Today we’d like to introduce you to Derek Hames.
Hi Derek, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’ve been playing music since I was 4, started with piano, then drums at St Thomas Episcopal. Middle school hit, and my friends and I realized that playing in a rock band emulating Nirvana and Soundgarden and The Black Crowes was actually a great way to get girls interested in us.
I played drums in several area bands, and we hit the club circuit here in Houston pretty early. We were in Fitz, Zelda’s, Rockefeller’s, Goat’s Head Soup, and a couple others by age 13. Had a lot of fun making music that was…you know, probably pretty bad, but we were 13!
I started adding instruments to my repertoire throughout high school, eventually spending most of my time as a vocalist and guitarist, writing and performing whenever and wherever I could.
College took me to TCU, where I met some musicians who would really have a huge influence on me, including my current business partner at EMG, John Shelton. We played in a band called 60 Foot Sammy that would go on to do a deal with a Grammy-nominated record producer from the UK and sign a management deal in Europe.
When we started recording in Europe when I was 22, I realized early on that being the producer was what I really wanted to do when I “grew up.” That band was fun and lasted a while, but it ended inevitably in a lot of heartache (like most bands do). A couple months and no progress later, my now-wife Danielle told me I was depressed. I honestly didn’t know!
So, I went to work on the next chapter, which was playing professional poker while working in cover bands and starting to dabble in producing music out of the upstairs room of our house in north Dallas.
Fast-forward, and the opportunity arose to quit the “Rounders” lifestyle by opening a family business with John and my dad (Randy Hames, longtime co-host of The Hudson and Harrigan Show on KILT-FM in Houston). So, I moved back to Houston, wife and soon-to-be-born son in tow, to get it started back in 2011.
We worked out of a studio in the back of a drum shop in NW Houston for a while and got our legs under us before building and opening Edgewater Studios in Sugar Land back in 2013. I guess it’s been ten years?!?
Since then, we’ve made hundreds of master-level recordings with a lot of different artists spanning rock, country, Americana, roots, funk, soul, blues, singer-songwriter, and just about everything in between in terms of live band recordings.
Recently we’ve made the move into record label services, where in addition to the production work, we’ve been helping artists with all aspects of planning for, creating, and releasing music into the world.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Hahahaha, in the music industry? A smooth road? Not a chance!
First, there was the expense involved in opening a studio. Then there was the getting anyone to hear about us!
Our process for making records has always been extensive, much more like what you get in London, Nashville, NYC, or LA than what other cities tend to have a market for. As a result, our prices are certainly not the cheapest in town, so we’ve had to fight hard to show artists that the extra work and expense is worth it.
We’ve always wanted the way our records sound and the results our artists have gotten to be our primary methods of marketing. Of course, when we started out, we’d make these great-sounding records hand them to the artist, and they’d have really no idea how to properly release the music. So, no one would ever really hear a lot of these records, which means…no one heard about us either!
Then there’s just the challenge of operating in an industry (the recorded music industry) that until just a few years ago had shrunk every year for over a decade.
Fortunately, so far, we’ve been able to meet every challenge with a bit of innovation in our business model, which I can touch on in the next question.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Given the challenges I pointed out on the last question, we have adapted by expanding our support for artists into a number of different areas that help make their objectives more realistic.
So, we started doing the work of helping artists with a variety of other things. Fundraising is a big one, and we’ve helped artists raise over half a million dollars to-date! A ton of the records we’ve been fortunate to make with artists simply never would have happened if we hadn’t also figure out how to help them fund those records and the ensuing releases.
We also went out and secured a distribution agreement with The Orchard, which is a division of Sony Music Entertainment. So being able to offer our artists major-label distribution when they work with us has been a game-changer as well.
We also do quite a bit of strategy, digital services, and industry shopping with our artists as well.
All this work has helped our artists accomplish quite a bit. An appearance in Rolling Stone, 9 major national booking agency signings, 4 management signings, countless terrestrial radio chart placements, a couple of label signings, appearances in major film and television (like for Netflix, A&E, and award-winning films), lots of touring, and some bona fide full-time careers launched and grown.
This is why we started the company in the first place…to help talented, independent recording artists take major steps forward in one of the toughest industries on earth. I wouldn’t say we’ve arrived at the destination of where we want that to go, but we’re certainly beyond the starting gates. There are some pretty incredible, talented musicians that we’re honored to have worked with, people we’ve helped create new and exciting chapters in their careers.
Production of great-sounding records remains our core focus, but the rest of the record label services we offer (fundraising, distribution, release strategy, digital services, industry shopping) have really helped us move the needle with artists both in Houston, across the state, and increasingly more across North America (and a couple of folks in Europe!).
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
That fit matters so much. I’m helping to run a business here and there’s always the temptation to take everything that’s thrown at you, but at the end of the day if two people aren’t a good fit working together, it really is better for both parties to just move on to the next opportunity. That’s been a difficult lesson but a critical one!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.edgewatermusicgroup.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edgewatermusicgroup/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/edgewatermusicgroup/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@edgewatermusicgroup
