THEY DON’T EVEN LIVE HERE...

The Robber yells… “Throw your hands up!”

The Rapper yells… “Throw your hands up!”

The Rabbi yells… “Throw your hands up!”

Seems like some twisted posture of prayer. I haven’t been praying much beyond “thank you” lately. Exhaustion + Guilt = Avoidance.   

I’m driven to make records people are dying to play. The challenge is doing that while simultaneously writing from *that LONELY (unavoidable) PLACE. “A ship in the harbor is safe,  but that is not what ships are built for.”  That’s how I feel about making music.  In contrast to everything I’ve ever been taught, I only know how to dream big. And not just in a material sense. In fact, I’ve learned over the years that material dreams are the smallest of all.  So in sitting down to write “REDEMPTION”, my sole goal with this project is to affect people - to have a lasting effect on HUMANITY.  

For the last four days I’ve been having the same dream. I’m in a room that I think is supposed to be the room I grew up in. In the center of this room is a child holding an illuminated PENROSE in his hands. Almost like a secret he’s trying to protect. I don’t know the child. Or at least I don’t think I know him. And he doesn’t look like me at all. He looks to be about 9 years old. There’s an old school record player in the corner of the room playing “Imagine” by Joan Baez. In my dream I am standing in the dark, staring at this kid, saying nothing. The kid never looks up. And I never look away. Then I wake up.

I recently returned from Seattle, WA where I had a series of interviews about a song I wrote. All signs point to something substantial happening in the future, but I can’t shake this sense of impending doom. I just want to write. But they want me to perform. So my time is split between coming up with the right words and learning to be entertaining on stage.  

The Robber yells… “Throw your hands up!”

The Rapper yells… “Throw your hands up!”

The Rabbi yells… “Throw your hands up!”

And the critics. Oh how I adore the critics. Those, who if they saw me fly, would call me an elitist for not walking like everyone else. I sometimes wonder if they even know what that LONELY (unavoidable) PLACE is or looks like. If they’ve ever truly been there. I write from my soul - from my own beautifully hellish lonely place. This is why critics don’t hurt me. Because what I write is of me, and from me.  AND THEY DON’T EVEN LIVE HERE…

The Robber yells… “Throw your hands up!”

The Rapper yells… “Throw your hands up!”

The Rabbi yells… “Throw your hands up!”

i yell… “stand up! and be heard”

 

Tears In Your Eyes - Theophilus the Scholar Remix

We believe in CREATIVE EXCELLENCE. We believe in STANDING OUT. Please enjoy "Tears In Your Eyes - The Theophilus the Scholar Remix". And if you believe what we believe, please LIKE/SHARE this song!

Loud & Proud (12th Man!) by Anthony J. Shears & April 12th

"LOUD & PROUD (12TH MAN!)" SONG CREDITS:

SONG WRITTEN BY: ANTHONY J. SHEARS, CAM'RON ANTHONY, SHIRIN EBRAHIMI, MAJOR MYJAH, 

SONG PERFORMED BY: ANTHONY J. SHEARS, APRIL 12TH, CAM'RON ANTHONY, FREDERICK THAAE

SONG PRODUCED BY: MONSTA OF MONSTROCITY MUSIC

SONG RECORDED & ENGINEERED BY: ETHAN CARLSON OF STEREOGRAPHIC STUDIOS

COPYRIGHT: SHEAR GENIUS PRODUCTIONS/THE WRITER'S ROOM 412/SmG Music, LLC 

Television Debut - "Loud & Proud (12th Man)" by Anthony J. Shears featuring April 12th

For those of you who missed it... "Loud & Proud (12th Man!)" by Anthony J. Shears featuring April 12th

SEATTLE STAND UP!!!!!!


 

"Loud & Proud (12th Man!)" by Anthony J. Shears featuring April 12th

September 30, 2013 

I wrote this song simply because it needed to be written. In a way, this song wrote itself with the type of season our Seahawks are having. When you've been a Seahawks fan as long as I have, you understand the importance of authenticity and loyalty. That's what being a 12 is all about - Authenticity!

New single: “Loud & Proud”

 

Follow Anthony J. Shears on Twitter: @anthonyjshears
Follow Anthony J. Shears on Facebook: anthonyshearsmusic

I Thought I Could Fly...

February 26th, 2012

Sanford, Florida, USA.

Tragedy, race, prejudice, anger, outrage, and pain collided on that fateful morning.

A teenage boy in a gray hooded sweatshirt. Candy and an iced tea.

A mixed-race Hispanic male.

One bullet.

Two lives destroyed.

Two deaths.

Thousands of lives impacted.

The Retreat at Twin Lakes.

Forbidding gates with a welcoming name.

A neighborhood worth WATCHING.

With GROUND WORTH STANDING.

I've been a bit reluctant to tackle the Martin/Zimmerman "controversy" mainly because I do not see it as a controversy at its core. Tragedy. Race. Racism. Prejudice. Anger. Fear. Outrage. And Pain. All these things take precedence over the controversy. Maybe, in some way, they are the ingredients that make up controversy. Murder is the "crime" of unlawfully killing a person, especially with malice aforethought. Which for me begs the question of when EXACTLY is killing a person lawful. What does lawful mean? Who decides what lawful is. To KILL is to DEPRIVE of LIFE. And DEATH is the END of LIFE. SUICIDE, at least in part, is to put (oneself) to DEATH.  

