We were lucky to catch up with Dan Davis recently and have shared our conversation below.
Dan, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
I think answering this question definitively is an impossibility, as all projects are meaningful; however, I think to date the project that has brought me the most creative satisfaction and joy would have to be making Dragula: A Suite In Five Parts, with Eric Slick and Andrew Golden.
A couple years ago I texted Andrew with an idea, let’s get our most talented friends together for one day in the studio, a completely analog recoding project, no computers, no plugins or screens, just mics, preamps, a console, and a tape machine. We would record the music day one, mix the music day two, and then release the music. After receiving this prompt he came back quickly with his friend Eric and this instrumental tribute to Dragula they had been working on and performed only once. Cut to about a year later and here we are, a room full of their closest friends who had come together to do this thing none of us had really done before.
The entire Suite was cut live on the floor with all instrumentalists at the same time, we overdubbed the band and friends singing a small piece on track 4, Slam in The Back of My Chanukah, but otherwise everything you hear from FX to the playing is all being recorded live to a 2″ 24 track tape machine. From aligning the tape machine to mixing the record live off the console, we completed the project in around 24 hours. From empty air to what you hear in the recording, it felt like record time and record quality. There’s a specific magic to the limitations of traditional recording methods that seemed to seep into everyones hands over the course of the project that I think is tangible as you listen to it. While experimental jazz may not be everyones genre, making things with your friends is the most endearing formula we have, and that’s why I think it can speak to everyone and a large part of what makes it so special.
I take a lot of pride in trying to be a champion for artists and their crazy ideas, and this was my first successful attempt of idea to reality. Being trusted with something this magnificent and wild was a true honor and I hold these recordings really close to my heart. Sonically fantastic and the story is even better, kinda like it used to be.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I’m Dan Davis, the youngest of three boys. I grew up in Brookhaven, Mississippi, a small railroad town only about two hours from New Orleans. Music has been the center of my life since I can remember. I moved to Nashville in 2016 to attend the Blackbird Academy, initially to appease my Dad who wanted me to have some kind of formal education. Little did I know, I had stumbled my way into my own island of misfit toys. I’ve been playing in bands and producing since before I knew what a producer even did, Blackbird helped me realize that’s what I was doing and wanted to do. Twelve days after I graduated blackbird in October of 2016 I started as an intern at Southern Ground Nashville, Zac Brown’s historic recording studio in midtown. Starting in the kitchen washing dishes to engineering ZBB’s most recent record Love and Fear, I cut my teeth and learned everything I know in one of the best studios in town. For ten years now I’ve been recording, producing, and running sessions out of there. In 2020 the studio shut down commercially and I’ve been operating it as a free lance producer and engineer ever since.
When people ask what I do I tell them I make records. I’m passionate about both working with bands and also assembling the right studio band for solo artists. There’s a sacred space and ritual that occurs when we all get together at the same time to fully realize what a song / album is and can be. Curating that space and process is where my skills can really shine I think. Having a real understanding of the history of recording practices and production techniques, I’m able to help a band or artist realize their vision, articulate it, and capture it.
As a songwriter, musician, and band member myself, I’m more than familiar with navigating what I refer to as “The Great Compromise”. In this compromise that happens between players, artist, producer, and all parties involved on a recording session is where a lot of the magic resides. Navigating that and creating a safe environment for everyone to feel they can express and explore is really important to me. Having worked in a commercial studio for the last 10 years I have the benefit of having worked on nearly 500 records, watching the greatest players, producers, and artist work at the highest level, under some high risk conditions. Those experiences have allowed me to see every situation, be it musical or interpersonal, and how to successfully and unsuccessfully navigate them. The biggest compliment I get from artist I work with other than my musicality as an engineer and producer is that I make it easy. Many years under the pressure of what I refer to as “true Nashville” sessions has allowed me to steal the greatest aspects of lots of my hero’s workflow and apply it to my style of making records. We’re talking about sessions that if broken down mathematically can cost hundreds of dollars a minute. It’s really important that none of those minutes are wasted on me fumbling around a patch bay or not understanding the console routing. I want to honor the fact that a band is in a big moment, having saved up, written songs, aligned schedules, etc and I want to equip them with every tool I can for creative success.
I think the thing I’m most proud of is people trust me. Artists trust me. Bands trust me. They trust me to see them, to accept them for where and who they are in their journey, and to provide as much of my knowledge as I can, from pre production and songwriting to weird minutia like ISRC management, DSP navigation, and the classic “how do I get paid for it?”. I can take an idea and turn it into a tangible, and if desired commercially viable product for you and the people who love your art, and I don’t have to bully anybody to get it done. From a wide variety of genres and styles to completely analog records done on tape, I feel confident in my ability to curate a space that is conducive for achieving the goal of creating something with a group of people and having fun in the process. Letting folks in on the magic of large format recording, production, and making stuff with their friends is something I’m extremely thankful for.
Bottom line is I want to help folks make stuff and I want to help them feel safe and have fun while doing it.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
In March of 2020 (cue horror music) we were all fired from our jobs at the studio. I thought that was going to be the end for me, did I have the clients or skills to go independent? Probably not. Did I know how to run my own business? Absolutely not. But much like how I got the job at first at Southern Ground, I refused to go home. When I was first hired i did 3 months of interning for free, a month of working on call and after two weeks of continuing to show up every Monday without being told to, I got offered a spot on the team.
Now jump ahead to 2020, we’ve all been fired, no one knows how long the world is gonna shut down, and I’m assisting and cutting at other studios in town. Yet 2021 comes around and my phone rings to reopen the studio for what was to be a one off sessions for Caroline Jones, shoutout an absolute gem of a human and monster talent. When the session ended there was obviously lots of work to be done to recover from it being left dormant for almost a year. Next thing you know ZBB is gearing up for recording The Comeback record and we have to get things back in shape. From there I was editing the record, working on things for Zac and the gang and once again I refused to give up and go home. I kept showing up, doing something, making something, being here for any reason I could come up with. Now it’s 2026, I engineered the last record for the band and operate out of the room to keep things alive as they look for a new owner for the space.
Don’t go home, don’t give up, just get started and the path starts to reveal itself.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
The best thing society can do to support artists is quit pretending like they are owed or deserve peoples art. Value it for the art it is and the work it takes to create it and pay for it.
We have a very, “you’re welcome I consumed your stuff” kind of society, but consumption of art doesn’t necessitate a transaction of value for the art. Many artists are left with empty hands being told they should say thank you. If you have access to every song for 11$ a month from a predatory streaming service, it is a wild stance to claim to support arts or even “like music” if you’re not doing something in addition to support the arts. As a society we’ve devalued art in the name of accessibility, gaslighting artist into essentially giving it away in the name of exposure, and as famously said, “People die of exposure”. Being an artist historically was a respected skill like any other trade. Artists were commissioned for incredible works, Composers held places in Royal Courts to compose pieces for both royalty and the people. King David hired musicians to prophesy with their instruments for God. I don’t think <i>anyone</i> should live in lavish luxury, but you should be able to create art and make a living without having to concede ownership or influence to a Suit or an algorithm to do so.
That process starts by people respecting the value of the art that is made and honoring it, consuming it responsibly, and supporting their local arts community. Imagine the world without music, paintings, cinema… It’s pretty bleak. Let’s keep it alive, keep it in schools, and keep it possible for that tradition to continue. Go see a local band and pay the cover and buy some merch, go buy someone’s painting at the art festival, attend Shakespeare in the Park, donate, volunteer, and for the love of everything keep AI out of your life.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.danielmdavis.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_danjosbanjo/
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-238228260
Image Credits
Jared Lichtenberg