Anthony Graziani Marroquin did not grow up to a musical family. He got introduced to music
when he was 10 years old and saw his older brother play the alto saxophone for his concert
band. When Anthony was 11 years old, his parents noticed him banging his hands on the car
seats, using his pencils and other objects he can find to play along to the rhythm of music he
heard on the radio on his desk. When he turned 12, his parents bought him a drum set from a
local pawn shop and started to play on his new kit.
He joined an entry level concert band group where he learned how to read music. However, the
following year he was not allowed to be in the concert band program for scoring low on the
standardized testing and was placed on “sheltered classes”. Anthony was discouraged and
wanted to give up on music. He told his mom to sell his drum set because he knew his parents
were struggling financially. His mom told him “No” for 2 reasons: 1) She spent over $300 on the
drum set for Anthony’s birthday and she was not going to throw that away and 2) his mom did
not want him to give up.
Anthony had an opportunity to his older brother play for his school’s marching band and as
soon as he saw that he said to himself, “That’s what I want to do.”
He tried out for the marching band for his high school, did not make it to the drumline and was
placed in pit percussion where he learned more about other percussion instruments. He
learned to play the timpani and received award on his freshmen year for the Most Improved
Student. He made some friends and got together with a group of other musicians to jam out.
His friends did not like the other drummer who was playing with his friends and a couple of
Anthony’s friends told him, “Hey, we don’t like so and so…he sucks.” “You got a drum set…learn
these songs and we’ll play together. We could use you man.” From there he formed an Emo
Rock band called Differential Pitch.
He went on to college, learned how to play Hip-Hop, Salsa and Latin music, Jazz, collaborated
with other musicians where he improved his musicianship. Anthony graduated from CSU
Polytechnic Pomona California with a B.A. in Music emphasizing on Music Technology. He
learned how to record and engineer sound.
After college, Anthony joined and formed other bands that were not successful. Built a home
studio where he recorded local Hip-Hop artists, worked as a producer and beatmaker, and had
a mobile DJ business.
Anthony has played the drums for over 24 years. He is currently working at the Rockstars of
Tomorrow studio in Riverside, CA. where he teaches kids how to play the drums and music
production. Anthony also plays for his church, creates YouTube videos, and releases drum cover
videos on his channel. Aside from music, Anthony has published and released a book called,
Gratitude is Your Power, teaching people how to live a better life by maintaining the mental
state of gratitude. He plans to inspire people to become better versions of themselves and
plans to write more books in the future.