We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Wes Everett a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Wes, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

Honestly, I bought an audio interface and a couple of cheap microphones. I started to tooling around with the free plugins and programs until I found my voice that I felt comfortable with. Knowing what I know now, I should have spent the money up front and invested in better equipment from the start. The sound quality went from low rent to studio with just a few extra dollars. The best skill is confidence in this business. Be yourself and don’t be afraid to take chances.

The biggest obstacle I had was trying to prove myself to the industry. It is difficult to be taken seriously when you start building your platform. If you stay consistent and prove yourself serious, people will respect you and be happy to work with you. And stay humble. Attitude is everything.

Wes, 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 fell in love with music as a young child. My father was a bass player in a few local bands. I grew up knowing the struggles of a small band and how difficult it is to get attention from anyone, much less airtime. The amount of work and dedication a band has to put forth should always be celebrated. I, myself, am not musically talented. But I still love and respect the artform. Music has a special place in my heart and helps me survive day-to-day life. And I know I’m not the only person that feels this way. As someone who was always interested in computers and programming, I decided, my contribution to the world of music would be The Mosh Pit.

The Mosh Pit Podcast is about supporting unsigned and independent Punk, Rock, and Metal artists and bands. The ones who are out there every night playing small venues to people who don’t know who they are. The ones who have the passion and the fortitude to stay in the music business for the fun and not for the fame and fortune. I provide a platform for promotion, airtime, and to put the bands in front of new listeners.

I am proud to have listeners from all over the world listening to the podcast. I currently host a Discord Server where fans and bands can interact with one another. The Mosh Pit is broadcast from a physical location in Rockmart, Georgia. I often do interviews with bands in the studio. The awesome thing about my recording studio is, it is located underneath an art gallery and art studio. This creates an environment that supports both visual and performance arts.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I had just gotten moved into my professional studio location. New equipment, furniture, decorations, the works. Everything was going smooth. I was kicking butt and taking names and getting autographs. Bands were excited to come into the studio to talk about their music, their tour and their time on the road.

Then it happened…

It was May. It was my birthday. It was the rainy season in Georgia. My girlfriend was running errands and I was at my 9-5. I received a call around 2 o’clock that day from one hysterical woman! All I could I could make out was “Leave work now and get to the studio as fast as legally possible.” At this point I am driving from work, not really knowing what is going on. Hoping it’s not as bad as it seemed.

As I pulled in to the front parking lot, I could tell it was bad. There were a ton of people coming and going from the art studio above. I could also see the back parking lot was deep in water. As I entered the building, I see business owners and workers from around town bringing my equipment upstairs.

My amazing girlfriend had run next door to the neighboring business and asked for help. They also called people to come help. From the moment she called me, the studio was flooding. Water from the back creek had overrun onto the back parking and into my studio. Did I mention my studio is below ground? It was ankle deep when she walked in. By the time I got there it was waist deep.

They managed to save most of my equipment and a few cords. Everything else was a total loss. With no drainage, we had to pump the water out in between rain storms. It took almost of pumping and drying and disinfecting the area before we even begin to rebuild.

Through determination, perseverance, and little elbow grease, we were able to improve the previous setup. Now my studio is a comfortable hangout spot for bands and artists to share their goals. And I couldn’t be more proud of how far it has come.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I first started the journey, I was a big dreamer. I wanted to start the full fledge record label umbrella with two podcasts underneath. This was the original idea. one podcast for country, one podcast for rock, a label to house them both and sign the bands we played. I pitched it to many bigger labels as a sub-label idea. I had a small team that helped push the idea but things never worked out. This wasn’t a negative. It helped streamline my focus of one podcast. Now I am able to help smaller bands and be more involved. It also allows me to be a little more creative and affords me fun while doing what I love.

The structure I have now is the best of both worlds. I have made connections in the label and public relations field that allow me to air the music and promote the bands behind it. I feel having my own label would have hindered the process of working with as many bands as I currently do.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.stereosoundrecords.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moshpitpodcast/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MoshPitPodcast
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheMoshPit2K03
• Other: Discord Server – https://discord.gg/h8FsM453gV

Image Credits
Kevin Myrick