Today we’d like to introduce you to Remember Tony.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
So my story with music actually didn’t start with me as the artist — it started with me behind the scenes. I went to school for business, and right out of college my close friend and I started managing an artist we really believed in. We were grinding — building a following, booking shows, touring — and I was doing all of that at night while working at a mattress store during the day. After a few years we bet on ourselves and moved to LA in October 2019 to take it to the next level.
Then the pandemic hit. Touring stopped, shows stopped, the money stopped. I hit a real crossroads: stay in music or go back to the mattress game. I went back to corporate. My friend stayed in — and he’s gone on to do incredible things, tour managing at places like Madison Square Garden and working with huge artists, this is still my best friend btw lol. I was 26 thinking I was already behind in life, so I told myself I needed to “get it together” and I dove into the corporate world.
But being in LA and not doing music never sat right with me. I always knew I wanted to be in it somehow. I grinded corporate in LA from 2020 to 2023, and then my job relocated me back to my hometown, Pittsburgh. The moment I found out I was moving, something clicked — I couldn’t let corporate fully consume me. So right then I decided I was getting back into music. It’s still funny to me I waited until I was leaving the meca for creatives is I finally started making music lol. The other crazy part is I spent so much time managing artist, but I knew nothing about actually creating. Getting in front of a camera, making songs, promoting myself — that was terrifying for me. I was also going through a anxiety stretch, and I figured the only way past the fear was to run straight at it and make it a challenge. So I loaded up BandLab and started making songs in private, recording with iPhone headphones. I listened back and thought I sounded like a punk rock star — they were trash (laughs) — but hey, I grew up skateboarding, so maybe that tracked.
No lie, I built this whole thing by myself. Taught myself how to record, how to structure a song, learned music theory, learned how to actually tell stories. I’ve always lived somewhere between introvert and extrovert, and this has pushed me in the best way. Now it’s about building community and taking my real experiences and emotions and putting them into the music. That’s Remember Tony.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Not even close to smooth — but I wouldn’t want it any other way.
The biggest struggle at first was that I had no idea what I was doing. I’d spent years around music from the management side, so I understood the business — but I’d never actually made anything. I didn’t know how to record, how to structure a song, none of it. I was starting from zero at an age where I already felt behind. So it was late nights teaching myself everything one piece at a time. How to record. Song structure. Music theory. How to actually tell a story in a song instead of just stringing words together.
The other big obstacle was me. Getting in front of a camera and promoting myself was genuinely terrifying. I’d always been the guy behind the artist, never the artist. Putting your own face and voice and emotions out there is a completely different thing than doing it on someone else’s behalf. I was also going through a depressed stretch at the time — and honestly that’s part of why I did it. I decided the only way past the fear was to run straight at it and make it a challenge. Music became the outlet I needed and the thing forcing me to grow, at the same time.
And then there’s the reality of building this while working a full-time corporate job. There’s no team. It’s me. I’m writing, recording, running the ads, pitching playlists, learning the marketing, funding all of it — at night and on weekends, after my actual job’s done. Some days you’re exhausted and it’d be so easy to just… not. But I’ve been down that road before. I walked away from music once. I’m not doing it again.
The wins come slow, but they’re real. And every time I go back and listen to those first songs I made on iPhone headphones, I can see exactly how far I’ve come.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m an independent artist — I make introspective melodic rap under the name Remember Tony. The name comes from two places: “Remember” is a call to action, I want the music to stick with people and be something they come back to. And Tony comes from my middle name, Anthony. So it’s personal and it’s a statement at the same time.
My music lives in the space of Mac Miller, NoCap, Rylo Rodriguez, Toosii — melodic, honest, a little faded. It’s for people who are going through something but still finding a way to keep moving. That’s the whole thesis. Life didn’t go how you planned, but you’re still here, and you’re going to be okay. It’s not toxic positivity — it’s earned.
What sets me apart is honestly the path. I came into this from the business side. I managed artists before I ever made a song, so I understand the machine — the marketing, the ad strategy, the data, the playlist game. Most artists have to learn that after the fact, and a lot of them never do. I had the opposite problem — I knew the business but had to teach myself the art. Now I’ve got both, and I run all of it myself. Every song, every promo, every rollout — that’s me.
What I’m most proud of is just that I actually started. I was terrified of putting myself out there. I was in a dark place. Making music was the thing I ran toward instead of away from, and it’s changed my life. Now I’m watching real people in places I’ve never been — Melbourne, Stockholm, all over — actually listening to something I made in my room on iPhone headphones. That never stops being wild to me.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
I’m a big self-help book guy, not gonna lie. Atomic Habits has been huge for me — this whole thing only works because of small consistent actions stacked over time. I’m not making a hit song in a day, I’m showing up every night after work and getting a little better. That book basically describes my whole process.
How to Win Friends and Influence People is another one. Sounds like a business book but it’s really about how you treat people, and this industry is all relationships — curators, other artists, your listeners. That stuff matters.
On the tools side, BandLab is where it all started for me. I made my first songs on it recording with iPhone headphones. It’s free and it lowers the barrier to just start, which is the hardest part for most people.
Honestly though, the biggest resource has been just being willing to look stupid while I learn. YouTube tutorials, trial and error, making bad songs until they got less bad. There’s no shortcut for that part.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5obPocx8IBgJUCtPy5PmOl?si=O9abi9d4SWGeMqYlDGAR2g
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/remembertony_/
