Arts & Entertainment

Forest Hills Native Goes After Record Deal Dream

Anthony Rankin is hard at work, recording albums and playing gigs as much as he can—and he's been doing it all since childhood.

Anthony Rankin played his first gig in a city bar while most of his counterparts were headed for bed.

At 12 years old, he opened for his father’s band—the legendary Iron City House Rockers—at Buffalo Blues in Shadyside. It was his first professional gig.

“The place was packed and I was about two feet tall meandering through the crowd,” he said. “I never knew people were doctors or lawyers or those kinds of things—I just figured, oh yea everybody plays music.”

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Now a full-time professional musician, Rankin, 26, of Forest Hills regularly plays in B.E. Taylor’s band while he’s not recording his own music and tracks for others around the clock.

“My dad is a drummer and for 30 years of his life he played with the House Rockers,” Rankin said. “They toured the states and Canada, made a record and when I came around, he got a normal job. I took piano as a kid, took guitar lessons at 8 and it just kind of blossomed into that’s what I was doing every day, and I never stopped.”

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A Woodland Hills High School graduate, Rankin studied music at Duquesne University, where he focused on guitar and recording.

“I was making records while I was there, doing independent stuff and once I got out, I started working in a studio in Weirton, WV called Studio L,” he said. “I just started running the board there and it turned into more of the hub of my wheel. I met a lot of musicians there and got involved in a lot of things and I am still playing on a lot of people’s records.”

Rankin said his music is hard to describe because he can never seem to stick with just one genre. He released his third full-length album, “Blow this House Down,” last year and continues to release singles while working for more gigs.

“It’s definitely pop music,” Rankin said. “I am always trying to write a hit-type song, but there are elements of funk, R&B, hard rock. I tell people it’s like Maroon 5 if Bon Jovi’s guitar player was in the band.”

Rankin is traveling to Philadelphia in May to play shows with his band and also plays in LA once or twice a year. He also regularly attends music conventions in LA to continue to build connections.

Rankin said since he grew up on stage, he doesn’t get nervous before his shows.

“It’s more like playing a sport—when I do a show it’s more like a football player getting psyched for a game,” he said. “There are definitely nerves, but it’s more excitement about what’s going to happen tonight.”

Rankin said his favorite aspect of performing is “everything.”

“The irony about the age of information and everything being accessible at our fingertips, especially in the entertainment world, is that live performance is so much more important than it was maybe 10 to 15 years ago,” Rankin said. “The music industry in general seems to be really detached from the human condition, so for me, playing live is one of the few pure ways left to physically engage an audience.”

Rankin said he will continue to work hard, “chasing a record deal,” and enjoy the fact that he can play music for a living.

“I want to have a hit song and a hit record and I am going to do whatever it takes to get that done or die trying,” Rankin said. “Whatever it takes to get a hit.”

To listen to Rankin’s music, visit:

http://www.itunes.com/anthonyrankin

http://anthonyrankin.bandcamp.com


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