Drummer Anthony Anderson Cooks Up Beats for His Borough
Anthony Anderson found his calling in the kitchen, but not in the way you’d expect. Growing up in a full house, one of 19 siblings, dinner was an event. The burgeoning drummer would abandon his sous-chef responsibilities to provide the evening’s soundtrack instead, using pots, pans, utensils and anything he could get his hands on: “soup spoons, ladles, whatever I could find,” he says. “To my family, it was just noise, but to me, I knew I was making music.”
Raised in the South Bronx by Jamaican and Puerto Rican parents, he was never far from an eclectic mix of food and music. The young drummer always found a way to connect his two passions, like asking for chopsticks with his chicken and broccoli so he could drum while eating.
“Food and music are synonymous [with] their ability to make people feel good. I see both as connectors to culture and the way in which people relate to each other,” says Anderson about his two passions. “You connect with people, both new and those you’ve known, over a good meal. Same as you can connect with someone that enjoys the same type of music.”
The Bronx’s influence is apparent throughout all aspects of Anderson’s life. His ’fro is loud and unapologetic, and his body is covered in tattoos—29 to be exact—all done by Bronx artist Edgar Rivera. His drumming style—raw, real and in your face—is something he credits to the borough that raised him. Music, and playing with a band, gave Anderson the opportunity to escape the borough’s other influences, the kind that comes with losing your father at a young age and never having experienced life outside of New York City.
He jumped at the opportunity to tour aboard with his band. “I had never left the Bronx before, so it was eye-opening for me to even be traveling. Rwanda changed the game for me. In both the elements of food and music, the culture of Rwanda is all unity and embracing where you are from. You see it in the food, the art, the exchange between the people and, of course, the music,” he says. But there’s no place like home for Anderson. The borough has been his support system since his childhood and continues to be a driving influence.
Even after traveling the world, performing in front of tens of thousands of people, he can still be found going to the same bodegas he did growing up, buying the usual—an orange Gatorade and a “bangin’” sandwich. “That’s what I love about the Bronx: the community and the relationships,” he says on growing up in the area. “You establish such a close rapport with the food vendors and shop owners. They’ve watched you grow up; they give you a break when you’re a dollar short because they want to encourage you to keep going [in life].
They know my huge family, what I have gone through, my love for drumming, and to this day have constantly been a support system to me.” Anderson parted ways with his band shortly after the tour and his primary goal is focusing on his career and collaborating with other up-and-coming creatives from the Bronx. Although he’s gone solo, something tells us he has all the backup he’ll ever need.
To learn more about Anthony Anderson, and to see where he's performing check out his Instagram
