Meet Anthony Augusta | Musician and Visual Effects Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Anthony Augusta and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Anthony, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?

I decided to pursue a creative career because I always had a passion for expression. It is a liberating feeling to be able to say what I want to say with and without words. There is a well-known expression that I always loved. “A picture is worth a thousand words”. For me, since music and audio were my first passions, I had felt that “A song expresses a thousand emotions”. Whether it was a song I would write or one I would listen to. Either way, once I found these keys to open an endless number of gates, I never stopped being creative.

At times, I would write a song, draw, and take pictures to escape from a reality I wanted to hide from for a few hours, days, years, etc. At other times it is an embracement of a moment, experience, or feeling that I wanted to bring into reality for eternity. A beautiful thing that I find about expressing yourself and art in general, is that it can be very personal and perceived by another in a similar or completely different way. One can create a connection through someone’s view of the world and inspire them to continue to create and inspire.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?

My project called “Mechanical Galavant” is an instrumental, post-rock band. The idea behind it is for listeners to draw their own connections and stories from these songs. These short albums are stories of my own. Anyone can put together their stories and feelings towards them as well. I tried to keep it an open book, malleable yet tangible so that it can be accessible for anyone to relate to.

It was not easy getting to where I am today. It is also not so easy keeping up with it all but I love this challenge. I love solving creative problems and I love the freedom to express myself. A lesson I learned and will probably continue to learn is the drive to continue to learn. Learn about new technology, new techniques, and new songwriting skills. But also, learn the ability to continue to learn about yourself and with others. Constantly be the person who you want to be. Often, I’ll ask peers of mine to provide me with feedback on my work. What can I do to make it better? As a listener, what do you want to hear? For example, I was going for a specific set of feelings or emotions. I would write up a summary of what I was going for and share it with some friends. We would compare notes of what they thought and felt with what I had intended. A lot of trying to make this work comes from being vulnerable and letting them into my small world. Allowing them to criticize and give me feedback. It permits our small worlds to collide into this bigger world we both share. I have learned to not get defensive about feedback but to be more embracive and understanding of it all. We all have a world to share.

I think we should hear one another because we all perceive the world a little differently than each other but yet we all might have the same end goal. I don’t think there is one absolute answer to solve each other’s problems, but I do think there can be multiple ways to get to the same result we both desire.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are so many people that helped me get to where I am today. Their mentorship, guidance, feedback, time, and words they have provided me, I am forever grateful to them. All of my art and Environment Team teachers at Northport High School. I was able to explore different states, play guitar every day, draw, paint, make clothes, shoot films, and take pictures. After high school, I attended Nassau Community College where I learned from many great professors in the Audio & Music department, who I am still in contact with today. NCC also allowed me to make connections with many people I still have the opportunity to work with. One is Blake Fili, who at the time, had a band called “As Days Fade”. I later joined the band as the bass player. We self-recorded, produced, and wrote all our songs. Played endless shows with many large acts like Ice Nine Kills, The Ghost Inside, and Texas In July. We had great success with the band and are still talked about amongst the local community. At NCC, I also came in contact with Sean Beasley. Sean and I write and work on songs together. We are each other’s musical soulmates. We work on very parallel paths. He has the words that I often cannot say.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mechanicalgalavant/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-augusta-51527211b/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MechanicalGalavant

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrLxY841yylZvwk3KtNNFPQ

Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/57KmTKD8zjs2a4yje3yc91 https://music.apple.com/us/artist/mechanical-galavant/1463475517

Image Credits
Tania Pavsic Nicole Marie Ray Tiburzi