Kaleb Fobair
Multimedia Editor
Alan Anaya is a current student at Crowder College and is finishing out his sophomore year majoring in business administration. Anaya was born in California but was raised in Carthage, Missouri. “Yeah, I moved here when I was three so not too much time there.” He continues, “I’ve lived most of my life here in Carthage.”
Anaya went to Carthage schools and graduated out of Cartage High School. Growing up all he was really into was sports. But during his 5th-grade year, he would find a love for music. “I’ve always liked to sing and then after 5th and 6th grade they had honor choir, so I joined that.”
He continues to say that after he joined the honor choir, his love for music would grow stronger. Alan would end up quitting choir after 6th grade and joining band instead.
Anaya said that one of his biggest regrets is quitting choir and he wishes he would have done choir in high school. But his love of music didn’t stop there, it would in fact grow and turn into a passion of his. “I started making it in 2020 which is when I released my first song,” Anaya said.
He shares that he enjoyed writing when he was a kid. He would write poetry, but it was never anything he would want to release. He found his inspiration during the George Floyd era, stating, “That was going on at the time and I’m like well might as well make something to it so that’s when I first released something.”
So far Alan has only released singles but has plans to release an album sometime in the future. He talks about how the music for him is more of a hobby but is planning on releasing several songs this year. “I think only last year I released like two songs but I made like 50,” he states.
Anaya shares that one of the coolest things about sharing his music is getting texts from people telling him that his songs have helped them and sharing the same views. “When I started making music it was more of like to express myself,” He continues, “Some people share the same like feelings and same views and stuff. So they find some type of solace or at least connection to my music.”
When writing a song, he said that it only takes about 10 to 30 minutes to record the song but it also depends if he wants to layer the vocals or add effects. Alan writes all of his own songs but will go into the studio with only half the lyrics written. “I like to put more thought into what I say and stuff,” Anaya states. He likes to come up with some of them on the spot because that’s when he comes up with some of his best ideas.
When asked if he had any plans after Crowder, Alan said, “I’m trying to decide what I want to do. Whether to go to a four-year college or start working somewhere.” While he thinks it would be fun to have a career in music, he is interested in other things like accounting and working with numbers and states that’s why he is going to college.
He continues to say that he has really enjoyed doing concerts lately, but Anaya enjoys the organization of it and meeting new people rather than performing. “I think concerts are fun, they can be kind of a hassle sometimes,” He states. His next concert will be in June in Springfield.
Regardless of what the future holds, Anaya said, “Music is always going to be a hobby for me. Regarding whether it becomes secure or not, I think I’m going to continue to do it.” Anaya shares all this music on all platforms; Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Snapchat under his artist name, Phantomx. I talked to his friend George Laytham about Alan and he said, “Phantomx is hard working and always willing to work and expand creatively.” Anaya shares that he has a new song coming out on May 5th called, “How love goes (ft. Madeline Irene)”, it’s quite different from what he has done before. “I think that it’s pretty cool, so I’d say stay tuned for that one.”
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