Here is what I take away from these very simple definitions: That within this controversy, one man was murdered. Another man was killed. That two deaths have taken place. And that in these two deaths, hundreds of thousands of lives have been affected. Trayvon Martin was murdered. His murderer, in having committed this act, killed himself as well (which resulted in a type of suicide).  This disastrous event has no winners. A 'Not Guilty' verdict is not a WIN (by it's literal definition).  Nor is it completely a LOSS. To me it feels much more like a CALAMITY.    

All of this brings to mind Bob Dylan's "Only A Pawn in Their Game". This CALAMITY isn't simply a question of race, or racism. Of hatred, or prejudice. It's also a moral question. An economic and political question. A question coupled with a circus mirror reflecting the ever-evolving nature of our “humanity”.

It's not as easy as good versus evil or the righteous versus the wicked. Here we've been reminded that murder is not purely the crime of criminals, but also of law-abiding citizens. Of the courageous. And the fearful. Now rather than a tragedy endured by two families, this event has become a political opportunity punctuated by fear and words of hatred with spins from both the left and the right.

Two men lost their lives. And thousands have had their lives impacted for better or worse.  This song. My song is my attempt to offer a different perspective on it. To bring it back to the FACT that two men lost their lives here. And that there is a huge potential for many more to lose their lives if this situation is not handled appropriately. I asked myself what would Trayvon want? What might George Zimmerman be thinking in his private moments? What might they say to each other if no one else was around to witness the conversation?

I'm sure my attempted humanization will offend a few of you. To you, I ask if you know what it's like to take a man's life? Do you know what that feels like? Have you experienced that guilt? The nightmares? The ulcers? The cold sweats? The remorse? The shame? The self-condemnation? Maybe you have. If not, I would urge you to try, even if just for a second, to imagine doing something, making a split-second decision, that garnered worldwide news and forever changed your life. For the worse. That forever changed the landscape of your nation. Try to imagine being forever recorded in the history books as a murderer. A racist murderer. Then imagine NOT being able to apologize. To the person you murdered. The family you destroyed. The nation you transformed. The world you changed.

A finger fired the trigger to his name

A handle hid out in the dark

A hand set the spark

Two eyes took the aim

Behind a man's brain

But he can't be blamed

He's only a pawn in their game.

- Bob Dylan

We all have a story. Here's mine.   

I Thought I Could Fly Lyrics (featuring Anthony J. Shears) Lyrics

Dum Spiro, Spero...

It's been such a long process that I don't even know where to begin. I learned so much releasing this project that whether or not it does well commercially is secondary at this point.

I don't even know what to say. But what I will say is this... A year ago I was in Seattle, sitting at a park, writing notes on a journal about a project I wanted to release. Or in this case, re-release. I had the words "The Growth" in a circle in the middle of the page. And next to it I had the word "Objective" with a question mark. Underneath that word, I had the words "Teach/Inpsire them to listen. Again".

I hope this project finds whoever needs it when they need it most.

Sincerely,

AJS

Muzik Reviews - Anthony J. Shears (The Growth Deluxe Edition)

Damnant Quodnon Intelligunt...

My uncle used to tell me "If you have no haters, you're probably not very successful." Ironically, the woman who helped bring me into the music business, my 6th grade Language Arts teacher Maggie Everett, used to tell say, "Never pay attention to the critics - Don't even ignore them!"

From my first day of elementary school when my bus driver asked me if I carried so many books with me to make people think I was smart, I've been aware of the fact that if my critics saw me walking across Lake Washington, they would say it was because I was too lazy to learn to swim. Some do it because they love it. Others "critique" because they cannot actually do. I've learned through a series of unfortunate experiences that many critics are like VIRGIN SEX EXPERTS. In a technical sense, they know how it's done because they've read about it and seen it done before in movies. But in the end, they are unable to DO it themselves, and because of this, are unable to fully understand the meaning behind it.

 But fortunately for me, I have never placed pleasing the critics as a priority in making music. I'll continue to take my chances with the public. I'm called a "conscious backpack rapper" by street rappers. My critics on the "conscious rapper" side call me a "street rapper". I must be doing something right.

 ALL HAIL THE ESSENCE.

All Hail The Essence...

There's a certain artistic insecurity involved in creating art and selling it. It feels a lot like ditch digging. Entertainment is the end goal for some. For me, it's a dirty word I've tried to avoid as much as possible. What this process has help me discover is that LOVE is a strong as death. But that passion is stronger than both of them. 

My music is paradoxical. It allows me to find myself and love myself simultaneously. 

And so I continue to pursue this end. As a beginning. And an end. 

"The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude." - Friedrich Nietzsche 

F.A.N. Fridays - "CL"

"Escaping from the world outside

I turn to you

Knowing I can hide

In the warmth of your music

Till it heals my soul

Sets me free

Of the fears untold

And restores my sanity.

When depression takes my day

"Tears In Your Eyes"

Somehow, someway

Soothes away the sadness

From my troubled mind

And lets me leave

The hopelessness behind

When I dry the tears from my cheeks.

When the need for courage shines over me

"Art of Survival"

Helps set my spirit free

And keep it from hurting

Even though no one's there

To share the hope

And show they care.

You keep the loneliness away.

I feel I can always turn to you

And your music will manage

To help guide me through.

So I come for comfort

Again and again

Hoping you'll stay by me,

Be my friend,

And continue to share your gift of song."

"CL"

Sometimes the hardest things for us to do end up being what's best for us. I'm no expert. Not in the least bit. But I know a thing or two about pain. About hopelessness. I equally know a thing or two about hope. And about REDEMPTION. All I can say is never give up. As long as your breathing, you have a chance at REDEMPTION.

Et lux in tenebris...

AJS