Shepparton-born and -raised singer-songwriter Anthony Lucas is no stranger to chasing big dreams. From his early days singing gigs at local venues such as the Deck or the Aussie to recording in Los Angeles studios, he’s built a career that continues to gather momentum across Australia and the United States.
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Anthony, who has been performing since the age of six, remembers his musical beginnings in Shepparton fondly.
“My mum put me into singing lessons at the local singing school,” he said.
“It used to be called The Music Man Megastore.
“They used to do lessons for people that wanted to learn singing, guitar — my teacher was Debbie.”
Surrounded by a big family and the close-knit community of Shepparton, Anthony “enjoyed the country lifestyle as a kid”.
Determined to pursue his dreams, he never had any doubts as to what his path would look like.
“I’ve always wanted to do singing — I think I realised that from a very early age,” he said.
“I've always felt that I needed to pursue it to the very end.
“I feel like it’s what I’m good at, it’s what gets me excited.”
Anthony found support from his home-town community early on — though school life wasn’t always easy.
“I always had a bit of a hard time going through high school,” he said.
“I was always considered to be that different kid.
“I was doing music while, you know, all of the other boys were doing sports.
“But in terms of Shepparton itself, the town, the community, always 110 per cent supportive of my career, of my shows I used to do, and I still do.”
By his mid-teens, Anthony was already stepping on to bigger stages, appearing on The X Factor Australia in 2015 and becoming a finalist at the World Championships of Performing Arts in Los Angeles the year before.
“When I went to the world championships in 2014, I was offered some recording contracts with record labels and producers over there,” he said.
“Then in 2017 I went back to America to record two songs myself, and they went out.
“And then COVID.”
After a forced hiatus, Anthony returned to LA in 2023 and has been back and forth every few months since, sharing his time between Melbourne and Los Angeles, recording new music and performing live shows.
Released on April 5, his most recent track, High on the Idea, emerged from an unusual personal experience.
“My ex has gone to my other ex,” Anthony said.
“So, the song is about my ex-partner leaving me to go to my other ex, but both of them are actually still not over me, and the way I know that is because they keep texting me and they keep calling me.
“It’s just this big love triangle.”
With the help of songwriter Laura Abend, known professionally as LAU, Anthony poured his tangled emotions into the lyrics. The track, produced by Sydney-based James Guido, came together at lightning speed.
“(Lau and I) wrote it, my producer, James, did the music side of it, and we were there since like, almost seven o’clock in the morning, and we didn’t get out of the studio until probably, eight o’clock at night — all in one day,” Anthony said.
“It was probably the fastest turnaround for a song I’ve ever done.”
Anthony hinted at more to come from the collaboration.
“I’m actually coming up with a new song,” he said.
“I’ve already been to Sydney to record another one.
“No-one knows about this song yet, but it’s called Hypnotised, and it’s my second song that I’ve worked on with James, and we are releasing that sometime this year.”
Anthony is also preparing to share an 11-track project mostly recorded in LA, with a range of sounds that spans from pop to electronic to acoustic.
“One of my producers in LA actually said it perfectly,” he said.
“He said something along the lines of ‘I feel like you’re Taylor Swift, where you do all of these different songs, and they’re all completely different from each other’.”
While the genres may shift, Anthony’s goal remains the same: to create music that tells his story.
“I want to create music that’s really relatable, but also music that tells my story,” he said.
“Since I’ve come out, I’ve revealed, you know, more about me as a person, about my truth about who I am, and I’ve expressed that through my music.”
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