<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2vuWeK_1H1GUjO200" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2vuWeK_1H1GUjO200" width="1800" height="1249" ><figcaption>Richmond-based producer Ant The Symbol recently released “The Sun Also Rises,” a collaborative album rooted in the foundational neo-soul sounds he grew up with. Photos by Scott Elmquist except where noted.</figcaption></figure>In 2023, Ant — born Anthony Gillison — released “I Know Who I Am,” a stylistically ranging, collaboration-fueled album that pushed the boundaries of his previous production work, touching on everything from hip-hop and R&amp;B to house music, landing the producer on the Newlin Music Prize shortlist for the second time.Featured artists on that album included a number of standout Richmond-based singers — Sam Reed, Deau Eyes, Anneliese and Kenneka Cook, to name a few — as well as some of the city’s top emcees, like Illa Styles, Michael Millions, Chance Fischer and Logos The Poetic. That knack for convening creative difference-makers did not go unnoticed. He’s become a go-to curator for live events, including Richmond Music Week and the RVA Rapper’s Delight celebration of hip-hop’s 50th anniversary. He’s also been racking up accolades, having earned spots on Style Weekly’s Best of Richmond readers’ poll and 40 Under 40 list, and having won a Grammy for his production work on Mad Skillz’s “Words for Days, Vol. 1,” which topped this year’s Best Spoken Word Poetry Album category.Amid that acknowledgment, his musical output hasn’t slowed. After helming a hip-hop-focused LP in 2024 and turning excerpts from a performance at In Your Ear Studios into a live EP, Ant is back with his next major statement: “The Sun Also Rises,” which dropped on Friday, Nov. 6.<div style="position:relative;width:100%; height:0; padding-bottom: 56.25%;"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XIdz9OP-ylY?feature=oembed&amp;enablejsapi=1" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" style="width:100%; height:100%;top:0; left:0; position:absolute"></iframe></div>The album has much in common with “I Know Who I Am,” from its big-tent collaborative approach to its cover art, which sports an evocative imagistic array. Yet when work began on “The Sun Also Rises,” Ant had already started moving in a different musical direction. Where “I Know Who I Am” doubled as a kaleidoscopic display of the producer’s acumen across genres, his new album digs into a more specific range of sounds that he says have long served as a gravitational center of his own listening. “In the late ’90s and early 2000s, trip-hop and neo-soul were two major genres of music that I really latched onto,” he says. “I felt like with my skills and the way that I approach music, it would be two genres that I could easily unify.”There’s also an intentional focus on homegrown talent this time around. “Everybody on the album is from here, and that made it feel even more special,” he says. Alongside several returning contributors, Ant welcomed a slate of newcomers whose orbits overlapped with his own. He crossed paths with vocalists Taylor G. and Morgan Stewart as a result of the PLAY2MCH open jam session, formerly known as The Roots Jam. Lyricist AyeYillah stood out as a result of RVA Rap Elite, and singer-songwriter Alex J Dimas caught Ant’s ear with her “Alma Mia” EP. Singer Bijoux Nouveau, real name Emily Bodley, sent out a call for collaboration via Instagram and found instant chemistry with Ant, resulting in three guest spots on “The Sun Also Rises.”<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2RYnP4_1H1GUjO200" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2RYnP4_1H1GUjO200" width="1280" height="885" ><figcaption>Ant the Symbol’s new album, “The Sun Also Rises” dropped on Friday, Nov. 6; he will celebrate the release with a performance at Révéler on Thursday, Nov. 12.</figcaption></figure>This was also Ant’s first album to include parts recorded at a new home studio situated in a purpose-built shed. “I just got my home studio in March,” he says. “I spent months trying to get it ready, and then [Bijoux Nouveau]’s vocals for ‘Letters from Nirvana’ were the first vocals that I recorded. That was an exciting moment for me… Having my own space made everything so much easier.”It’s another step forward for a creative leader whose impact continues to expand. “This is what I’ve been growing towards for years,” he says. With a celebratory performance scheduled to take place at Révéler on Thursday, Nov. 12, Style Weekly caught up with Ant about his new album’s points of inspiration and recording process, as well as the crowdfunding campaign that helped him reach the finish line.Style Weekly: When did work start on the new album?Ant The Symbol: I started it maybe two months after “I Know Who I Am” came out. I already had in my mind that I wanted to do something that was sonically more focused. That was my only gripe with “I Know Who I Am.” Yes, it was cohesive, but it was me doing literally everything that I wanted to do within one album. With this one, I was like, “I need something more out of the next one.” I’d been meditating for a long time on how to improve on the product that I just released, and the answer came to me pretty easily: Lock in on the sound that you want to focus on, and don’t try and be too experimental. Zero in on a couple genres that have common points that interest you as a listener.