Tafari Anthony
Toronto-based artist Tafari Anthony unveiled his latest single ‘Centerfold’ on January 31st.
Working alongside Brandon Unis, Kelly Alaina and OBLVYN, ‘Centerfold’ feels like a liberating record showcasing a poignant songwriting with pop melodies.
“I was in a new city, new space and with new people. I think all those factors combined allowed me to step out of my comfort zone to try new things, be open to new sounds and melodies, and be comfortable to be whoever I wanted to be that day”, explains Anthony.
The Canadian artist has performed alongside Shangela and American pop artist MAX, toured across North America and Asia as part of the award winning a capella band Eh440, as well as having performed at Toronto’s Dundas Square and Massey Hall.
Premiered on PAPER magazine, ‘Centerfold’ is a big pop record introducing Anthony’s new beginning.
‘Centerfold’ is now available worldwide.
Photo credit: Elliott J. Tilleczek
Introduce yourself - what's your story?
Hey! I’m Tafari Anthony, a queer singer-songwriter from Toronto Canada. My music is a mix of pop/soul/R&B, and I like to live my best rocker life sometimes. I grew up in a suburb of Toronto, and was generally a quiet child / teen. I kept to myself, but music was definitely my outlet for being more social.
How would you define Tafari Anthony, the artist?
My art allows me to be a more amplified version of myself. I have a very dark, and dry sense of humour and I find that comes out in my music. I seem to be drawn to darker themes such as heartbreak, struggling to find yourself, and in that I believe there’s a lot of beauty. Aside from Music I’m also a photographer and graphic designer. So I often have pretty clear ideas of how I want to be presented visually, but I’ve been trying to be more collaborative more recently.
‘Centerfold’ is your latest single. What’s the story behind this song?
The story behind 'Centerfold' fold is that I was kind of casually seeing this guy and maybe like six months in things fell off. Even to this day I don’t really know if I got the real story. He felt it would be appropriate to start posting things about me online, not that my name was used directly but it was really fucking obvious. But the real problem was, he couldn’t understand the loss of trust after I explained why posting something about me online and then directing me to go look for the reason why he was upset instead of taking to me directly would hurt me.
Could you describe us the songwriting/production process? When did you start working on this single?
So this was actually pretty cool. It was really the first time I had just reached out to someone through instagram to try and do some work in a city I had never been to. Brandon Unis was fully on board; he arranged to have Kelly Alaina and OBLVYN in the room with us as well for the session.
I took a bus from Calgary (where I was visiting some friends) to Edmonton super early in the morning in April 2019. I came to the session being fully open and just ready to explore whatever the day threw at me. I played them some songs I was inspired by lately and it wasn’t at all what they thought. But I think throwing them for a loop actually worked in our favour because any notion that we had of what was gonna happen the day went out the window.
Brandon and OBLVYN started working on some chord progressions, and building a sound library to get the general feel down. Meanwhile, Kelly and I started talking about life and what we wanted to write about. Though the situation with that boy wasn’t super recent at that time, it was still heavy on my mind. From there we just started humming some melodies, writing out some keywords / lines that came to mind. Once we started solidifying some melodies, the song came together pretty quickly.
Once we had the structure down, I went in to record the demo vocal for the day, and actually it ended up becoming the final vocal for the release!
What do you like the most about this song?
More than anything I’ve released so far, I feel like it captures exactly what I wanted. It’s got a clear pop sound with a soulful vocal. Cheeky lyrics that still get you in your feels. Just the right balance of the best parts of the genres I love.
What made you want to release ‘Centerfold’ as a single?
I wanted ‘Centerfold’ to be the first single back because I felt like it was the perfect reintroduction to where I’m heading. It’s obviously a very different sound from my previous work, but still feels like it belongs in the same family. I wanted to come out with a bang and I think we accomplished that with ‘Centerfold’.
What can you tell us about the artwork?
