We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Edward Johnson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Edward below.
Timeless, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
Well, I didn’t come up with the idea for our business or even planned on having a business! Me & my business partner, Gabriel met back in 07 at a church conference and became friends because we were both musicians. We eventually started playing music together along with a couple other musicians (Timothy Smalls & Tristan Cills) around Charleston, SC surrounding areas and got a gig playing for the Chamber of Commerce. As we were preparing for the gig, we wanted to come up with a name to collectively call ourselves. We had a 4-piece band and trying to be unique with names, 2 members, Gabriel Oree & Timothy Smalls, without sharing ideas both came back with the name “Timeless band”, which we all agreed that since 2 out of 4 people came up with the same name, it must be a God divine thing, lol. So we called ourselves “Timeless Band”. That one gig would be our first and last gig because the other 2 members, Timothy Smalls (drummer) and Tristan Cills, (bass player) moved away for college.
From there, me & Gabe’s friendship grew, and we learned that we both had a passion for music production. I was in the middle of recording a group at my house, and I invited him to sit in for the session. This is where we both realized the level of passion and attention to detail we both had for music production, recording & mixing. Gabe was fresh back from NJ and he shared stories of different ventures he experienced working in the studio, making beats, etc and I shared my experiences making beats, working with artist & music loop companies. Since we didn’t have the Timeless band anymore, we talked about connecting together to make beats, record, etc and again wanted a name. We decided to keep the term “Timeless” but dropped “band” and added the word “PRODUCTIONS”. We just knew that we were going to make waves in the area were we are from, because of the passion, drive and dedication we both have. From there we decided to create and LLC with that name, only to find out that it was already taken! Trying to find a similar term that represented music production, we chose the name “TIMELESS SOUNDS, LLC”!
We knew that it was a worthwhile venture because of the way it all came together, the passion we both had, and the fact that we are both PK’s (preachers kids)! It wasn’t the allure of money, which it took a long time before we started making money, but more the feeling of fulfillment it brought us! We both believed in the quality of the sound we were creating as well as putting out, and it became a driving force & mission for how we did work with our clients. Our “problem” was low quality music (especially rap at that time) that did not represent the Kingdom of God properly or as compared to secular music. So our mission became putting out good high quality music, that represents the Kingdom of God, impacting everything and everywhere our music is and goes! We started to become and or transform into Timeless Sounds, which we state that the name chose us and not the other way around!
We also believe that our approach to how we do business is a simple, yet defining part of our company. We offer payment plans, which is not heard of around these parts, which makes working with us more at ease for a potential up and coming artist. We operate with high integrity and our attempt is to make everything we put our hands, minds, ideas, thoughts, etc to, will blossom into a very beautiful “TIMELESS SOUND”…….#bars
Edward, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Gabe and I are both PK’s (Preacher Kids). We grew up in church playing multiple instruments and as we got older we began experiencing life as young adults and learning music production from peers and different music producers and engineers. Those years of experiences open doors for us to venture more into the music production world.
As a production company, our services consist of recording, mixing, mastering and creating or producing music for indie and national artist. We’ve been consistent in this field because of the love we have for music and production. First and foremost, GOD is our inspiration and source who has given us the abilities to stay focus and consistent on our path. Our desire to want to see growth in our business, careers and music what keeps us discipline.
Problems we would often solve is the artist different parts of the world and would need us create the music they are thinking to reality. Because most artist are not musicians (instrument players), it’s hard for them to put music together and that’s where we come in.
We are proud of the fact that we are doing something we love and see the growth from 2009 to now. Not only that our company allows us to meet different people from across the globe with musical talents and gifts. We are humble with over 25 years of experiences and we love what we do, even if there isn’t money involved. Timeless Sounds, LLC is for the people and would love to help the artist achieve their goals by going far in their careers.
How’d you meet your business partner?
Gabriel Oree and I met back in 07 when I went to play for a church service in Downtown Charleston, SC. When I walked in the building, Gemale Cox, who is a keyboard player and Gabe, a guitarist was there playing their instruments. I too as an organist, played because my father who is a pastor had to speak. I went along to assist him as his musician. After service Gabe and I spoke briefly on how we enjoyed each others playing style and our life history. It was pretty impressive on how our lives resembles and how we both ended back in Charleston. He moved back to Charleston, SC from New Jersey back in 05 and I moved back to Charleston from Charlotte, NC in 04. I mentioned to him about the cd I created called Music From The Soul, a smooth jazz project. We exchanged contact info and I gave him a copy of my CD. Later that night on his ride home he contacted me and told me how he was amazed by the work. Since then we’ve been friends ever since. He would then let me hear his work and I too was blown away by his sound. He was definitely more experienced in the field than I was. I could tell he soaked up a lot of information and how knowledgable he was about the music industry.
Owning a business and being a music producer has been something we desired since my college years and his military days. We both tried connecting with several guys from the surrounding areas but the chemistry wasn’t to our liking.
When we met and made the connection, we’ve never looked back.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
Our most effective strategy for starting our business and growing is our “pay as you go” method! It’s really creative as we basically put the obligation and opportunity to complete a song(s) on our clients! Our services are not free and to some, it may be a bit expensive, but with our 4 phase (creating, recording, mixing, mastering) strategic way of offering clients who may be on a budget, it allows them to pay per phase, giving the necessary time to pay as they go along the phases. This opened up a door for talented individuals, who may have not had the money all upfront, the time to at least start, become motivated that they started to go through each phase to finish! All while being on the budget! This became a proven strategy for us especially getting started.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.timeless-sounds.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/timelesssndsllc
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/TimelessSndsLLC
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/timeless-sounds-llc/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4KIdHB3LoG1hEyMZsEwTew
Image Credits
J.r. Johnson (Timeless Sounds, LLC)