We were lucky to catch up with E. Bradley Heyden recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi E. Bradley, thanks for joining us today. The first dollar your business earns is always special and we’d love to hear how your brand made its first dollar of revenue.

I was still in school for music production at Full Sail University. One day I took my guitar in to the local music store to have some wiring upgraded. At that time a gentlemen was picking up his guitar, We started talking and his band was in the middle of recording an album. He then introduced me to the rest of the band called Stylee Wild, who have also toured with the Janis Joplin band and many others during their hay-day. They had a show coming up and wanted to have one song mixed and mastered by then and another that also needed more production work that still needed done.

After talking with a couple other amazing studios in the area they decided to go with me. Mainly due to the fact I could have it done within their time frame. I mixed the first song “Nicotine” and they loved it then sent me a track called “Crazy Now” that also needed some production work as well. Had them both done with two weeks to spare. Since they didn’t want to create a CD with only two songs from the upcoming album. I created a site where people could go and listen and share the new tracks as well.

That one chance meeting also brought in four other projects from various bands and artists they knew. Don’t be afraid to just start the conversation you never know where it will lead. That same gentleman owns a local business and has become a great mentor as well.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Like many in the music industry I started pretty young. Starting out as a guitarist in the local scene then slowly moving into songwriting. It wasn’t till later in life I made the move to working as an engineer. One of the things I knew that I didn’t want to do was tour. Which really jumpstarted me into the recording engineer field.

Like most I started working in someone else’s studio. This allowed me to develop my skills and eventually move on. I wound up meeting up with an old friend who was putting on a show across the street from the studio I had been working in. Come to find out he had his own studio out of his house. We started working together and was able to build a brand new studio from the ground up. The only thing we didn’t do was pour the concrete. There is so much more involved than say building a house. for example even how you run the wires within the walls has different specs. Defunk Studios has now become one of the most sought after places for artists, bands, and podcasts.

One of the things in to days day and age of music production that sets us apart, has to be that we are there to collaborate with the artists, while helping them with fine tuning specific sound. All while just serving the song. Many people today try to hard to put their on sound and flair into a song. I believe that is one of the worst ways to look at it. Of course some of your unique sound and influence will come through, after all it is a collaborative endeavor. If you stay true to the song while pushing your artist to heights they thought were unachievable, That’s where the magic starts.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

To be honest I never went out looking for funding or anything like that. I just started working as a engineer and putting money aside for Heyden Recording. Defunk studios was built the same way we had a goal and moved towards that financially. basically we sacrificed short term income to grow and expand. It isn’t an easy path, especially when you are doing everything your selves.

There is so much to learn on the business side it can almost seem overwhelming. Being of a creative mind set you really don’t want to dive into those waters but, you have no choice at first. if you take everything in little by little it helps a lot, giving you a good picture of the layout and how being a creative is a very big benefit in business.

There is always something new it could be software, AI, or even technique.
No matter if it is your art, craft, or business, I will tell you the learning never stops.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

This is actually a cool story. We actually met when we were just little kids in cubs scouts, no joke. we also went to school together until my family moved when I was in high school.

Fast forward about 5 years and the current band I was in were auditioning drummers to no avail. They guys gotta call from Mike, and I didn’t think anything of it until we pulled into his driveway. We wound up playing together in that band for couple years before it imploded due to others creative vision. No big grudge type of thing you would see with most bands we all still remained friends and hung out. As people due we kind of fell out of touch as we got older and work started becoming more demanding.

Then after another ten years went by I walked out of the studio after a long session and walked across the street to the legendary phantasy Nightclub and theater to catch some live music and network. Come to find out Mike was putting on the show to promote his recording studio. We started talking the next thing you know we were sending mixes back and forth and the rest is history. we have been working together ever since.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.heydenrecording.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/e_bradley_heyden/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ebradleyheyden/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/e-bradley-heyden-4627aa19
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BradHeyden
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/heyden_recording/ https://www.defunkstudios.com/ https://www.facebook.com/defunkstudiosllc/

Image Credits
E. Bradley Heyden Mike Jaworske