Meet Eric Davis

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

Eric, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Humble beginnings started back in 01′ when I was just a freshman in high school. Did a lot of art/computer graphic elective courses and for extra credit in my new media class was to create original art pieces. Instead, I just would make local band show flyers to the bands that came out of my school. Eventually, it became a thing through the hallways that if you wanted a flyer done to just approach me. At 16 years old, I was then hosting local shows at pizza restaurants, backyards, boys and girls club auditoriums with my early upstart resources at the time. Eventually, that carried me into my later teens when I would do an exchange of promotional material for my band at the time, Loren Battle, to be placed on opening national band show line ups. It was a solid foundation in networking at an early age.

From 05′ – 13′ was when I was really immersed in the local metal music community playing countless weekend gigs in state & out. We made amazing regional reach/success but as fate would have it life caught up to us and we took a step back from doing music. This gave me more free time to dive into the world of music business/band development. From 13′ – 16′, I was more in tune on learning all the aspects of the business. Was able to assist in the singing of one band to a label to then be able to get another band signed on my own.

Late 16′, life threw another interesting curveball which resulted in my focus being shifted to band merchandise. It was a humbling process in learning what goes into fashion apparel and how important in today’s music industry band merchandise is to a bands growth. Eventually, I was able to invest my time back into band development/local show promotion while help operates and broker work for Fresh Press Printing. And here we are today!

Has it been a smooth road?
Lots of twists, turns, dips, and rough patches along the way most defiantly! Waves of momentum are a normal thing when you do business in music. Just got to try to be one step ahead of the curve in any way you can, so you are able to stay afloat and relevant.

Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
I typically just generalize my response in what I do by simply saying I’m here to help. A nickname that was dubbed to me as of late has been “Band Dad” cause of how I work so close to the internal operations of a bands growth. I truly want to help bands be given proper guidance and direction at their early stages so we are able to have a strong roster of local acts all bringing great caliber show experiences but also good business to other local venues/promoters. What I’m most proud of currently is that I’m trying to provide a service to our local music community that you don’t see enough of. And that’s giving bands a better sense of purpose than being relegated into thinking all your band has to do in order to be “cool” is sell 50 presales tickets and play with select artist groups. For a development standpoint, that hurts more than it helps in the long run. What sets me apart from the others is that I feel that I’m not in this for the money, but rather for the respect. Change can only happen when it’s implanted from the inside out instead of complaining from the outside looking in.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
A popular quote by Earl Nightingale being: “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal.” And I firmly believe that. You have to put forth personal goals and have the drive to achieve them otherwise someone else will. So, big criteria if you will is to have drive/vision/purpose.

Image Credit:
Cameron Allen, Valerie Luxicon, Benjamin Dover

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