Culture Envy: Victoria Anthony

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Victoria Anthony does not shy away from taking risks and going for her dreams. The Vancouver-born musician has been singing since she was two years old and taught herself how to write songs and play the guitar and piano at 12. 

During that same year in 2018, Anthony heard pop-artist P!nk was coming to Vancouver on tour and took the chance to tweet the artist and asked to join her on stage to sing. Her dream came true, and she sang “Perfect” right in front of P!nk with thousands of people watching at Rogers Arena. 

“It was surreal and amazing … she said, ‘You’re amazing, never stop.’ That was very touching and something that I’ll always remember,” Anthony says. 

“That experience gave me the opportunity to have a platform, and from there I started sharing the music I’ve been writing and posting covers and then finally I released an album [in 2020].” 

Now at 17, she has released four singles, toured the United States and Europe, and is working on her second album that is set to be released in spring. 

Her most recent single “Should’ve Known” released last month and is the third song accompanying the album. It touches on when you see the red flags in a relationship and should have walked away from the beginning. 

A high-energy song inspired with a little pop punk, she wrote the song with Tavish Crowe, co-writer of “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen and Ryan Worsley, a longtime collaborator with Anthony. 

“I wrote ‘Should’ve Known’ in one day,” she says. “I was telling them about my life, my anger, my regret, and we ended up writing ‘Should’ve Known’ pretty quickly. It was a fun one to write, just a lot of ideas being thrown everywhere.” 

Before Anthony writes her songs, she has a playlist of the songs she’s inspired by at the time and draws a lot of inspiration from artists like Taylor Swift. For “Should’ve Known,” she remembers a lot of Kelly Clarkson songs in her playlist. 

Anthony and Crowe began working on the guitar riff for the song first, then began creating the chorus and built the rest from there with the verses she says. Writing the second verse was her favourtie because of what is not said in the song. 

“There’s this one part where it’s supposed to be ‘whore,’ but I don’t say it. I just think it’s such a funny part of the song,” she says. 

“I was calling different people asking them if they get it, because there’s nothing worse than when you think you’re being quirky and you think you’re doing something so great, and then nobody gets it. But everyone got it.”

Writing the song came across naturally for Anthony as she loves writing angry songs, she says.

“I think it’s one of those emotions where you don’t have to be the most vulnerable,” Anthony says. “It’s like a little bit of pointing fingers, still a little bit of vulnerability, but it’s mostly that feeling of just ‘I’m screaming, angsty, and upset.’” 

However, one of the biggest challenges Anthony faced when writing “Should’ve Known” was the bridge as she wasn’t sure what to do with it. She says the bridge is more of a pause in the song with the pre-chorus faded and then it all ties back to the chorus. 

“I definitely think we ended up making the right choice, because otherwise it would have been too busy.” 

“Should’ve Known” will be one of the songs featured in her album next year. Anthony says the idea behind her new album is tackling the feelings that come with growing up such as learning about relationships and discovering yourself, but also the challenging aspects that come along with growing up. 

“I think it can really resonate with a lot of people my age, but also everybody else because you’re always feeling those emotions of what’s coming next, who am I, and also the fun side of it,” she says. “I hope that my music is touching people in a way that’s helpful, or making them feel seen.” 

“I love creating [music] and I love the different ways it intertwines with the rest of the world,” she adds. 

“Music is one of those things that you can’t escape, and I think it’s for the best.”