<div style="position:relative;width:100%; height:0; padding-bottom: 56.25%;"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/J0rbwSVgtQo?feature=oembed&amp;enablejsapi=1" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" style="width:100%; height:100%;top:0; left:0; position:absolute"></iframe></div>I definitely hear some Soulquarian hallmarks. Was that collective a point of inspiration? The influence that era had and all of the artists that fell within that collective were a huge influence on me. Not just because the music that they made was good and soulful, but because these were a bunch of artists that weren’t afraid to take risks — to go outside of their comfort zone, go outside of what everybody knew them to be. That made me feel a little more comfortable, even pre-production, as just a listener when I was 15 years old. That ability to step outside of what was familiar is something that opened me up to listening to different things…With “Electric Circus” by Common, “The New Danger” by Mos Def, they started to experiment with rock sounds, and that’s like, “Okay, this is something interesting to do, too.” I didn’t exactly do forays into rock or whatever, but it made me feel like as a listener or a producer — once I started producing when I was 17 — I should never just be one thing. I credit that era, mostly, and it wasn’t even a conscious decision with this album. It’s just subconsciously what I tapped into.How much was recorded remotely versus in your new studio space?I would say it was about 80-20, just because of how late getting the studio was in the game. With whatever I do next, it’ll be a lot more face-to-face than sending things over email and WeTransfer-ing all of that stuff. I’ll actually be able to sit in the room, feel the person’s energy, and they can feel my energy, which I think will elevate the music even more. But we were able to get a taste of that for this album.The pedal steel on “Your Destiny” is such a great touch. Was that recorded in the shed? That wasn’t something that we recorded here, and I didn’t even know that [keyboardist] Stephen [Roach] played the pedal steel guitar. Turns out that was something that they had just started with. When I got that pedal steel track for the song back, I was excited and intrigued… The first time I dropped that track into the session and played it, it was just like, “Oh, this adds this certain level of comfort, like falling into a soft bed…” Having the pedal steel in there softly rising in the song, it adds to that atmosphere of comfort within the song, and I am so glad that they thought to do that because it’s not something that I would have outsourced for.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=4BTzR7_1H1GUjO200" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4BTzR7_1H1GUjO200" width="1249" height="1280" ><figcaption>With his new album, Ant The Symbol continues his mission of bringing together emerging voices in Richmond’s music community.</figcaption></figure>How did playing these songs at shows help the studio versions take shape? Did any songs end up changing as a result of performing them live?At the rehearsal for the [2025] Shockoe Session, Mark McCutchen, the bassist, with “The Sweetest Escape,” he was like, “This should be faster. Crank the tempo up.” So I did that, and I was like, “Oh, I see the vision now.” Ever since then, it’s around 15 BPM [faster] than it was before… I was like, “Oh, this is the perfect feel — perfect closer for this whole session. I feel good about this.”With “Up in Smoke,” the piano part was something that Steph came up with in the rehearsal before one of the Révéler shows. They were playing that, and I was like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Keep that!” And when they came over to record here, I was like, “You remember what we did at that rehearsal about a year ago? Let’s bring that into it.” And the piano sounds incredible on that song. The piano on that song and the pedal steel on “Your Destiny” were late additions. As long as I’d been working on this album, every once in a while, I needed something extra in a song to make it feel fresh again.