April 18, 2022 • 24 mins
Curtis is the co-founder and CEO of Patchwerk Recording Studios. Patchwerk Studios has been the home to more than a dozen Grammy-nominated audio engineers and over 100 gold and platinum records.
He joins the podcast to talk about developing his successful recording studios, shares some pitfalls he encountered during its development, the value of passing down financial literacy, and share some memorable stories that happened at Patchwerk studios.
Guest IG: @frittyloc
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the key to the Kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Our next guest is
co founder and CEO of Patchwork Recording Studios. Patchwork Recording
(00:23):
Studios has been the home to more than a dozen
Grammy nominated audio engineers and over one Gold and Platinum records.
The studio has worked with major artists such as Ludicrous
t I Outcast, Dr Dre, Kenny Rogers, Share, Carlos Santana,
and Madonna. Patchwork has also been the creative force behind
several educational programs and music events such as Music University
(00:46):
weekend Workshops, I Do Music and R and B Live.
Money Movers, Please welcome to the podcast. Curtis Daniel the Third. Hi, Curtis, Hey,
good morning. How you doing today? Good morning, Good morning.
I'm doing great. Really excited to have you on the
cast today and learn more about your story, and I
think the money Movers are really excited to hear from you.
I'm excited to be here y'all, y'all talking about stuff
(01:07):
I'd like to talk about, Yes, making money Moves, generational
wealth excellence, entrepreneurship that is totally in the alley in
vein of what we do here on Money Moves. So
really excited to have you, and I want to start
off to let our audience have a better understanding of
how you started your music journey from when you were young.
You know, you started on the turntables and then there
(01:28):
was a point that you decided you wanted to be
a DJ. But also I think what's really unique about
your journey is you have a degree in psychology, So
how did all these influences get you to this point now?
I mean, my my dream was to be able to DJ.
I never I mean, you know, probably like it. I'm
from l A, I'm from Carson and Um I always say,
probably about the six or seventh grade, one of my homeboys,
(01:51):
his dad ended up buying him turntables and his house
was right behind mine, so I used to jump the
fence to build his house. And UM always said that
I've I've always had a good ear for music, like
I know what songs should come next, like if we're
doing a party or making a mixtape or something like that.
But I've never had the skill set to be able
to mix or blend records. So I know how to
(02:14):
work a mixer, I know how to fade over and
do little stuff, but I never can put anything on beat.
And so, you know, always joke was that that was
my dream, was to be able to DJ. I always
played records, So the only time I got the DJ
growing up is when he wanted to go dance over. Yeah,
(02:36):
I get to play like four or five records or whatever,
but I couldn't really blame them. And then I remember,
it's been years ago now, but I remember I thought
my dream had finally came true when they came out
with the Pioneers C DJ turntables. I was out of college,
I had a little bit of money, and I said, man,
I'm finally about to be able to DJ, because I
thought that it would do it for me. And so
(02:57):
I remember I went out to the Guadar Center. I
bought two turntables and mixers and little speakers, and man,
I still couldn't mix them records. Man. I ended I
ended up bringing the turntables to the studio and we
rented them out. And um so I always have a
lot of respect for DJ's because even though you know,
the technology or the tool has changed, you still gotta
(03:18):
be able to know how the DJ to be able
to do that stuff. So yeah, if I could do
anything in the music industry, I wouldn't want to be
a DJ because I could control the crowd and control
moods and stuff like that or whatever. But I don't
have a skill set. So so I'm I'm twenty six
years in the music industry, but I have zero music talent.
I don't write, I don't produce, I don't wrap, um,
(03:40):
I own a studio, but I'm never in the room man.
So I always tell people I'm like the last fan,
the last music industry fan. I'm straight up a fan.
But interesting to me because if we've had a lot
of musicians, we've had a lot of DJs, but a
studio executive. So you were really sort of like the
magical whiz behind the system, running you know, the studios
and helping these artists succeed. So how did you sort
(04:03):
of steer into that vein? So for us when we
we grew up, like I said, always tell people, Carson,
California is unique. Um, everybody on my block had two parents.
