Professor Uses Trauma To Fuel His Latest Music Project
When Kendall Campus professor Patrick Anderson isn’t teaching English or creative writing, he is in the lab—a make-shift music studio in his bedroom closet—recording tracks.
The 40-year-old’s music is a blend of hip-hop, R&B and blues. He is releasing his third album—Better Days—on Dec. 13 on all streaming platforms, including SoundCloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Anderson’s 11-track album is a deep-dive into his personal life, touching on the loss of loved ones, depression and struggles with religious faith.
“This album is a reflection of stuff that I came to terms with a long time ago, but I never put out there,” Anderson said. “Being a creative writing teacher, it’s really hard to tell a story with perspective if you haven’t already dealt with the trauma of that story.”
In 2004, the South Florida native with a love for writing attended Miami Dade College where he studied journalism. He aspired to write for a magazine.
But when he wasn’t in class, he was making mixtapes for his friends, commingling genres such as reggaeton, dancehall and hip-hop.
After Anderson transferred to Florida State University, he had a conversation with his former journalism professor at MDC, Merwin Sigale, about potential career paths. That discussion persuaded him to switch his major to English.
At FSU, he rekindled his passion for playing instruments and taught himself to play guitar. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 2009. Two years later, he received a master’s in creative writing from the University of Central Florida.
By 2015, Anderson had landed a full-time position teaching English at Kendall Campus.
But music remained close to his heart. During the last nine years, Anderson has adopted the stage name Autonomous Entity, a reminder that he is a self-made artist.
In 2020, Anderson produced his first album, Soon Come, which expounded on his feelings of being unfulfilled in his personal and professional life.
A year later, he dropped his second album, WMIA, which follows Anderson during a fictional day in the summer of 2004 as he deals with gun violence and toxic friends.
By 2022, Anderson started working on his latest album, Better Days. The project was fueled by a string of traumatic incidents, including the murder of his friends Justin Morejon and Karen Urbina, and the passing of his sister Collene Anderson, who died from COVID in 2021.
“When his sister passed away … he took that pain and put it on paper,” said Alvaro Matus, Anderson’s friend of 21 years. “And I think that right there tells you a lot about what kind of person he is. Everything put in front of him, he got around it.”
The album’s first single, The Prophet, launched on Oct. 18. It reflects on Anderson’s religious upbringing and how he began questioning the Christian belief system he was raised in.
His second single, Breathe, will be released on Nov. 1. The song was inspired by a panic attack Anderson suffered during the pandemic and the social unrest following George Floyd’s murder. It serves as a meditation piece that encourages listeners to use breathing techniques to cope with stress.
The third single, Cronos—set to be released on Nov. 17—is an ode to the memory of his friends Morejon and Urbina and his sister Collene.
“His inspiration is all the crazy things that have happened to him,” said Anderson’s fiancée Alexa Velez. “He’s kind of reserved. [Music is] his way of taking negative things and turning them into something beautiful.”
To check out Anderson’s work go here: https://tinyurl.com/bp8ac5e7.
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