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Tony McAnany...The Man Behind The Music By Jasmine McNealy_______________________________________
“I really
enjoy watching artists find their way,” said Grammy winning and
Oscar-nominated producer Tony McAnany.
“If you are a part of that, making them click or exploring different
kinds of music, the gratification is the same. I think I became like a music junky.” McAnany is
not new to the music industry or the role of producer. He’s worked with heavy hitters like
Jaci Velasquez, P.O.D., and Nicole C. Mullen, and can recount days of working
as a producer for Angel AMI records.
But his first actual time in a recording studio happened when he was
only ten-years-old. “I had the opportunity to see what all that was like
early,” he said. A child of a single-parent
household, McAnany grew up in what he described as the “low income
department.” “We lived in the
ghetto region of the cities,” McAnany said. Although he
lived in these areas, Tony didn’t recognize his supposed station, which has
helped him as he’s grown older.
“This was great because I got to grow up without any preconceived
notions about people,” he said.
“I was free of any of that kind of stuff, the negativity.” Although he
had a childhood he describes as the same as any other child, he experienced
another side of life. “I grew up
in pretty much an artistic background,” McAnany said. The child of a dancer, his life
included attending modern dance shows, and touring with his mother. Although she
exposed her children to her work, his mother did not push them into art
activities. McAnany believes
that this is because she knew the pitfalls of not being number one and didn’t
want her children to be hurt by what could happen. But this didn’t deter McAnany who studied trumpet and won
a scholarship to study at Widener University because of it.
But it was in
the summer before his junior year of college that solidified his drive to be
a music producer. That summer
McAnany interned at the Federal Reserve Bank in Philadelphia and rode the
train back and forth to work. It
was on one these train rides that McAnany got his first job as a record
producer. “I used to
always make it my business to sit next to a business man and chat with
him…One day I sat next to a guy who described the program he was about to
start for his company, ARA Food Services, which was the largest food service
company in the world at the time.
He was going to start the program “It’s a Pizza,” throughout the
country. This conversation led
to in three months I produced and wrote three national commercial for them,
which was a big start and paid for the last two years of college,” McAnany
said. However,
everything wasn’t smooth sailing following this first experience. Although he did get jobs doing
interesting things with music and technology, he didn’t really get his big
break for a while. “The big
break comes in a long period of time,” he said. “ A lot of little events develop you into what you’re
going to become. Getting into
the record business proper was a long struggle, probably about 6 or 7 years.” McAnany
persevered through those years and is now very well known and respected in
both the secular and Christian music worlds for his work with artists such as
Jennifer Knapp, Jaci Velasquez, Missy Elliot, and Amy Grant.But he didn't
just jump into producing Christian music, though he was always interested in
doing just that. I never did
because I didnt want to commercialize my beliefs,he said. I didn't want the
frustrations as I had in the regular music business with something that was
related to my pursuit of God in my life. In the end
McAnany did get involved with producing music while at Sony and worked with
Word Records, signing acts like Nicole C. Mullen and introducing other
Christian acts to pop record By doing this,
McAnany hoped to help break down the barriers that the two genres of music
have between them. With his
current project, “Let’s Roll,” he hopes to accomplish this.
McAnany was
no stranger to Todd Beamer, who is one of the passengers attempted to take back
control of the airplane from the terrorist. Together they attended a men’s breakfast group, which
McAnany describes as a “group of guys trying to walk right. “The last thing he said was his
trademark, ‘Okay guys you ready? Let’s roll,’ McAnany said of Todd
Beamer. “Coupling that with the
Lord’s prayer, flying 5000 feet up in the air, going 500 miles per hour,
trying to take the airplane back from a group of terrorists, all of a sudden
made lets roll something more important. That’s why we wrote a song.” The story of
Beamer and the other passengers’ bravery, and Beamer’s action leading up to
the assault on the terrorists, touched McAnany and gave greater importance to
a project like Let’s Roll. “The mission
of Let’s Roll is a national mission, a mission of patriotism,”
he said.
“One of my hopes is
that our Let’s Roll album serves as a warm American blanket. Where you put the flag around you,
but its heated by the intensity of God’s love.” The CD is
packed with songs sung by heavy-hitters in the music business, both Christian
and pop. Artists like Lila
McCann, dcTalk, Nicole C. Mullen, Wynonna, Yo Yo Ma, Chaka Khan and others
lend their voices to make the Beamer Foundation’s goal of helping the children
affected by September 11 possible.
But even with this in mind, the record was painful for McAnany to
make. “Having to
retell the story over again was difficult,” he said. “God got us though it. What’s most important is that people
can listen to it and see it a more than just a record. It is a record of substance
first. The heart of the record
is built around wanting to be apart of the healing of the country.” His
perseverance through the difficult time he experienced in making the album
demonstrates the determination that he developed early in life. McAnany’s first audition for a music
company was won only after persistently calling the office of a record
executive.
McAnany has
made it his business to do just that; from working with the earliest stages
of sampling to mixing Christian artist with popular rhythms, it seems he has
accomplished this goal, and learned a lot about the game of life along the
way. “Its like a
soccer game. If you watch, you
might get one or two goals but they play for longer, 45 minutes each
side. There’s no breaks, just
constant running, strategy, activity, always trying to defend and attack,”
McAnany said. “This year I’ve
realized how important soccer is as a metaphor for life. We may not score a lot of goals in
life that we see, but we may make a thousand passes, that put people in new
positions. We do different
things; we may defend somebody from some injustice. It may not look like a big deal, but it changes the flow
of justice in their life.” This idea of
perseverance and living life to the fullest is what McAnany would like to
pass along to youth. “Stand strong
on your faith and go for life,” he said. “Offer some friendship outside of the norm.” |
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It was at
Widener that McAnany got exposure to the production aspect of music.
McAnany
became involved with this project through a personal relationship. Lisa Beamer,
whose husband Todd was on United flight 93 on September 11, formed the Todd
M. Beamer foundation and asked McAnany to write a song. 
“I worked
hard to get a meeting with ABC records’ music director.