We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Devan Smith. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Devan below.

Devan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?

I hope people recognize me an amazing husband, dad and music producer. I pray the city I rock with becomes a beacon of new music and artists to be successful in as a result of the music I create. I’m hoping when it’s all said and done I am or was part of the process to put the city on the map and music fans can find dope music here. I hope as I begin this next chapter in my career I start a movement for artists and producers to have an affordable creative space to get together to make music and my place will be known for that.

Devan, 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?

First, I want to say thank you guys for this opportunity, this is dope platform and I’m glad you guys reached out. Shout out my boy Notty Taylor. I go by DevanThatDude, I started DJing the summer of 2010, after my brother picked it up. Started DJing dubstep and EDM, but not long adding HipHop and Punk in our sets and that led to so many resident spots in Knoxville. After DJing for a while and spinning other artists records and making remixes, me and brother dove straight into music production making angry dubstep at first and on the side I’d make some just hiphop trap beats. Did this for a few summers and then moved to Cali spring of 2014 seeing if I can do my thing out there and see if I can meet people, go to studios and see what happens. So, I don’t know if most know this, but it’s expensive as hell out there so I worked a lot, making time for music was not happening especially without a car and moving around. Met a few artists, interned for bout 6 months at this dudes home studio, learned so much how not to run a studio, but was involved in some really cool sessions and the coolest thing was adding sound FX for a kids show I did a few episodes on. Moved back to Knoxville February of 2016, went back to working with my really good at the friend at his house on music and getting back in the game since I had been gone a while. Then I don’t know things got weird after that summer, relationships started to get tense and I felt kind of stagnant, so I backed out of making music for a while and just worked my job and sadly just hung out. One of those things I wish I would’ve just kept working through it and making moves that I needed to do to advance my career, especially with very little responsibilities at the time. So bad to say it but almost 2 years after thinking about music and creating it everyday, I went and grabbed my busted old laptop one night super late that had drums and sounds to make beats in Ableton on. After that late night, I was all the way back in. Bought everything I needed to get back to creating and ever since that moment Winter of 2020 I’ve lived and breathed creating music, finding dope artists and a space to create. There’s something about producing an instrumental record sending it to an artist and a few days they send you a demo or a few weeks later they send you a final song; that rush and excitement I feel of hearing a song that I’m a part of there’s really no better feeling. I’ve loved music as long as I can remember and being involved in it and making records and buildings relationships with the artists and those relationships breaking off into friendships is truly awesome and it started because of the love making music.

So, here I am, 4 years later and I’ve worked with the best artists in Knoxville and we’re going to continue to make hits, I DJ for a badass HipHop duo named The Productz, we just came off our NorthEastern tour in October after dropping their debut album Enter The Cypher that I mixed and mastered. As I type this I am getting the keys to my first studio room tonight. I’ve been working my butt to get where I am and get my music career off the ground after starting over so many times and name changes. Especially these past few years after becoming a father, getting married and working a regular job.

This is one of the nastiest, scammy, trying to get everything for free, industries to be in and that’s from the bottom to top. I try to separate myself from all that. My word is word if I say I got you on something I got you. I don’t need any bad reviews in a sense. I’m going to go above and beyond for the artists I work with because I want the artist to keep coming back I want their money for the long run. I have an hourly rate, but also down to work with budgets if I know you’re going to put in the work with and we speak on a few things. As of now, I’m selling industry level beats, I’ll start booking recording session for artists or musicians, I offer mix and master services, music production sessions, creative planning/beat listening session for artists a cheap hourly rate to get you in the studio and discuss your plans next with your music, where you’d like to take it, lyrics, sound design, the production you’d like to hear, etc. no actual creating yet. More services to come, but as of now this what I have to offer. Logo creating and website design will be soon to come as well renting out my equipment for other artists producers to use. Next to I’d love to do is create is a course to teach FL Studio and how I make beats, I’ve had a lot of producers and artists curious how I cook up and I’d love to teach everything I know. Then they can use that as a jump start to create off the information that I’ve given them.

My work ethic, my accountability, and my beats will set me apart from the rest especially in a quickly becoming over saturated market in my opinion. Everyone’s making music these days, so making music that stands out, is different, sounds amazing, meaning the mix is clean. People are going to gravitate towards that.

I’m proud of how far I’ve come. Not knowing anything about creating, recording, mixing, mastering, promoting, or marketing music; everything I’ve learned I’ve took the time to research and learn. No classes, no teacher, no mentor to show me doors to go through, trial and error and figuring it out because I wanted to get better and be the best at it.

With all that, I’m working to create DevanThatDude as big as I can build the brand up and it be discussed like Metro Boomin, Dre, Timbaland, all those producers that have turned making beats into an empire by creating products, successful labels, sound kits, twitch and stream branding. I’ve got a lot to unlock and it seems like Ive done a lot, but really I’m just getting started.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

In 2020, when I came back to creating music after taking a few years off, I said if I’m going to do this I’m going to be all the way. No excuses, no half way doing anything. I changed my name to what it is now, I was gifted a new laptop, I bought FL Studio, after using Ableton for the better part of a decade. A total rebrand of what I was doing, new speakers, new audio interface, new plugins, a total investment to hone in and take my music to the next level because I know this is truly what I want to do with my life.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

People telling me I’ve motivated them or I’ve inspired them in some way. That’s one of the things I really hope to leave with my legacy and music. Knowing I’ve left an impression on someone, that’s a big one for me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.patreon.com/DevanThatDude
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/devanthatdude
• Facebook: https://Facebook.com/devanthatdude?mibextid=JRoKGi
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/devanthatdude_
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@devanthatdude7953
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/devanthatdude

Image Credits

@bryandeon_
@dozibrion