Check out Jeremy Davis’ Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeremy Davis.

Jeremy, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
Well, I am a Husband and father of 2. I am also a guitarist of about 18 years who had grown up an athlete(jr. all American baseball player). Music for me was always something I loved but wasn’t nurtured in my family which was a lot more into sports. After I decided I was done with baseball in college, I had a small point in my life where I wasn’t quite sure what I was doing or where I was headed. I continued to go to college but never felt like I belonged there although I was a great student. After a long internal debate and an overwhelming amount of student debt, I decided I was done with school and wanted to pursue becoming a musician. This, of course, was met with a lot of negative reactions from those around me, but I felt like I had to live my life as best I could. I had formed a band called Animus Complex a few years after moving to Phoenix. (We’re a four-piece progressive metal band). The band brings me incredible joy but has never quite been able to bring me any financial support. In fact, all of the money we make just gets recycled back into the band. A few years after forming the band I had yet another deep search to figure out what it is I should be perusing. I knew I wanted to be making a living from music but wasn’t sure how. I had a real knack for recording which was something I learned out of the necessity of being a musician in this day and age. After recording at a few studios and seeing how engineers ran their studio, I realized that I could become an audio engineer. From that day I set out a plan to build my own studio and run my own business which is what I do today

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do? Why? And what do you hope others will take away from your work?
My Art lies in creating music from the ground up. Not only do I write for my band but I help other bands with their music as well, as I engineer the whole process. Essentially when someone is looking to record, I will take a listen to their idea. I personally don’t like to get in the way of people’s vision so sometimes I don’t produce the track too much further, but sometimes I do (by producing I mean write, rewrite, restructure, add ideas, etc.) I guess it’s really up to the client and how set they are on their ideas. From there we will get some sort of rough guitar track onto the recording program of my computer. This is called a scratch track. This track in conjunction with a click track or “metronome” is just used to sketch out an idea for the next step which is for a drummer to come in and track drums. I could get into a lot of detail here, but I will spare you the snooze fest. After drums are tracked, we will usually track guitars then bass and lastly vocals. After all of the things are tracked I then go in and edit everything to make it as flawless as I can. From there I will start to mix everything which is my personal favorite. Every step in the process is extremely important because it leads up to the results at the end and for me, there is nothing quite like having a bunch of clean tracks in front of you ready to mix. Though every step of the way has its own art to it, the real art is mixing the track. When I explain the amount of detail that goes into this whole process to people the usual response is something along the lines of “no way, that’s too much for me.” I think that exact idea is why it takes a certain kind of person for this job. It can be incredibly tedious, but it is so rewarding to me. Seeing and hearing a band be excited about their musical idea coming to fruition is the coolest thing, as well as writing my own music and hearing the track come together after everyone’s contributions.

Getting to this point wasn’t easy, I’ve spent countless hours at jobs I couldn’t stand feeling like I was wasting my time and ultimately feeling pretty depressed. I just knew I had to find a way out of the “grind.” It took a lot of planning both with my time and financially. It also took a big leap of faith personally and supported from my wife, Ashley. Not only do we have two kids and a mortgage but there is a really small clientele pool for audio engineers. Just think of how many people you know who play music at least at a level where they play shows at local venues. Now think of how many of those have a good sized budget for recording…. not a lot. That’s why I feel it’s important to keep branching out both on a national level as well as branching out to other music genres and even film. I had always read all of these different books and even quotes on pushing to pursue your dreams, but I can tell you first hand that making the leap was pretty terrifying. You lose out on the steady, comfortable paycheck, and you have to grind a lot harder to make ends meet, but with that being said I honestly do believe that you can do it if you want it bad enough. I guess I would want people to know that if they are looking to pursue something difficult that they should make a solid plan and be incredibly honest with themselves. You have to hold yourself accountable and not make excuses. I don’t know that you will ever “feel ready” so you have to just start. Hit the ground running and be as resourceful as you can along the way.

What do you think it takes to be successful as an artist?
For me, success is being able to take what is in my head and turn it into a song or take some tracks and make them come alive. It’s also making a client happy and having a good time. If I’m making ends meet and staying busy, then I feel I’m being successful. I think there are a few qualities that come to mind when thinking of success. The first is the idea of never being satisfied. I think as an artist as soon as you become content that’s it, it’s over. You have to always want to push a new idea or get better. Secondly, I think you need to be able, to be honest with yourself and not give in to your excuses. If a song isn’t right or I need to work on a project further than it needs to happen. Surround yourself with people who help nurture these things as well. Above all else get in the habit of getting things done. You’re not always going to feel “inspired,” I feel a lot of times a guitar idea or breakthrough in mixing comes from just grind things out. You’re not always going to have an amazing session or day and to me, if I can sit down at night and know that I did my best for that day then that’s all I can do, The rest will come with time.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
I have a websitewww.metasonicstudios.com which is a link to my Studios website. I am always looking to work with new clients, and if it deals with recording, I’m usually up for it. You can also visit my band at www.animuscomplex.com. We have merchandise, CDs as well as ticket sales found on there. Our music is available on just about every major platform, and we are set to release our 3rd full-length album in early 2019.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.metasonicstudios.com
• Phone: 760-578-7583
• Email: animuscomplex05@gmail.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/metasonicstudios
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/jeremydavisguitar
• Other: www.animuscomplex.com

Image Credit:
Matt Turkington (Band Mechanic)
Alexander Thomas

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.