Anthony Arya: my client on NBC’s The Voice Season 15

Photography by Kenny Schick – Kenny Schick is a Music Producer, engineer, singer songwriter & professional photographer, living in Nashville TN (from the Bay Area CA) (see more photos here)

It’s been a pleasure working with The Voice contestant Anthony Arya on his upcoming full length album. We recorded the first song, ‘Going To California’, before The Voice thing started, and Anthony and his mother were so happy with the results, they decided to give me the honor of working on 10 or so more songs.

Anthony’s mother Kamela is an avid music lover and seems to be a big part of his introduction to, and love for music. She has an intimate connection to his music and a great vision of how music should be approached, so it was great that she was with us during the recording of his parts to help shape some of the performances and ideas. She is also very helpful on shaping the details of the final versions of Anthony’s songs. Here is a video of Anthony on The Voice.

At 16, Anthony is super focused and dedicated to crafting great songs, and his performances in the studio far surpass the performances of most 16 year olds—in fact, they far surpass the performances of singer-songwriters who have been at it for decades! One thing about him that has been close to my heart is his diversity—he loves many kinds of music and is not afraid to use all those styles and influences in his writing. I have always loved all kinds of music myself, and I love music that has a good range and a juxtaposition of styles that one might not normally hear. If Anthony keeps on his current trajectory, I see great things coming quickly for this talented and level headed young man. I am very honored to be part of his journey.

The process of creating this album has been really fun—Anthony sent me really stripped down demos of his songs—iPhone recordings or videos—and from those demos, I started sketching out basic parts and grooves for the songs here at my studio in Nashville. When the ‘skeletons’ were all in place, I made a trip back to California to record his parts, and his work ethic was focused and precise, so recording went quickly (as his The Voice schedule required anyway). Back in Nashville, I am finishing up parts and having conference calls with Anthony and Kamela—they are collecting parts from some musicians out in California as well, and the process is flowing nicely—we should be done with everything soon, and then the world will be able to enjoy his great music. .

It has been a blast watching Anthony progress on The Voice—I watch the show most seasons, but it’s a different thing to know one of the contestants personally for sure. Working with him on his music and knowing him personally and musically makes it all that more exciting. One of my favorite songs on the upcoming album is a song called ’Slow Train’, written about fellow Team Adam member and fellow contestant, the very talented Emily Hough—really cool to see Anthony writing about all that is happening in his life right now. Anthony started out the season on Adam Levine’s team Adam Levine and after his battle round he was picked up by Team JHud Jennifer Hudson! It’s exciting to see him get to work with two great artists/judges! It’s great to see that he’s made great friends from his experience, and was fun to see that he recently performed in his neck of the woods with fellow Voice contestant Natalie Brady, a fellow Nashvillian who I need to get out and see!