6. How To Create an Inclusive Studio Space w/Jam Phelps

In this episode, of 'The Music Executive,' host talks with Jam Phelps, the owner and founder of Denk Studios in Durham, North Carolina. 

Jam, a mixing and mastering engineer, shares her journey from being trained by her audio engineer father to becoming a full-time studio owner. 

She emphasizes the importance of avoiding 'gear lust' and the value of creating an inclusive and welcoming space for all musicians, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, or age. 

Through her experiences, Jam highlights the need to focus on client service, shed ego, and meticulously research necessary equipment. 

The episode also features Jam's reflections on overcoming challenges as a woman in a male-dominated field and the importance of believing in one's dreams. 

Chapters

• 0:50 Meet Jam Phelps
• 3:35 Creating an Inclusive Studio
• 7:38 Advice for Aspiring Studio Owners

Transcript

The number one thing aspiring studio should stop doing is the gear lust. The I won't be good enough if I don't have this. I won't be good enough if I don't buy that.

This is the Music Executive, a show where we talk about gig tips, music, business strategies, songwriting experiences, collabs, and even more with industry professionals. Let's get into it.

All right. Thank you so much. Welcome, welcome, welcome to the show. We are so excited. To have Jam Phelps today on the show. Now Jam is the owner and founder of Dank Studios out in Durham, North Carolina. She's a mixing engineer and a music producer, and she was actually just telling me that she has.

Recently become a full-time studio owner. And so we're gonna talk about that a little bit today. Uh, jam is also a drummer jam. Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. Sure thing. So we have a surprise question for you. Okay. And that question is, what has been the highlight of your day? The highlight of my day, so a good friend of mine who I've been giving mixing lessons to, started a podcast about horror movies, and I asked her if I could make her intro to the podcast, and I spent about 10 minutes on it.

It's totally awesome. I sent it to her. She loved it. It was just a lot of fun. Made my day. Oh, nice. You wanna plug the podcast? What's the podcast name? It's called Slashers and Suits. Okay, cool. Well shout out to Slashers and Suits. All right, awesome. Well jam. Tell us a little bit about your background. Um, as I mentioned, you're a drummer as well, so tell us kind of what got you to this point.

So basically my dad is an audio engineer and he's been training my ears since I was little, telling me That sounds bad, that sounds bad. And so I, I just always had kind of an ear for it. I started playing drums when I was 10 years old, so 27 years. And I lived in Seattle for four years and believe it or not, in Seattle, I couldn't find anyone to play music with.

So I said In Seattle? In Seattle, yeah. They all have their own like kind of cliques there. Okay. And so I bought this like cheap $80 mixer. I. I had like audacity and a Cassio keyboard, and I said, I'm just gonna write music, play with myself. And then I started learning that I was actually really good at recording and producing.

And then I moved to Durham and I actually was blessed to have this space. So I turned my garage into a a music studio and made the purchase of all the real equipment, created everything and learned midi. And now I produce songs. I record track songs for people. And just this year, two months ago, I went full time.

Wow. Okay. So we're gonna talk about dang studios in a second. I. Drummer or do you sing at all? I don't consider myself a professional vocalist, but I, I can sing. You have a, but you have a great voice. Like you could do voiceovers. Did you do any voiceovers? I have not. I probably should look into that. You should look into it.

You should definitely look into it. So, dang studios, the thing about that I love about Dan Studios and why I really wanted to have you on the show is because Dank Studios was opened in 2019. And it's a inclusive space for all musicians, regardless of their race, gender, identity, age, and sexual orientation.

So talk about why that angle is important to you and what brought about the how do you create an inclusive space? Sure. So I've been a woman drummer, formerly a girl drummer, and I heard it all. I'd go into the music store and I'd be like, Hey, I just want some Vic for five A drumsticks. And they'd be like, F your boyfriend, or like, what?

You know? And so it just became this constant barrage of being a woman who plays what is considered a masculine is instrument, which I don't consider it that. And everywhere I go, I'd run into that. And then when I started recording. I ran into the stories of, oh, I don't get treated this well at other studios.

