Emmerald: Can you give me a little musical history of Anthony David?
Anthony David: I've been writing songs all my life. I'm from Savannah, Georgia. I played around a little bit, then ended up in Atlanta in the 90s. I started singing a little bit when I was in the army. I didn't know I was going to get into music so heavy, but I liked it, you know what I mean? When I moved to Atlanta I met India.Arie. She was not a serious musician at that point. She didn't really play anything, she just sang. We were just friends, and became good friends, but I'd never heard her sing. She started singing about three years later and we both started playing with the guitar. We both had an appreciation for singer-songwriters and all. I was managing her for a minute, and then I was writing songs for her, and our songwriting really took off. I still do some writing for her but now I write more for me. And I also started playing in another band called El Pus. El Pus got signed to Virgin. India got signed to Motown, then I went on tour with her. Meanwhile, the El Pus record is almost finished. I intented to work with El Pus and work with India, and then finish up my own project. That would finish that whole triangle out. When I was on tour with India, on her latest tour, I sold a lot of independent stuff. Then Brash music got in touch with me. So now my album's out on Brash.
Emmerald: You were in the army?
Anthony David: Yes.
Emmerald: Where did you serve?
Anthony David: I did the whole Desert Storm thing.
Emmerald: Really?
Anthony David: Yes, I was there in '89.
Emmerald: Wow; that's really interesting. So how long have you been writing?
Anthony David: I've been writing all my life, really. I started writing stories when I was a kid. Then later I moved into writing songs, but I didn't really know that I could like sell them or anything like that. I just wrote stories and then they turned into songs at some point. I wrote a lot of poetry when I first moved to Atlanta.
Emmerald: You moved to Atlanta from Savannah. Did you ever consider moving to any other cities or was Atlanta a natural place for you?
Anthony David: I moved from North Carolina; I was stationed there. I was in New York for a year and a half. I just wanted to live in a bigger city. I came to Atlanta to visit one time and I thought it was great and it's close to home, so I just moved here. Plus I liked all the music that was coming out from there at that time, like TLC and all that stuff.
Emmerald: What other instruments do you play besides the guitar?
Anthony David: I write tunes using the keyboard, but I don't know how to play the keyboard. I barely know how to play the guitar. (laughs) I just write the songs on it. I make it up as I go along. I don't really play anything. I fiddle on a lot of stuff, but that's about it.
