Search - Candice Anitra :: Big Tree

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 father's telling her she "wasn't ready." After high school, Candice set sail for New York University's 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 Candice's maiden solo musical voyage, the 2008 EP Easier.