And I have a client who's 16 years old and I have a client who's 67 years old. Mm-hmm. And you know, all these different experiences of, you know, I'm 67 years old, I can't record anywhere. They laugh at me, they won't take me seriously. And I just said, you know what, this is crap. You know, there's plenty of places for cis white men to go record.

I wanna have a space where people come in here and they're respected, and they're treated well, and they're the hero of their story and they're the songwriter and they deserve that respect and kindness and chill, you know, that they should get. And that's why it's super important to me because I've heard the stories.

I went into a recording studio, I was hit on. I went into her cardio studio and every woman that walked to the room was asked if she was the singer, you know? And I just, I wanna create a better place for people to come. And it doesn't matter if you're a queer person, you're transgendered or 67-year-old woman, I want you to come in here and feel like you're a star.

And that's how you include and what, give us an example of something that you are doing as far as, and don't share anything proprietary, of course, but anything that you're doing, you know, to make people feel like superstars when they walk in. How are you creating this inclusive space, not just from your approach, but also what things are you doing to make that an inclusive space?

Well, one of the things is that my environment here is very laid back. My studio is made out of recycled and reused materials. And so when you walk in, you get that feeling of like, oh, this is DIY and there's no pressure in here. There's no huge mixing console, and you know, fancy this and that. So you walk in immediately, you're like, oh, I'm comfortable.

There's carpet. Take my shoes off. And then once you start singing or performing, I don't get on you about your performance. I let you perform, and then I'll give you some, Hey, why don't you try this? And. That's kind of the approach. I also always have beverages, snacks, and water. Always ready for people to come and just make it feel comfy in here.

Like you're at home, like you're recording in your own home studio. You just happen to have a professional sitting at the box hitting the buttons. Is that a bed back there? I see. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. No, but I do see some really, uh, southern looking chairs that look in the background. The chairs I got from, uh, scrap exchange, which is an awesome place.

I got most of the stuff in here. They don't know what they have half the time. I got acoustic panels for three bucks a piece at Habitat Restore, and then that table that has all the snacks, that fancy blue table, my wife made that, so Right. Shout out to the wife. Right. What's your wife's name? Uh, crystal.

Crystal. Beautiful. Crystal, thank you for building a amazing studio with Jam. Oh man. So, as you've created this beautiful space and you're doing all these amazing things with people of all ages. All sexual orientations. What is one thing that you would have wished you wouldn't have never done as far as your studio?

What is something that aspiring studios studio owners should stop doing? The number one thing aspiring studio owners should stop doing is the gear lust. The I won't be good enough if I don't have this. I won't be good enough if I don't buy that. And I'm gonna tell you right now, I researched everything.

I bought for a few months, waited till President's Day, got it all half off, and thought to myself, what do I actually need? All the gear in this room besides my drum set that I've had for years. It's my dream kit. We won't talk about how much that costs. All of my recording gear was less than a thousand dollars and I've well made that back and I haven't, you know, made any major purchases that I didn't need.

And you know. Really tune in your skills, learn your daw, the best that you can learn the equipment that you have. I think it's a Warren Hewitt that says The best microphone is the one in your hand. And that's like my biggest piece of advice. You don't need to spend a million dollars you can do it for if you just research what you need for the job that you need to get done.

Right. I remember being in a class once and someone asking, it's always the question which. What's the best, duh, right? And you're like, well, what are you trying to do? You know, if you're trying to do a, you know, you're trying to do a DJ set, you're trying to do a live looping set, you're trying to just record something.

You're trying to overdub what? What are you trying to do? And so the first thing, just harping off what you said, know what you're trying to do first. Know where you're going. It's like, it's just like life. Know where you're going so you can know what to do to get to that point, right. So what is something that studio owners should start doing, and what's something that you have started doing?

