We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Daniel Dennis. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Daniel below.
Daniel, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?
I didn’t come from a musical family, so it still amazes me that my parents saw that I had some interest in playing music early on and did everything they could to support and encourage me.
They noticed when I was little that I would drum on anything around me, so they signed me up for drum lessons at age 8 and then later, guitar lessons at age 12. When I was 14, they thought it would be fun to get me a Tascam cassette recorder to create songs, and that was the start of my recording journey. When I was 16, I made my first CD from a Roland digital recorder they bought me, and it was that moment I knew I could do this for other artists someday.
They helped me through college at Middle Tennessee State University in the Music Production & Technology program, and they’ve always encouraged me to start my own music production business.
I grew up working for their side small business in laminating, so I’ve always been around their entrepreneurial spirit, and my Dad has been a great business mentor over the years, especially starting out.
My wife and I have 6-year-old twins, and I’ve definitely been influenced by my parents with how we’ve approached encouraging and supporting our kids’ interests and one day, helping them achieve their dreams.
Daniel, 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’m Daniel Dennis, a music producer and multi-instrumentalist based in Nashville. I’ve been producing, engineering and mixing full-time since 2006, working primarily with independent artists in Country, Pop and Indie Rock.
I’ve been playing music since I was a kid and gradually picked up drums, guitar, bass, mandolin, ganjo, pedal steel and some keys over the years, and my recording journey started when I was 14 in my old bedroom with a Tascam cassette recorder. I started producing music right after college for friends, which gave me the confidence to go full-time with my studio in 2006.
I love working one-on-one with an artist to help develop a sound that is authentically them and can stand out in a crowd and playlist. And because I’m handling most things like instruments, recording, editing and mixing, we can move smoothly, feed off of the momentum of a session and really lock in the what’s best for the song. Translating the emotion of a song from its raw work-tape form, into a commercially-competitive finished product just never gets old!
I’m thankful every day that I get to work on great music with great artists that have become life-long friends. And even after all of these years, I still have the same fire and passion for working on music as I did when I first started.
Have you ever had to pivot?
The music business has always changed at a quick pace, but especially now! When I first started out, I offered a lot of services with my studio business for a one-stop shop experience: recording, mixing, session musician, website and graphic design, and CD printing.
And as technology and the way people consume music has changed over the years, so did my business service offerings. But it all felt like a natural progression towards focusing strictly on music production.
Another pivot point was when we had our twins! My time became more limited, which really forced me to focus on working on master releases that felt the best for my creative sweet spot genre-wise.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
Consistency.
Consistency in communication, doing what you say you’ll do, showing up every day prepared with a good attitude, staying present on social media (especially Instagram), and most importantly, creating a consistently fun and creative work environment. It all adds up over time!
Contact Info:
- Website: http://producerdanieldennis.com
- Instagram: @producerdanieldennis
Image Credits
Emma Lee Photography for the main studio photo of me.