“It’s always been about escapism to me,” says ANTi of the tightly focused approach to crafting his brand of pop music, an artistic ideology now refined over many years in the music industry.
With bedroom pop and its adjacent trends continuing to dominate much of the genre, ANTi chooses to zig when the rest of the indie pop world zags, offering listeners a cinematic, retro-futuristic universe with the iridescent new single “Not the One” coming this month (following 2024’s “Glass House,” the misty, introspective soft launch of his long-teased forthcoming debut solo album).
Relentlessly working throughout the first half of the 2020’s to establish himself as one of the most in-demand, ascendant producers in Nashville (with millions of streams and major editorial playlist placements of “Bestie” by Rosemary Joaquin, among others), ANTi continues to slowly but surely reaffirm his place as artist and frontman with this latest song.
“Not the One” is deeply steeped in the retrowave aesthetic of artists like The Weeknd, but also pays more overt homage to his childhood idols Prince and Phil Collins, with dynamic and hazy synthesizers flickering over a propulsive, unmistakably 1980s LinnDrum groove. Where “Glass House” attempted to marry a more modern electropop pastiche with some vintage flavor, “Not the One” (written with rising star topliner Kate Ryder) leans far more unabashedly into the artist/producer’s enduring love of synthpop’s golden age. To that end, the track also features a fiery guest appearance by legendary Nashville-born guitarist Ryan Wariner (Heart, Ann Wilson & Tripsitter).
Given ANTi’s drive to simultaneously reach for the summit of both the producer and artist domains, 2025 maintains his nonstop streak of release credits in pop and country, with even more collaborative singles in the pipeline a la the Producer Project ‘24 mini compilation that featured up-and-comers like Lauren Presley and Stacey Kelleher.
Backstory: ANTi relocated to Nashville a decade ago—after earning a music degree and grinding as a studio engineer and local artist in his hometown of Pittsburgh—and rapidly became a first-call side musician and singer for major label artists, due to his wildly impressive multi-instrument prowess and precision ear. Following a yearslong mid-2010s stretch that garnered critical success and cult status for The Love Elektrik, the electro-funk duo he cofounded with Victor Brodén, ANTi went all-in in pursuit of producing and writing for emerging pop, R&B, and indie artists, citing genre-bending super-producers Max Martin, Cirkut, and Greg Kurstin as his most aspirational influences.
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ANTi is proud to be a voting member of The Recording Academy in the Producers & Engineers Wing and the Songwriters & Composers Wing
