ANKER - Atomic Sound
"Atomic Sound" was released 29th January 2016. Anker hits his stride with a lush & polished production with the skills & team to avoid boring bar band arrangements & aimless guitar playing. Anker proves that he can handle himself in a studio by presenting a terrific collection of confidently arranged songs.
Anker decided to work with Twelve By Twelve Studios, owned by another Mercer County musician, Brandon Broderick. Anker & Brandon floated in the same circles playing gigs at all the same places, attending each other's gigs & opening up for each other for those rare headlining opportunities & special events.
Anker & Broderick have an amazing musical chemistry. Broderick was able to get all the arrangements & melodies out of Anker's head. If Anker couldn't play it himself, he just had to vocalize a melody line or frantically act out the rhythm part like a lunatic and Brandon would know exactly what was being communicated. Guitar parts were composed rather than just capturing a bunch guitar noodling in the right key. Layered vocals were part of the production just as much as the instruments. The goal here was to create music as an art & not just make a live studio recording in 2 takes.
As a result of "Atomic Sound", Anker could finally call himself a professional musician being a part of:
- Singer / Songwriter Conference of Cape May, NJ & the Millennium Music Conference of Harrisburg, PA - speaking on panels about crowd funding, hosting venues for other acts & headlining
- featured artist & performer at the 6th anniversary concert for Musicians on a Mission in Belmar, NJ (w/ Vini "Mad Dog" Lopez of the E-Street Band & Paul Whistler in the form of "Dawg Whistle")
- booked regularly across NY, NJ & PA at wineries, breweries, bars & private events
- host of the Grover's Mill Coffee House open mic for 6 years before things shut down to the Covid19 pandemic.
- co-produced & wrote the music for a children's yoga CD "Meow Is The Time For Yoga". A local yoga instructor hired Anker & Broderick to help write a children's yoga album. This album helped her characters, "Swami Cat" & "Harmony Hippo", bring the message of "purr-fect peace" to yoga-hungry kids & became a CDBaby "best selling children's CD" for 2 months in 2016.
"Atomic Sound" REVIEWS:
-Best Americana album for June 2016
TheAkademia.com
-"... the songs on Atomic Sound are blue collar rock dripping with Americana not too far from Petty & Springsteen ... Anker has a knack for writing melodies & structuring his songs with the skill of a great writer. This album pushes Anker to a new level of musicianship as he creates radio ready rock."
Ted Rogen - The Even Grounds
-The mix of poetic introspection a la Jackson Browne & rootsy stories like Bruce Springsteen prove Anker to be a talented singer & songwriter. Stand out tracks: "Stones" & "Worry".
Bob Makin - MyCentralJersey.com
CREDITS:
ANKER - all songs produced, written & performed except as noted below
BRANDON BRODERICK - Twelve by Twelve Studios in East Windsor NJ, recording, production, engineering, lead guitars, percussion
AMAURY PEREZ - mastered at Future Sounds in Lawrenceville NJ
DERRYCK DAWKINS - bass tracks 3-9