Twenty years later, musician, singer, and songwriter Anthony David is celebrating the anniversary of his debut album, 3 Chords & The Truth, which was released in August 2004. In honor of the 20th anniversary of the album, David will be performing at Center Stage on August 22, 2024.
David spoke with rolling out about the 20th anniversary, the vision of 3 Chords & The Truth, and longevity in the music industry.
When you look back to 20 years ago, what was your vision for 3 Chords & The Truth?
I thought it was one-and-done, to be honest, but I wanted it to be something that I could get old singing. I was considering some of that stuff. More of it was kind of in my family, where the way we think about it is I didn’t want to make stuff that people would be ashamed of and that they could actually listen to at that time, which means that I could listen to it going forward. Also, we were just trying to figure out the term neo-soul because it was floating around heavily then, and so was soul R&B. I was trying to mold and mix all the things that I grew up on together, from Stevie Wonder [to] Jodeci, and all the R&B versus soul versus pop versus folk, and all those elements that I grew up on trying to put them together and make sense of it.
Fast forward to now, has your vision changed?
It’s kind of the same thing. I look at it as you constantly having a conversation with the listening audience at large, and then also you definitely have your own audience by now, and it’s just a matter of listening to what’s out there and seeing where you fit in or maybe you have to make a space. It was always that, and it’s still that.
Why should longevity be important in the music industry?
I have a saying that I learned from a guy that was in the music industry, and he said at some point you just get to be in the music business. When you’re touring and you got your venues, and you have your audience, obviously, every now and then you have to dip your toe in the music industry. I went to some Grammys thing a couple of months ago, and sometimes you have to go, especially when you have new music and stuff like that. You have to start going to all of these things. But the music business is when you’ve been selling music, and you’re selling tickets, and whatever else that comes along with, and you have your audience. You always want to build the audience, which is why you have to sometimes go to the industry. The business is just regular work; it’s not as much of the add-on silliness that comes out of that.
What is the feeling you get when you pick up your guitar?
Just being able to convey what other people might be feeling they can’t get. Even for me, when I want to finish a song, one thing is the clarity of being able to get out what I want to say, make it rhyme, and tie it up in a bow. If you hear somebody else say, “Yeah,” then you know that you’re doing your job. Everybody can’t do this. Everybody can’t put words together that tell you how you feel, and if you don’t get that done, your feelings are tied up in a knot.
