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 & put together a confidently arranged song.
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 clearly 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 the CDBaby "best selling children's CD" for 2 months.
"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