Bryce Airgood
| Port Huron Times Herald
Shawn Anderson remembers when it was hard to sell a couple CDs. Now his new album “Makin Waves” has been listened to in over 40 countries and has been streamed on Spotify over 5,000 times.
Anderson, who goes by the name Substance810 as a homage to his hometown Port Huron’s area code and his style of music, has a lot going on.
Besides releasing his new album at the end of January, he also has five more projects coming out soon and his name is featured in Port Huron Museums Black history exhibit.
“It’s extremely gratifying and it’s kind of unreal sometimes,” he said.
Anderson graduated from Port Huron High School in 2002, where he wrote poetry and short stories that gradually turned into writing lyrics.
Anderson moved to Arizona to work with his uncle as an exterminator after high school and it was there he took his music more seriously, invested in better merchandise and did more live shows.
But he became tired of flying back and forth to his home state and missing things, so in 2016 he moved back to Michigan. He currently lives in New Haven, working as an exterminator by day and working on his music by night.
He describes the grind in his song “Midnight Oil” and said a lot of the time when he’s traveling in his van he’s listening to beats and coming up with ideas.
And he’s had plenty of time to work on music during the COVID-19 pandemic. People haven’t been able to go out and do things like normal. As a creator, in a way, it’s been a good thing.
“We’ll never get this much time again,” he said.
However, the pandemic has caused personal challenges for Anderson as well. His 7-year-old daughter lives with her mother in Canada and with the border closed he has been unable to see her. He describes his pain in his song “Invisible Lines.”
“I’m straddling invisible lines I can’t get through, at times I feel helpless, it’s not my choice if I get you,” he raps, talking about how he is held hostage by strict orders and how he missed his daughter’s birthday this summer.
Anderson described his music as having “literal, actual substance.” It’s what is called bar heavy, highly lyrical content with figurative language and metaphors. He likes his lyrics to be deep and personal, he said.
Anderson said he’ll feel like he’s made it when he can work on his music full time, though making it into the Port Huron Museums exhibit makes him feel like his hard work hasn’t gone unnoticed.
The exhibit is permanent, it’s in his home city and it means a lot. He wants to be an example for other artists in Port Huron, let them know they too can make it.
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“That’s really important to me to be like a shining light,” he said.
Kenneth Caldwell, another Port Huron hip-hop artist who goes by the name Pee.Tzu and is featured in “Invisible Lines,” said people can learn four lessons from Substance810.
One, stay true to yourself. Two, don’t get discouraged. Three, be consistent and four, look for neutral ground, other places to market yourself outside your city especially in the streaming era, he said.
He said Anderson’s success was not given but earned and is well deserved.
“He’s a Port Huron legend. Period,” Caldwell said.
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Contact Bryce Airgood at (810) 989-6202 or bairgood@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @bairgood123.
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