<div style="position:relative;width:100%; height:0; padding-bottom: 56.25%;"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/q2SGngP4u8Y?feature=oembed&amp;enablejsapi=1" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" style="width:100%; height:100%;top:0; left:0; position:absolute"></iframe></div>What lessons did you take away from your experience working on “Words for Days, Vol. 1”? It feels like there are close parallels between how you and Mad Skillz use recording projects to build community.One thing that I got out of the “Words for Days” experience, especially the celebration that Skillz had at The Park: Being onstage with everybody that worked on the album made me feel confident about what I was working on. You had a whole bunch of people from Virginia that were able to feel good about something they created, and I had that experience, too… Peter McElhinney after pretty much every show that I have takes the big group picture, and being on stage with everybody who was on “Words for Days” felt very similar to that experience. I’ve built this community of like-minded people that want to make good art, [and on] Thursday, we’ll be able to get onstage for that group picture and celebrate the fact that we made a good project together… I hope that everybody who was on it feels the same way. The music feels good, and the fact that everybody’s together on it, and that these people have met new people because of these experiences, it all feels good.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3RtAOR_1H1GUjO200" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3RtAOR_1H1GUjO200" width="1250" height="703" ><figcaption>Ant the Symbol (center) and friends at his Feb. 29 Birthday Bash at Richmond Music Hall. Photo by Peter McElhinney</figcaption></figure>After releasing “I Know Who I Am” with label support, this one’s being released independently. How did crowdfunding the album turn out?I decided to do it independently because I’m at a point in my career where I felt I could. The only reason I ended up crowdfunding it is because I just dropped several thousand on the shed, and I don’t have a nine-to-five anymore. I watch my daughter, so money ended up going to different places, like buying the shed and getting everything that I needed to have in here… All of the money that I thought I would have to work on the album — to get tapes pressed, get CDs made, get studio time — went elsewhere.And one of my big things is I’m starting to become a little more comfortable with asking for help as I get older. And this is one of those situations where I just did it. I set a goal of $2,000, like “Why not?” I was expecting to maybe get like $200-$500, but in three days, I overshot the goal. I was surprised and grateful, humbled by it all. It felt like my music, and I as a person, had affected somebody enough to where they were like, “Yes, I want to do this for you.” It felt great to have that backing and be able to do things that I wanted to do for a long time.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=39elev_1H1GUjO200" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=39elev_1H1GUjO200" width="2048" height="1638" ></figure>What’s next for you?I don’t have anything planned right now, but everybody would know that I’m lying if I were to say that I’m not gonna do another one. It’s gonna happen. I haven’t started it yet, but somewhere within the next year or so, while I’m promoting this album, something’s gonna click in me, and I’ll be like, “I have to start on this next one.”That being said, I do plan on taking a long time and letting this one sit with people. Not everybody’s gonna hear it tomorrow. People are still gonna be living their own lives, listening to their own things. Other musicians are gonna be working on their own stuff, so it may take somebody six months, a year, a year and a half to hear this… I’m just gonna put as much energy and time into putting this album out there as I can.Ant The Symbol will perform at Révéler on Thursday, Nov. 12. Morgan Stewart will also perform. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and music starts at 8 p.m. Tickets start at $17.50 and can be purchased at revelerexperiences.com. To hear and purchase “The Sun Also Rises,” visit antthesymbol.bandcamp.com.</div></body>

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In 2023, Ant — born Anthony Gillison — released “I Know Who I Am,” a stylistically ranging, collaboration-fueled album that pushed the boundaries of his previous production work, touching on everything from hip-hop and R&B to house music, landing the producer on the Newlin Music Prize shortlist for the second time.

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In 2023, Ant — born Anthony Gillison — released “I Know Who I Am,” a stylistically ranging, collaboration-fueled album that pushed the boundaries of his pr

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