Anthony Rankin

Before founding <a href="spotify:artist:08Ia5v2HjSJRjzoEg43O4B" data-name="The Love Elektrik">The Love Elektrik</a> with Victor Brodén in the latter half of the 2010s, <a href="spotify:artist:6rURCSfK5AQvQlA1oRKUqf" data-name="Anthony Rankin">Anthony Rankin</a> released several solo albums and EPs throughout his formative years, exploring a diverse range of genre as he came of age as a young and prodigious songwriter and artist in Pittsburgh, PA. While the vast majority of this early music has been expunged from the internet and can no longer be found (unless you happened to have gotten your hands on a rare physical copy at the time), one pivotal release remains available for streaming: the slightly schizophrenic, funk-rock opus <a href="spotify:album:1VVRU91WLhiFo4KsBD57Bp" data-name="Blow This House Down">Blow This House Down</a>. Akin to influences <a href="spotify:artist:5a2EaR3hamoenG9rDuVn8j" data-name="Prince">Prince</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:7guDJrEfX3qb6FEbdPA5qi" data-name="Stevie Wonder">Stevie Wonder</a>, Rankin took a one-man-band approach to nearly every song on the album, playing guitar, synths, piano, bass, and drums, in addition to producing, writing, and singing everything (with the exception of lone cover song <a href="spotify:track:09OfTuY70OInIOOwqm2efm" data-name="Just Be Good to Me">Just Be Good to Me</a>, originally performed by <a href="spotify:artist:6pXCjxMOBcWtvULYkFPVW6" data-name="The S.O.S Band">The S.O.S Band</a>, which features a scorching vocal from <a href="spotify:artist:4a4KcYuu2DZrL8sTGyu5sM" data-name="Vanessa Campagna">Vanessa Campagna</a>). While the album is more organic and less polished than the gleaming electro-pop he has gone on to make in The Love Elektrik and as producer/artist <a href="spotify:artist:22IgfvwWSyUHOecPkwBSLd" data-name="ANTi">ANTi</a>, one can certainly hear early on Rankin&#39;s raw virtuosic ability as a musician and an artist discovering his identity.