We recently connected with Richard Hervey and have shared our conversation below.
Richard, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?
I hope to build a music platform for anyone wanting to persue a career in the music industry. I hope that both Lions Den Productions LLC and Extreme Dreams USA (501c3) will grow to become staples in not only the Memphis music scene but globally. With the advent of the internet anyone from anywhere can become an overnight sensation, but we want to show young artists how to function as a business as well. Because it is still the “MUSIC BUSINESS” and although making music can be one of the most fun and fulfilling things we can do, the business part is often over looked. I have made this mistake myself early on in my career and I want keep our future music artists from repeating my mistakes.
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?
Well, I first got into music at a young age when my father, who was a drummer, bought me my first drum set. Well, I thought it was mine at least LOL! My had this drum set in the living room and I was thinking ” who’s gonna play this?” I think I was 5 or 6 at the time. I remember because my dad put on Michael Jackson’s Beat It. He then sat down and played the straight drum groove that’s in the song. Each note he played was layered perfectly on the beat like he was actually on the recording. He made it look so easy. Then he said okay Richard do what I just did…..I sat down confidently behind this brand new 5 piece Tama wood grained drum set. Ready to lay down some hot drum licks……No I had never played before just incase you’re asking LOL! But I still had all the confidence in the world. And I began playing, but I wasn’t playing the intended drum part. I was playing Michael Jackson’s words. Now Mind you I was on beat but I couldn’t hear past his words. It was then I started realizing there was so much other stuff going on musically that I had never paid attention to. Oh and yeah my dad was a bit frustrated with me after a couple more time of messing terribly LOL! So he put the drum set up until I could play a straight grove.
I ultimately ended up getting better as a drummer and he would have me play with his band at practice and at gigs since he was also the sound man. Which ultimately is how I got into audio engineering. My father bought my first keyboard workstation and I was off from there. I added piece by piece until I had a full studio set up at my home. I then started taking clients and producing for other artists.
I would say the biggest thing that helped is the fact that I literally love music and sound and how my favorite artists got different sounds along with they were able to bring emotions across through sound waves. I didn’t go to school for engineering I just kept recording and messing up and figuring out why and how I messed up. And also burning up my mentors phones at weird hours asking questions about techniques.
And this landed me an opportunity to work multi platinum hip hop artists and most recently an chance to meet the Reverend Al Green and set up his recording studio. And potentially hi recording engineer on his new projects.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Well there was a period of my life where I didn’t have anywhere to live, I understand how cliché this may sound but this where I realized how much music meant to me and it felt like my only way out of the situation I was in. My job I had been working closed for business and we got the notice on a Sunday when I went in for work. Obviously money was tight but I still had my car and my keyboard. So I would sleep in my car but I had my keyboard hooked up to my car radio where I could hear the sound through my speakers. Not really knowing how I could’ve blown up everything with one wrong wire LOL!! And with first money I got in hand I rented a small u-stor storage space. I set up my gear in there and ran a couple of 100 foot extension chords to a doctors office accross the parking lot. I remeber I was in there working one night late and my power was shut off, and I was thing Damn!! someone found my chord. Although I did buy the super bright orange chord LOL! But it turned out since was an external power socket it ended up tripping because it was a GFC socket. But yeah…that’s a long way of saying that’s when I knew I couldn’t live without music
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I had to unlearn that being a nice guy isn’t always good when doing business. When I first opened my studio I didn’t have a list of rules and regulations. But after a few years being in business for myself and seeing how certain clients would attempt to take advantage of me as a small business owner. My rules and regulations sheet was put in place and the way i took payments changed all the way down to deposits. I had to realize that if I don’t value my self and the service that I provide then no one else will. And as I made shift from guy who was just happy to have a customer, to business owner who still appreciates his customers but understood my value, then my clientele changed as well.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/enigmalionsden/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/richard.hervey.5
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-hervey-38798524