Today we’d like to introduce you to Darryl Stephens.
Darryl, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’ve always been a music fanatic! I remember staying up all night throughout middle and high school making cassette mixtapes to listen to. On Sunday nights, from 10 pm – 2 am WRAS 88.5 radio would play underground and unreleased hip hop tracks, and I listened religiously. Listening to that show was the first time I heard Outkast’s ‘Player’s Ball’ and the Wu’s ‘Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nothing To F*ck With’. Those were groundbreaking music moments for me. The first concert I ever went to was a Goodie Mob concert at the Tabernacle.
Even though I loved music, I actually wanted to be a professional baseball player and was even drafted by the Braves as a Senior in high school. I decided to play college baseball instead of playing in the minor leagues, banking on getting drafted again out of college. Unfortunately, I didn’t get drafted out of college, so when my major league dream officially ended, I dove full force into music.
I started making beats ad-nauseum. At first on Fruity Loops software and eventually saved up for an MPC 2000XL and a Motif 6. I made beat after beat and started learning a little about music theory as well. I decided to move down to Orlando to attend Full Sail’s recording arts program, and when I finished got a job at EA Sports as a Sound Designer/Audio Specialist. At EA Sports, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to learn from some of the best audio guys in the video game industry. While at EA Sports, I would spend my evenings and nights working on music and doing some freelance engineering gigs.
It happened gradually but hit me suddenly, I was burned-out on making music. A huge part of this burn-out was because I began to feel so isolated when making music. I would spend hours on end in my apartment working on music by myself, and as a very social person, it really took its toll on the pure joy and sense of creative fulfillment that I used to get when making beats. I didn’t recognize it then, but that feeling was saved in my mind and eventually became the catalyst for starting Bass Parlour Studios.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Nope, it’s been a road littered with speed bumps. I decided to start Bass Parlour Studios back in 2015, and didn’t get it opened until September of 2018, so you know it’s been a long journey just to get it launched. Getting startup funding was extremely difficult since I was a new business and didn’t have much collateral.
Another struggle was finding the right commercial space that fit my vision for Bass Parlour Studios. I actually had two commercial leases fall through at the last second because the landlord pulled out. On top of that, I was living and working in Washington D.C. at the time so I was spending a lot of time and money traveling down to Atlanta to scout potential locations.
Looking back, I’m glad the previous negotiations fell through. I love the space I’m at now, and couldn’t ask for a better location or setup. Plus, the extra time that it took to find this space gave me more time to host music showcases in Atlanta and build a larger Bass Parlour following before launching.
When I finally got the Bass Parlour Studios opened, I still had to make several adjustments on the fly. I make a conscious effort to have conversations with each Bass Parlour member so that we can best provide them with any services that make their music journey smoother. One example of this was our decision to add music workshops to our arsenal of services. We regularly host free music showcases here at Bass Parlour Studios. I noticed that a big part of the showcase experience was the networking aspect, but equally as beneficial to our members was learning various skills from the other artists or producers that attended. After seeing this, we decided to have weekly music workshops here as well.
Please tell us about Bass Parlour Studios.
Bass Parlour Studios is a music training center, shared workspace, and recording studio for up-and-coming music talent. We offer private music lessons and music workshops on everything from making beats to songwriting to electric guitar. We also have a fully equipped and very affordable recording studio.
Along with the studio, we built an online platform called Bass Parlour Connect that allows local Atlanta music talent to create a profile page, showcase their music, and message each other directly. The goal of Bass Parlour Connect is for local music talent to have an efficient way to find each other and create original music together. Bass Parlour Connect members also get a substantial discount at Bass Parlour Studios.
What I’m most proud of is the diverse community of passionate artists and producers that we are building here in Atlanta. We regularly host free Bass Parlour music showcases and everybody checks their ego at the door when they enter Bass Parlour Studios and is ready to create great music and evolve as an artist or producer.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
That’s a tough one because the mistakes that I made in starting Bass Parlour Studios helped me evolve as a business owner. If I took away those mistakes then I would have never learned those lessons. One thing that I would have done differently though is to spend much less time trying to craft the perfect professional business plan. Writing a business plan is definitely valuable, I actually teach a monthly workshop on writing a Business Plan, so I believe the value of organizing your thoughts and coming up with a well-thought-through game plan. However, what you realize when you actually launch your business is that almost everything you planned will either have to be adapted, upgraded, or scratched altogether. There is no amount of research, business strategy meetings, or planning can ensure success. Bottom line, the only thing you can do is get out there, listen to your customers, adapt, and make it happen.
Pricing:
- Individual Music Lessons – $40 per 1/2 hour
- Recording Studio – $55 per hour Audio Engineer Included
- Recording Studio – $30 per hour Audio Engineer Not Included
- Space Rental for Workshops, Seminars, Classes – $75/hour
Contact Info:
- Address: 1425 Ellsworth Industrial Blvd. NW – Suite 7
Atlanta, GA 30318 - Website: www.bassparlourstudios.com
- Phone: 404.698.3487
- Email: darryl@bassparlour.com
- Instagram: @bassparlour
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bassparlour/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/bass-parlour-studios-atlanta
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