Kevin Anthony Fowler, better known as K-Anthony, recipient of the 2024 JUNO award for Contemporary Christian/Gospel Album of the Year, shared with me his journey into music.

How did you get into music? 

My passion at first was track and field, so that was what I was known for in, and gradually, as I got into my pre teen/teenage years, I got a scholarship, which my parents, at the time thought would become an issue, because my focus was so much into track and field. My mum’s idea was for me to go to Harrison Memorial High School. I didn’t do track and field during that year, which was difficult for me. I became a little bit rebellious, since Track and Field was something that I was known for, and it felt like it had been taken away. I couldn’t see that my parents were actually trying to prevent me to be so caught up in it that I neglected my academic pursuit.  

I got passionately into music, probably about the age of 12. I started singing a little bit before that, but, to my memory, that’s when I really started to fall in love with the music. 

And this started from an incident where I almost drowned, and which was my first encounter with God from a self perspective, and not for my parents or my mother, who would often have worship without me and my brother. And then I said to God, if you save you, I’ll believe in my heart. 

I didn’t do it right away. It is difficult, those early years. It didn’t take me too long, but I didn’t do it as soon as I could have.  

Then a friend of mine was asked to sing at church. He was a little bit timid, and so he asked us, to support him, and we did. We sang a song, and the church response was so good. So, we said we’re going to do this again next week, and next week turned into another week.  

Every week we were asking to sing. The church saw that there were three young guys who seemed to want to do something to God. They were so supportive, and that moved from three of us to probably about four or five of us.  

So, we practiced every evening after church. And I got very passionate. I started spending a lot more time on music and being more intentional, listening to the voice and trying to replicate what I listened to.  

And then some older guys in the church, probably 18/19/20, they had a group. And so they incorporated us into the group, and would spend the evening learning songs, and we sang together. And at school, I formed a group a year or two before leaving school. And so I got really locked into music and became known for music, which was interesting, because most people knew me for track and field. . 

My passion for track and field never died. Just before completing high school, I was training the club in my hometown, and I was being offered a scholarship to attend a university in the United States. Then at the same time, I was the lead singer for the graduation, and my family thought, hey, you know, I think you’re doing well at music.  

When I graduated, and it was time for me to select a college or university, I had some interest in agro science, and I wanted to meet them at agronomist. That’s what I told myself.  

Then my mum, interestingly, said Have you ever thought about doing music, at least for a year?  

I was blown away, because I was so passionate about music but I’d never thought about actually studying it. I said okay, and I signed up for school, got accepted, and I started the journey.  

Though I was classically trained, I never felt like I could convey as much in this as I could in contemporary music. I made the decision to speak to young people through the voice God has given to me, and start writing my own music 

So it’s been a very interesting journey from the process, from the point of me, like having a relationship with God as my personal saviour, and then I got to realise that God is real for me, because he responded to my call. So, developing a love and a passion for something that I’m able and capable of using to do good by him. So that’s my process into music. 

Do you want to share some more about writing that first song? 

So crazy that you’re asking that so it would have been some years ago at the same time frame when I wrote my first song, because it was getting to February, and I ended up thinking, why not write a Valentine’s Day song? And I ended up writing a love song.  

The process, I think, was very simple. I was going home. I don’t know if I was in love, probably I was. And this idea came to mind, and I sang it. I just sang everything, and I just put it to people.  With some friends, we started building the song from there, I took it from that person, to a really close friend of mine, Andre Milford, and started working it. And we think we finally had it based on what we have listened to over time. I rented the studio at the university that I attended, which is Northern Academy.  

And bam, the day was so busy, they opened up a studio, I remember one of my professors came down, I got the vocals done. On Monday, we got the first mix. I was so pleased. I was like, wow. This is something I’ve never done before. I asked the older gentleman in the studio, Paul Bennett, helped me to get access to a recording studio in Kingston. I built a team with my friends, who I ended up building the song with. Just looking back, I can see how God has guided my life. 

How do you think your songwriting has evolved since that first love song?

For me, the song evolves as you go. You need to allow yourself to become a student and be able to absorb from people who are much better than you. It could be people you’re listening over the radio, or persons that God have allowed me to meet, our friends. Sometimes you want to cut it short and go to the end of the story, or go to what seems to be successful, but the process is also important.

I’ve made some mistakes. I’ve done some good. I think I’ve made more mistakes, and so those mistakes have allowed me to be able to have a clearer understanding of who God is to me and how I’ve seen him work in my life and in others. And so I’m capable of writing from those perspectives, and because we are human, we have a common ground. And so I’m able to speak to you because you have possibly been through, or a friend of yours has been though, some of the experiences that I’ve gone through.  

I’m also intentional. So for me, community is important. So for me, God always puts persons in my life that needs to be there at any specific time. And so what I’m short in as a talent or a gift in God always connects me with people who have tremendous ability. And so when we come together, we’re capable of making marvellous music, because their background is a little bit different from mine.

That’s why I think community is so important. And I see community like flowers in a garden, we are all flowers, but we shine a little bit different and give off a slightly different fragrance. And so this makes something beautiful. 

Is that something you would recommend for new artists, to build that community? 

I think it’s very important for many reasons. One, for accountability, you need people to hold you accountable.

Community allows us to gain knowledge from people who have had other experiences, perhaps from business perspective, or just from overall growth and spirituality, and when you have that you’re able to be guided.  You want to have people who are around you who have more experience or are capable of standing back and looking at the situation that you are in, so they can better give you some advice to say, Hey, I think you should take this route.

You should make yourself able to be moulded and guided. We’re not all at the same level. You should be able to place trust in people who you find that is significant to your life. We should seek those who will help you to grow and be a better person, and be sharp with the skills that God has used, because we are given these talents, not to just sit with them, but to nurture them and to see how we can use them for God’s good. 

Talking of working with others, do you want to share something about the collaboration you’ve just done, Holy?

Oh, these guys are awesome. I don’t think personally they get the recognition that they should, but Marty and Fern, they’re very humble guys, and it was just a blessing.  

This came about when I dropped my album in miracles in October of 2024 and Marty was kind enough to reach out and said, bro, you’re doing an amazing job. We love what you’ve done, and would love to work with you in the future. I just said, Okay, what song do you like? And he told me, and I said, Okay, I can get it over to you if you want it. And it was that easy. It was a mutual respect and they made me feel seen.

Have you got anything else up your sleeve that you want to share?  

Yeah, I’m actually working in the album right now. I don’t have the name of it, working with Derek Winkley, out of Nashville as producer, and so he’s overseeing the entire project. Basically we have been writing for some weeks now. So it’s about heading into the studio, getting recording done. We have a rapper from the UK, I won’t call his name yet. He’s a brother and friend of mine, very humble guy with a big voice. And I have some other surprises. It’s going to be wonderful. 

I’m learning to be able to sit back and allow God to do his thing. Hard for me, but I’m trying my best to just say, I trust you with this, and I let my faith work because you promised me that you are there. And my favourite text, Proverbs 3:5-6 says trust in the Lord with all your heart and not your own understanding. So I’m not trying to do it on my own understanding.

So the sounds will be coming from a very deep place of pain and happiness, hurt, frustration, and uncertainty.

I’ve done have a song on the track on the project with my little daughter, Nyla. I heard her singing the song, her song, and I said, I’m going to take that, I want it to be pretty. So that’s going to be special when people hear it, speaking about my life and what I want for her, just to be a pure young lady, living for Christ, and how God has brought me to the place to be mature enough to accept where I’ve gone and done that I don’t need to live in that.

Watch this space for Part 2 of the interview, on faith and how to reach people.