Which brings us to the next point: it seems that Anthony has the Midas touch. From always being successful in athletics, to breaking company records in his previous life as a corporate superstar, the constant drive to be the best has always been with him. “I left a very lucrative career to go broke and learn how to make music,” he tells us. “It was always to be the best. Being competitive is my number one attribute. I surround myself with incredibly successful people in an incredibly successful environment because I know naturally and organically I will then set my standards and my goals as high as they could possibly be.”
Seeing him talk about his desire to succeed provides enough explanation as to the reason why he has become one of the hottest rising tech house DJ/ producers, seemingly out of nowhere. “I got into music because I would be on the dance floor listening and seeing these big guys going, ‘I could do better than that,” he continues. “If I put my mind to it, I could be better than this guy. I don’t want anybody to do badly, but I want to always be the best. Anything successful comes down to one word and that’s ‘consistency’. You have to be consistent. Every single time I play, I try to be the best that anyone has ever heard. If you’re awesome every time then people will take notice.”
Besides giants like the boys from Swedish House Mafia (who he happened to open for at their Chicago stop of the One Last Tour last February) others have taken notice as well. Mark Knight and UMEK have regularly included his tracks and remixes in their sets, and everyone in Chicago can’t say enough good things about him. “I love, love, love, love Chicago and the people that I play here for,” he speaks with the giddiness of a 10 year-old girl at a Justin Bieber concert. When speaking about Wavefront, he has nothing but praise for the festival and its organizers. “I played a lot of festivals. I’ve played a lot of gigs all over the world and I don’t think I’ve ever been to a place that is as aesthetically pleasing as this festival. The one thing that I would say is that unequivocally this is the best line-up of any festival in the United States all year long. Every festival is like, ‘let’s regurgitate what everybody else is doing.’ This is the one major festival, with the exception of Movement, that’s like, ‘let’s really concentrate on what people are really listening to; the people whose audio palate is more mature.’ I give them a lot of credit. It’s ballsy and they pulled it off, best city in the United States!”
Fast forward to his set later that night at Chicago’s newest super club, Castle, and it’s clear that he has, once again, brought nothing less than his A-game. Jumping up and down in the DJ booth while playing tracks from the likes of Pleasurekraft, UMEK, Tomaz & Filterheadz and his own newest techno offering ‘Yes My Friend (YMF)’, amongst others, he’s got the atten- tion of the entire dance floor. Maybe the club isn’t slammed like it may be when NERVO or Chris Lake come to visit, but let’s not forget that Anthony is still very much considered underground. In spite of it all, he refuses to be placed in a box. “I’m not trying to be tragically hip and avant-garde,” he says of his musical style.” I want people to party! I want people to dance. The main thing is about making people dance. It’s called dance music so what are we doing if not making people dance? I don’t want to be a niche. I just want to be me!”
One week later we catch him at Spybar - the same Chicago nightlife staple whose owners organized Wavefront. Although we get there towards the end of Anthony’s four hour set, what’s left of the crowd are the hardcore house music fans and industry heavyweights and Anthony is killing it! The space in front of the DJ booth is full of people jumping, clapping and whistling. The energy is nothing less than euphoric. This is my third time seeing him live in just one week and, of course, he still looks like he’s having a blast. When I ask him about where the inspiration comes from he tells me, “My own inter- personal success and being absolutely great at something is what drives me. People don’t realize that when I’m playing, that’s my reward too. I’m shar- ing my hard work in that two, three, four hours with you! We’re all sharing it together. I’m not working up there. Work is [everything] that came up to that point. That’s supposed to be a celebration. That’s what I consider my DJ sets. Let’s all have a party together, and dance together, and be happy!”
When discussing his future plans and aspirations, the theme of the constant drive for greatness again reappears. “If I die tonight I’d be drastically unim- pressed with what I’ve accomplished so far,” he tells me with a dead serious look in his eyes. “You know your potential inside of you. You know that you’re destined to do great things and I feel like I’m just getting started. I want to try to communicate music to the whole world. I think I have the right mind set, the positivity, and the right work ethic to do it!” Remember his name, because you’ll be screaming it later. JAMES KABAT
djmag.com 049
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