Anthony Green takes you on the roller coaster ride of recovery in his latest solo album, Boom. Done., with each song mirroring the ups and downs of his mental health over the past few years. The record was released on July 22 via Born Losers Records and tells the triumphant tale of what loving yourself truly takes– such as taking admiration in the small positive things that occur in your life to remembering how to stay afloat when not every moment is fantastic.
“The very opening track of the album is just me, almost apologizing and asking for patience by sort of letting everybody know where I’m at,” Green says. “I had been doing this thing where I was leaving myself little inspirational post-it notes or just something as simple as, ‘Hey, you got this today.’” Green mentions the song 2022 is painful for him, but he felt there was a need for the message to be said. “Sometimes I wish I never wrote it. Telling somebody that you’re hurting in that way is so hard to do. So to put it in a song, it makes you feel it even more,” he adds.
When he left rehab in 2020, he didn’t expect the world to be at a halt with the pandemic. “I almost felt like I would be burdening [my friends, fellow bandmates and crew] by telling them how worried I was. It just broke me and the whole time, I was still trying to make music. I thought, even if this breaks me and I somehow don’t make it through all this, at least I want to leave music so people know what I was going through,” he explains.
Green shared with his fans on Twitter that his song Trading Doses came from a collaboration with Sonny Moore from Skrillex. Moore was helping Green through the pandemic blues by sending various instrumental tracks. There was one in particular that Green felt was incredibly strange – starting with a high-pitched voice he needed to add vocals to. Despite it being challenging at first, he was determined to write a vocal for this instrumental track and ended up creating something he was incredibly proud of. “When I make something that I really like, even if I just come up with a melody that I like to sing, it’s as simple as that. It boosts me up for a day or two– maybe even more than that– and I just feel good. I feel right in my place in the world.”
“[Trading Doses] is one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written. The meaning of it for me is just being overwhelmed by how perfect something might feel,” Green adds. The drive to create new music suddenly impacted how Green saw himself. The triumphant sound of the horns in the album symbolizes Green’s successes and accomplishments in his journey. “It became the sort of thing where it was like, I don’t want to leave anything. I don’t want to leave music. I want this album to be a triumphant symbol of the reminder that we all belong here. I don’t think I ever had the courage to try and experiment with these sounds.”
Using horns wasn’t the only new surprise with Boom.Done., Green is also showcasing his visual artistic side with the self-portrait album artwork and the music videos Trading Doses and Center of it All. “I love drawing and just never really shared it. So getting to do that on this record is really cool,” Green shares. “When we were looking for an album cover, I had drawn this picture of myself, and it just worked perfectly. I’ve been waiting for the right time to start doing more stuff with visual art.”
Center of it All beautifully displays the drive for Green to artistically continue on despite what criticism he may be faced with, mirroring the hiccups that may occur during recovery and pushing himself to keep moving forward. With the lyrics “I promise I’ll do better when, if I, I get a second chance,” the music video shows Green drawing various portraits and getting negative responses from each customer, yet persevering on to keep trying. “Classically, I have a very distinct style. For a long time, I would draw and think ‘this isn’t very good.’ And it’s cool to share with people now who sort of get the chaotic, messy style of it and can enjoy it,” Green explains.
Mental health is so important, especially after the past two years in a global pandemic and feeling a disconnect with society. Green advocates reaching out to your loved ones for support when your mental state is not at its best. “There were days where I just felt like I couldn’t move. And rebuilding that sense of connection with myself where I could accept myself and love myself and know that I wasn’t the accumulation of all my mistakes,” Green shares. “But the more I put into my recovery, the more I put into my own mental health, the more I would get back. And I would slowly start seeing little bits of progress and start feeling a little bit better every day.”
Boom. Done. is the perfect celebration to Green’s healthy future as a musician, father, and friend and has listeners dancing and cherishing both the positive and challenging moments life has to offer.
Watch the video for “Trading Doses” here:
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Photo courtesy of Alan Snodgrass