I think that something that they should start doing is leave your ego at the door and remember that your client is the hero in this story. They are the ones who are bearing their soul and sharing these songs with you and you. Get to help them make these songs full productions and beautiful pieces of art that they can be proud to share with the world.

If you have someone come in and you say, well, I, you know, I don't like this and I don't think this is the right choice, you know, it starts to take away from their creativity. And yes, you want 'em to be the best they can and sound the best they can, but you need to have their intentions at heart and focus on them.

And the number one thing is this is a customer service. Business. It just is. You have to be focused on that client and that customer because they're the one giving you the money and they're the one opening themselves up to sing in front of you. And you gotta focus on that and focus on them. And I think that that will get you a lot farther than having, I.

A universal audio, whatever, blah, blah, blah. You know? Right. ACL a. Right. The best compressor money can buy will not make people like you. Right. I know you're so funny. I've really enjoyed talking to you. Um, what, what is the biggest takeaway that you've gotten from your career thus far? Like you just giving y'all an idea of how amazing Jam is.

She told me before we hit the little red button that says record. I went full time in October. You said it was, which is which? Depending on when you're listening now, that was two, three months ago. And she said she has no regrets. She says that it's been going really amazing. Mind you, we're in the middle of a pandemic, so if this is, if you're listening and it's 2030, just know this is COVID time.

This is real. We're in history right now. So what is the biggest takeaway that you've gotten thus far from your career? Just do it. If you have something that you wanna do, you know, do it and do it smart. Do your research beforehand. Listen to podcasts like this one. Listen to different things. Read books and just study up and say, okay, I'm gonna do it, and I'm gonna pull the trigger and take the the gold handcuffs off.

That might be your day job. And mine were removed. For me, I got laid off from, I worked at an engineering firm, I got laid off in October, and I said, you know what? I'm just gonna go for it. I'm, I got a little severance and I'm just gonna go for it. And it's been going so well. And you know, towards the end of the month I'll be like, oh man, I don't have anything booked up for December.

And you, you start to kind of doubt yourself and then you get that phone call the next day and you're busy for weeks. And so, you know, just believe in yourself and keep pushing for it. That's all you gotta do is just really like. Think about how do I get this goal? What do I need to do? And go for it. Mind you, this show is called The Music Executive, so you must execute, right?

You must execute, and I'm so happy to hear that now, Jim, is there anything else you wanna share with our audience? Yeah, like, like I said before, my studio we're big hippies over here in my household and you know, I didn't have a lot of startup money. I didn't come from a rich family like, so I had put this together and with a lot of hard work and months and months of collecting things off Craigslist or the Restore, I was able to sound, treat my entire room and build a vocal booth.

Get everything that I needed. So, you know, that, that is the biggest thing, is that it's possible and you don't need a bunch of money. And if it's something you wanna do, you know you can do it. And if anybody's out there and they're listening to this and they, they have that self-doubt, like, I don't think I can do it.

You know, you can contact me and I'll. Say you can. Oh my goodness. Y'all jam is so awesome. She has a great spirit full of love, life and, and, uh, peace. For sure. She brings a lot of peace to my day. I know I've had a very hectic day, so I appreciate you for that. Uh, where can the audience follow you and Dank Studios?

You can follow me at Instagram at Dank. It's DENK studios and dink studios.com. Another interesting fact. So Dan is actually a family name. It's German for think, and it's my, uh, my mother-in-law's last name. And without this, without her support and her family, I couldn't have done any of this. I wouldn't have had this space.

So I dedicated to her family. That's DNK. And you can Google me. I'm the first 12 things that pop up. That's another thing. Make sure your Google game is on point. You're gonna start business. Right. Well y'all, that's Jim Phelps and Dan Studios listening. So coming up now, you're going to hear a sample of some music that Jam and her friend Jenna Ocella have produced and written.

So the Artist the Singer is Jenna Ocella. It was written by Jam Phelps and Jenna Ella, and it's produced and mixed by Jam At Dan Studios. The song's called Your Body. Talk to y'all soon and where am I? Should known coming.

I shoulda known.

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