Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dan Pohl. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Dan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

There are definitely times when I look back and wish that I had started preparing for my musical career earlier, but I also believe that all of my experiences (musical and otherwise) have prepared me for where I am right now. I have to laugh when I think about the clients that I offered to produce their music for free and they still turned me down. I think that rejection and failure, although painful at the time, are necessary to establish a lasting, successful business.

Before I took the leap into full-time music production, I was in retail working as a store manager. My dream was always to make a living through music, but the comfortability of a full-time job and the need to support me and my wife was looming. After a few years of retail work, my wife and I decided that it was time to pursue what we had felt all along. I don’t consider that time as a waste, because I still learned valuable life lessons and responsibility. Thankfully, I had been working on my skills and generating contacts so when it was time to take the leap, the foundation felt like it was set.

Dan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a music producer in Walterboro, SC. I run a studio on my property and also do loads of remote work. I offer artists and vocalists a high quality product in the form of a finished, radio-ready song. All we need to start on this collaborative process is a simple voice memo with the general idea of your song. We then continue to work together to make your vision a reality and find maximum enjoyment in the process!

A lot of artists have fantastic songs and ideas but don’t know how to get to the final product of a finished song that is ready to be released. I help with the whole process and work to make the artist’s vision come to life. I want artists to know that you do not have to go to a big industry city like Nashville to get a professional song recorded. I pride myself on being fun to work with and serving the song and the artist above everything else! One big thing that sets me apart from larger commercial studios is the fact that I do not charge by the hour. Creativity shouldn’t be timed and you shouldn’t feel pressured to express your ideas.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding thing about being a full-time creative is putting something out into the world that did not exist before. I often celebrate with my clients at the end of the process the fact that we just started with nothing and now there is an entire song, or collection of songs, that is going to live on and have a life of it’s own. This would not have existed if we didn’t do it.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

An area that I think has the potential to be misunderstood by non-creatives is the idea that I am usually way more concerned with the quality of art that is being created than by how “successful” my business will be. Success to me is releasing a high quality song that my artist is thrilled with. While I do value the business side of creating, I ultimately pursued this profession because I love creating music, and that is what drives a lot of my decisions.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://danpohlmusic.com
• Instagram: @danpohlmusic

Image Credits

Becky Morehead – Morehead Media