I went through many, many, many versions of the artwork. I did the photo shoot with Elliott J. Tilleczek last summer, keeping in mind the music I had coming up and what I wanted to portray. I really wanted to mix different textures and things that typically “shouldn’t” be together in the same space.
The shoot was pretty low-key. Elliott and I just kind of walked around his neighbourhood, essentially two friends hanging out, having a chat and taking some photos was like a bonus. Aside from the outfits, nothing was super planned. We both wanted to be in the moment and be open to the surroundings and how we soul utilize them.
When it came time to do the layout and design I was initially wanting to have someone else do the work. But ultimately I figured, I was trained in design and that money could be used for other things to promote the song. The final artwork is actually the very first design that I had done. I must’ve created at least 40 different versions of the artwork; different photos, different typography, all kinds of layouts. But I kept coming back to this version.
I wanted to create this theme of getting really up close and personal which is why in the background is a blown up version of the photo and then you get the full version of the photo in the forefront. I wanted very clean design and typography to not distract too much from the image.
As an artist, what are the hardest parts? And what are the best parts?
For me, the hardest part is the self promotion. A lot of releasing music is the getting people to actually discover the song and then take direct actions after that to either follow or share and care about the song and artist. But to make that happen it’s a lot of me personally reaching out to people to share and talk about the music, and like most artist the introvert in me has a hard time doing this. But through watching a lot of videos about building your audience and general advice from peers, the one thing that I keep coming back to is; you’ve spent so much time working on the music itself that you shouldn’t feel embarrassed or have too much pride to not push it. Because if you don’t do that then what’s the point?
What biggest lessons have you learned since your very first release?
Make good music that you believe in and promote the shit out of it. And also, don’t try to be trendy, by the time something is trendy you are already too late. You have to keep looking at the what’s next.
Who’s helping you build your artistry and career?
I’m slowly, but surely building up my creative team and it’s been quite a process. I want to make sure that I’m working people that I enjoy personally, and also respect their work. I want it to be a situation where people listen to the music and or see the visuals and constantly see the same people growing and creating together.
What do you want people to feel when listening to your music?
I want people to have that moment of “yeah, I know exactly how you feel”. I often write about situations that friends or people around me are going through, as well as my own personal experiences. So to have someone really relate to what I’m talking about is probably the highest compliment an artist can get.
Why do you make music?
I make music because I love it. Music gave so much to me growing up, now I feel like I have something to share through music. I often find it harder to express myself just in conversation, but doing it through lyrics and melody seems to work a lot better for me.
What are your thoughts on today’s music industry? If you could change one thing, what would it be?
Today’s music industry is quite exciting but also super daunting. Everything is so accessible that anyone can release music and with the right avenue or the right audience, you can make something happen. But in the same breath, because everything is so accessible there’s a lot of noise out there and cutting through that, or trying to figure out what you should do can be quite challenging.
If I could change one thing it would be getting rid of this idea of awards or standardized achievements. For example, I released ‘Centerfold’, which I feel is fucking fantastic and I’ve gotten such great feedback on it, but the other day I was looking at the numbers on Spotify and comparing to other artists released the same day and I got into a bit of a depressive state because I felt like the numbers weren’t high enough. We are kind of trained to think it means that it must be less deserving work. But often times this is not the case.
What is your definition of success?
My definition of success is being able to do what you love every day. That will look different to everyone, but for me, being able to create art every day is success.
What message do you want to give to LGBTQ+ communities?
Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do or be who you want to be because of your sexuality. And to add to that, don’t feel like you have to be an archetype of the LGBTQ+ community to be accepted. Live your truth, whatever that is for you.
As a human being, what do you want to accomplish?
I want to make art that lasts and people connect too. I want to be the person who supports people when they need support, and I think like most people, I just want to lead a life of good.
In your opinion, what would make the world a better place?
I think the world would be a better place if we could all just accept that we are different and that’s okay. So much time is spent trying to push back on our differences, when if we just spent more time learning about other cultures and communities we’d be in a much better place.
Connect with Tafari: