or so that I started singing the songs I wrote. I became a Christian when I was 16 and started writing worship songs. Those became the first songs I had the courage to sing in front of people. I was at a small church in Southern California and my youth pastor encouraged me to write songs and share them with our church. Not our youth group. Our real adult church! Looking back that was such a gift. 

I was always interested in recording and production. My dad always had a small studio project when I was growing up, but I got into producing and recording my own stuff out of necessity. I had these songs my church was singing and needed a way to get them into my congregation’s ears throughout the week. So, after college, I learned how to use Pro Tools via YouTube and just figured it out. I didn’t have money to pay someone else to do it, so I just did it myself. If I am interested in something I will teach my self how to do it. 

What does your creative process/rhythm look like?

I wish I could say I am one of those very disciplined writers who sit down every day to write and then spend weeks crafting one song. I really respect people who work that way. I have tried to be that guy, but it never works for me. 

Songs come to me in batches. About every 2 years I will write a handful of songs in about a month, flesh them out, record them and release them into the world. I don’t have some huge secret catalog that no one has heard. I feel like every song I write is the last one I will ever write.  It is a terrifying feeling really. But over the years I have learned my rhythm. I trust the process. 

I am always sketching out ideas and playing with melodies and phrases. But I have never gone back to those ideas to write a song. Typically, if a song doesn’t come to me within an hour it won’t come to fruition. But I suppose all of that sketching is setting me up to receive the full song when the songs are ready to come into the world. Songwriting baffles me. Each song feels like a gift that I don’t deserve. Finishing a song is a sacred thing to me. It’s like something was created from nothing. I am just the conduit. It keeps me humble and thankful. 

Tell us where you find inspiration.

Like I said before, songs seem to just come to me when they are ready. I don’t normally feel super inspired. I will have ideas or a longing to express an idea or feeling but that is rarely what comes out on the page as I write. It’s usually the thing behind the thing that comes out. 

The title track of my new batch of songs is called Come and See. I was inspired to write about the calling of the disciples and how they went and told the other would-be disciples about Jesus. As I was writing I quickly realized the thing behind the thing was me wanting to express to my non-Jesus following friends how this man named Jesus crashed into my life when I was 16 and really did change everything about my life’s trajectory. I had an aha moment after I came up with the line “I can’t explain what drew me in to this man from Galilee… come and see”. I realized it wasn’t an account of the disciples, it was an autobiography. The story in the Scriptures inspired me to share my story. That is how it usually works for me. I write and then realize in hindsight what inspired me.

If you had to choose one record, one band, and one book that has had the most influence on you as a songwriter, what would they be?

Really? You have to ask this question? 

Record:

Counting Crows August and Everything After. This record is perfect. The songs, the performances, the production. It just works. It’s the one record I always find myself going back to, and the one record I know I will never create which makes me sad sometimes. Haha.

Band: 

The Avett Brothers. They are honest and they know who they are. They are comfortable in their own skin. They have inspired me to be me. I write simple pop songs. I am learning to be ok with that. 

Book: 

The Pastor: A Memoir by Eugene Peterson

This book floored me. I see myself as a pastor who writes songs. I don’t really identify with the title of “songwriter”. I feel like a fraud most of the time. But the Lord made it clear to me in college that I was supposed to write songs for his church. This book showed me what the heart of a pastor ought to look like. In American Christianity, the worship leader or pastor is often celebritized. This book helped ground me. Peterson was faithful to one church for a long time. He didn’t hop from church to church chasing the limelight. He was faithful to the call the Lord had placed on his life. I think a lot of us artistic minded people can learn from his example of faithfulness and rootedness. We are always chasing inspiration. Maybe we need to slow down and be present to where we are instead of chasing what we think we want. I have been at my church for almost 12 years. It’s my first job out of college. I feel like I am just beginning to write honest songs for our community.  

Tell us about your new record Come & See.

I don’t know if it is an EP or record. Who knows these days? Thanks Apple. It’s a collection of songs we have been singing at my church for the past year or so. So, in that sense, it is special because our community knows all of these songs already. A lot of the time I will write the songs and flesh out the arrangement before our band touches them. But this time our band had much more input. I would send them an acoustic demo and then we would flesh out an arrangement on Sunday during rehearsal. This was really more out of necessity than intention. I was wrapping up my M.A. so I didn’t have time to arrange them. But it turned out for the better. These songs feel more like our community because they helped form them. 

The goal was to release it this past spring, but then the pandemic happened and put it on hold. I didn’t touch it for months. On top of the pandemic, we were also expecting our first son in September so that made me finish it. It was the first time I put hard deadlines on a project. The guitars had to be done by this day and vocals had to be done by this day. I blocked out four days to mix the entire thing and then had my dad master it that next weekend. I actually really liked that workflow because it forced me to make decisions and stick to them. I could have tried another vocal pass or revised a mix five more times, but I simply didn’t have time. I had to get it done. 

I’m really happy with how it turned out. A lot of our worship team played on it. I also had some good friends from college play on it. Kip Fox did all the harmonies. Steve Zank played the guitar solo on My Savior Thou Art. And a kid up in Minnesota named Ben Howe played all the keys and lap slide. 

Overall this record is more communal than my past projects. I didn’t hold onto this project so tightly. I let other people have a say and it was way more fun and rewarding in the end.

What are you working on right now?

Well our son, Soren, was born on September 6th. So, right now I am learning to be a dad. He has all of my devotion. I am loving it. It is the coolest thing in the world. I am working on finding a new balance in life. I am actually feeling super inspired right now. I am noodling on the guitar and catching melodies here and there (which I will probably never use). But between pastoring a church in a worldwide pandemic and being a new dad, my plate is pretty full. I bet in about 6 months some new songs will start popping up. I just keep telling myself to be patient and trust the process. The songs will come when they are ready. 

You can find learn more about Anthony and find his music at AnthonyCelia.com.