Musician – Producer – Composer
“The V44S gen2 on my acoustic harp guitar just blew me away with its larger than life, warm, yet equally finely detailed sound in an extremely well built and smooth operating swivel mechanism system- it was like this mic was built specifically for this purpose! I loved it so much I had to get the V13 gen2 as well, which to no surprise on the first vocal session in the studio I used it on won over my previous prized vocal mic with the artist whom felt like he could hear details in his voice he never heard before. I’m very happy to be part of the Vanguard family!”
Modern fingerstyle harp-guitarist Alex Anderson was born into a musician family where his father, an accomplished classical and steel string guitarist, bought him his first classical guitar at an early age. Taking up drums and bass in his teens, Alex also got his first steel string acoustic guitar and felt immediately connected to the instrument. After discovering greats like Michael Hedges and Preston Reed, Alex took to the new genre of instrumental modern fingerstyle music of which they were pioneers.
Alex continued his musical education in recording and sound design studying Music Production and Technology at the HARTT School of Music where he was accepted as a classical guitarist. The call to pursue a career as a performing musician was strong, so Alex left to record and perform in various rock bands. During this time his love of fingerstyle only grew stronger and Alex left the rock scene to return to his roots and pursue a solo career. Combining his love for guitar, bass and drums in one instrument in 2013 he sold off all his electric and acoustic guitars to purchase his first harp guitar, a Dyer Style 8. Many musicians have fallen in love with the harp-guitar since greats like Stephen Bennett, Michael Hedges and Andy McKee brought an awareness to the masses- but few have dedicated all of their playing and composition to it. It became Alex’s passion to take the instrument to uncharted territories and expand its limited repertoire. Since then Alex has been a featured artist on CandyRat Records with his original material and received praise from some of the top fingerstyle players in the world. The grandfather of harp-guitar Stephen Bennett has recently invited Alex to the 2016 Harp Guitar Gathering to speak and perform at the main concert. Alex has also signed endorsement deals with Pellerin Guitars, Ernie Ball strings, DiMarzio pickups, GRACE Designs Preamps and Shubb capos amoung others.
Now signed to CandyRat Records who released his debut all harp guitar concept album Tree of Life in 2017 – Alex also founded his Tree of Life Studio as a facility exclusively for acoustic fingerstyle/singer-songwriter artists where he also produced, mixed and mastered his debut. Alex has shared the stage with such greats as Stephen Bennett, Don Ross, Antoine DuFour and Ian Ethan Case. Alex was a featured performer in Harp Guitar Gathering 14 and 16 and in 2018 he was asked by Stephen Bennett to co-run a recording workshop with Kim Person as well as a percussive harp guitar masterclass. Alex was also a featured performer at the Artisan Guitar Show 2019 debuting his new signature model guitar with Pellerin Guitars. Currently working in the studio mixing and mastering for artists in the community, for his solo harp guitar work Alex released singles “No-Way Mirror” in 2020, “Restless Dreams” in 2021, “Brighter Than The Fire Around Her” tracks 1-3 off his new album “ShadowLight” scheduled to release on CandyRat Records over the course of 2023 in chronological order with special edition Vinyl and CDs forthcoming.