Candice Anitra

Official Biography (courtesy of Candice Anitra)

Candice Anitra hates how social constructs put people in boxes, including rigidly corrugated musical categories. Embodying the subtle rapture of Joan  Armatrading, the robust confidence of Meshell Ndegeocello, and the thespian gender inquisition of Cheryl Dunye, the left-of-soul singer-songwriter bucks convention rather than live as a square peg in a round hole. Hailing from  Philadelphia, the Brooklyn-based songstress was reared in a musical family  whose voices were limited to home and church. When the adolescent impetus to  find her own voice struck, she was stifled by her father¹s telling her she "wasn't ready."

After high school, Candice set sail for New York University¹s heralded Tisch School of the Arts. There, she discovered her vocal prowess upon receiving accolades for her performance in dramatic roles that called for her to sing.  By 2006, a post-collegiate Candice had written a stage play, instructed a youth theater workshop, and assumed lead vocal duties for a local NYC band.  Though the band dissolved, former classmates Ion & Sanford, who as Force  Theory Productions scored award-winning films Favela Rising and Jesus Camp,  gave Candice some music to write to ­ her entry into songwriting ­ and jumped  to produce Candice¹s maiden solo musical voyage, the 2008 EP Easier.

During the tracking of Easier at his Studio G, Joel Hamilton (Soulive, Matisyahu, Blakroc, Talib Kweli, Nina Simone) swooned over Candice¹s single, "Objectify," and he readily signed on to helm Candice¹s 2010 full-length  debut, Bark Then Bite, a critically acclaimed odyssey of dynamic sound and talent. The album included a royal remix of "Objectify" from producer Scotty Hard, a track that flips the script on Candice¹s feeling degraded by men¹s lewd behavior towards her on city streets, and the video for which plays with the concept of gender roles and has become a controversial conversation piece.

Most recently, Candice headed back to Studio G with Hamilton to record her remarkable sophomore effort, Big Tree. Backed by an acoustic guitar loop and earthy bass line, Candice uses the title track to highlight the parallels between the human being and one of nature¹s most sturdy species of flora. The supercharged lead single ³Love Sick² probes the media¹s influences on youth  sexualization, while the tender a cappella ballad ³I Hear Music² is a breathtaking ode to the enchanting musicality of a lover¹s voice. Another single off the album, "Today," premiered on January 12, 2012, exactly two years after the Haiti earthquake, as a funk-laden tribute to raise funds for lives in Haiti.  Collectively and individually, the tracks on Big Tree are a mellifluous yet audacious blend of the delicious oft overlooked spaces  between the genres. Taking the emotional bumps in the road and sewing a thread of commonality through them using euphonic bits of this and that is a sacred pastiche art that Candice Anitra has mastered simply by looking
within.