A beat echoes in the quiet closet.

The silence begs for him to start vocalizing, filling the silent space with his art. 

Sophomore Anthony Garner, otherwise known as Kaogani on Soundcloud, has been racking up albums since he was 12 years old. 

“It was a way to get what I had in my head out to the world, and I just liked the process,” he said.  “I liked the idea of making something unique for myself and I wanted to be a music artist.” 

Garner has explored many different genres of music all across the spectrum. 

“You name it, I make it, [anything] except country. I make funk, hip hop, R&B, trap, pop, a little bit of alternative trap, [and] alternative rock. I’ve made a couple rock songs, and I have a couple hyper-pop songs in the vault too,” Garner said. “I started off trying to make music like other artists that inspired me, and I was kind of a clone of specific artists. I decided to branch out and try some of my own things and not take so much inspiration from other people and just experiment, mix styles, try different things. Even if it doesn’t turn out okay, because then I know I should probably work on that or move on from that, you know? It’s evolved exponentially, from extremely amateur and extremely unoriginal, to a little more professional and a lot more myself.”

Since Garner has been producing music for four years and counting, people wonder about his very first project.

“My first project was an EP called Rockets that I made when I was 13 years old,” Garner said. “I don’t think anyone that’s gonna read this has heard a single song from it today; it’s vanished off the face of the planet. I don’t know anyone that has any of the songs from it, including myself.”

Garner has produced many other enterprises in the time he’s been a music creator, his most recent one being a single. 

“My most recent project has been a song called “Flatline”. I really wanted to get into the pop side of things and try out singing. So I found a beat, got in my feelings a little bit, and I wrote a song about just mental health, and I liked it a lot,” Garner said. “In fact, I sent it to another artist, he got on, and then I sent it to Quinn, who then remixed it, and I chose to release the remixed version that Quinn did and the original version is going to come out soon.” 

Sophomore Quinn Lewis is a music producer who helps Garner and many other artists. “I produce instrumentals and mix the beats for the songs,” he said.

Garner offers an inside look at what his creative process looks like. 

“I’m going to be honest, a song doesn’t come from thin air. It has to be inspired by something that happens in real life, to me at least. So an event happens, something happens, it’s emotional for me or someone else, it makes me feel some type of way, good or bad, and I think about it a lot, and I can’t stop thinking about something until I put it on paper. And before I write, I find a beat that matches what I’m feeling, or I ask Quinn like ‘hey, make something like this’ and he pumps it out the next day,” Garner said. “Second step, recording set-up. Usually I’m in my room, but at the moment I have passed that off to my sister and her boyfriend so that they could live with us, so now I’m sitting in a closet, on a laptop that’s not mine, set up the mic, and just go. I record it, sometimes I layer the vocals and make it sound all nice. Third step [would be] mixing. You got to get it sounding good, obviously, [add] effects, condensers, all that stuff.”

After the songs are mixed, Garner plans for release. 

“I start sending small clips to people to get some approval, small tweaks. I make cover art, that’s pretty easy. Distribute it to SoundCloud first because that’s my main platform, and a couple weeks to a month after, I let it hit Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and like eighty other platforms,” Garner said. 

Inspiration doesn’t come easy, and while he is inspired by other artists, Garner gets his drive from something else.

“I want to be a voice for the younger generation. I feel like we’re not heard enough. Of course we have social media and stuff, but to the older generations, what we say doesn’t matter, and I want to be a voice for us one day so I’m trying to build a platform for that,” he said. 

Every artist comes across challenges, and Garner is no exception. 

“The main one [challenge] is motivation. Sometimes it’s hard to really sit down and think about yourself and what you’ve done and what you’ve experienced and be willing to show it to the world. As much as I love to do it, sometimes it really gets hard to think about,” Garner said. “Legal trouble, with the rights for beats and photos for cover art, distribution is hard, getting your stuff on Spotify and Apple Music is not easy at all, which leads to the next one [challenge]: money for equipment, distribution, for promotion.”

Throughout his career, Garner has been offered much advice, but he says the best advice he’s been given came from one specific person.

“The best advice I’ve ever been given came from Asher Amar, who told me ‘Never think of yourself as a master, always have the mindset of a student. You always have something to learn. Don’t get too full of yourself.’”

And as he’s been given advice, Garner wants to give his own advice to any aspiring music creators out there. 

“Stay true to yourself, stay true to what you do, and stay true to the people around you, don’t let new people in just because you start to get somewhere with it,” Garner said. “Really make sure the people around you are genuine, because when you have good people around you, good things happen.”

Check out Garner’s music, the links to a handful of his platforms and newest projects are listed below!

Newest Release

SoundCloud

Apple Music

Spotify

YouTube Music