Everybody's house probably about eight hundred thousand, nine hundred thousand dollars. Now,
I literally didn't feel like there was a need for
any gangs in our neighborhood. And um, we grew up
(04:25):
with two parents, and like I said, my mom was
always telling us we can do anything that we wanted
to as long as we worked hard. And then our
dad was modeling that behavior by working hard. And so
what we're you're I'm just really curious because I think
that's a really interesting point. You know a lot of
people think l A, they think Compton, they think you know,
music came strictly at AM, and you're in this really
(04:46):
interesting Carson area where it's like, hey, listen, there's black
families that had two parents. So what was the narrative
around like success and actually how your family taught you
to like look at making money, saving money, building wealth
for a family. I mean, there's you know, really still
I think that like as as you know, as as
I'm matured, and you kind of looked back at how
(05:08):
you came up, and you know, I've even had my
parents apologized a couple of times for some things that
they didn't do. Like, for instance, you know, I went
to Michigan State on the football scholarship, and you know,
During that time, I was taking trips around the country
by myself to go visit these colleges. It wasn't until
my nephew went to Arizona and I actually went to
the school with them, they realized that that was important,
(05:31):
you know what I mean. And then we never I
mean I remember always remember, probably like twice a month,
my mom and dad would just be sitting at the
dining room table paying bills. I would see their right
bills and stuff like that. Now you know where where
they had. They never had the conversation about credit. They
never had the conversation about mortgages. They never really had
(05:53):
that conversation. And I think now when they see what
I'm doing with my nieces and their grandkids, they'll sometimes
apologize and be like, we didn't know anygether, and then
you know, they're they're you know what was weird is
that I told my mom one time. I was like, man,
you you know you. My mom then bought their house
at nine. I was born in seventy two, so they
(06:14):
bought their house in nineteen seventy four for forty seven
thousand dollars. The house is probably worth about eight fifty
and they still have a mortgage on it all these
years later, and I would be like, they kept refinancing,
which is fine, And but then I would tell my mom, like,
how come you never told me about that and you
never taught to your kids that lesson? And she was like, well,
(06:34):
you know, our our philosophy was you learned on your own.
And I would and we would literally have a debate
about why would you let your daughter walk off that
cliff when you could have when you walked off the cliff,
and and and it kind of puts you in a
bad position. Why wouldn't you tell us that if you
knew that? And she was like, oh, I knew that,
but men, your dad figured y'all would figure it out,
(06:56):
and it was it's weird where I didn't. I don't.
I don't appreciate that style. Like my my style is, yeah,
I'll let people kind of stuff they're told to a lesson,
but if I feel like they bought to walk off
the house and possibly can damage themselves long term, then
I'll volunteer that information. I learned over the years that
(07:16):
I literally have to specifically ask and pull stuff out
of my mom. Now I don't think they didn't know
nothing because they didn't tell me, but their style Louisianna, Yeah, okay,
you know, they had to learn on their own and
so they that's what they do. I almost liken it
to how a lot of folks, black folks that did
learn to swim. They'd be like, yeah, my daddy just
(07:37):
threw me in the water, right, And now you fast
forward because that's what they how they learned and how
they knew and now you fast forward this generation. We
have our kids and swimming lessons. They're probably you know,
because we want to equip them with all the tools
that we did not have and that are at our
fingertips now. I think. So, I think it's a generational
thing and we're all doing better and why I love
(07:57):
sharing stories like this. Yeah, I think that we we
we have a more value and appreciation for education now
and there's there's more than one way to learn. So
even though you threw that kid in the water and
he learned how to swim, but now he's scared of ocean,
you know what I mean. So you you did two things.
You kind of damaged them and you forced them to
(08:19):
learn under pressure. But it's scarred that person and now
they's scarred up it's scarred up by that. So I
always tell them, like even like my converences conversations, it's
funny we on this always talk about multiple forms of currency.
Where some people value money, I always value the education
because I think I can use the education to make
the money. So I'm big on teaching and learning and
(08:40):
studying experts and and and and and learning from people
that are that are made mistakes and did things in
the past. But we didn't. We didn't get that particular
to talk. You know, It's weird when I hear when
I hear a lot of rap music and stuff, and
people talk about how their parents weren't there and how
they want to be a better parent because they saw
something that they did do. Mine is more like that,
(09:02):
with finances and credit and and knowing and learning that
part of it. It's like, man, it was, it was
a gap. It kind of hit me when I got
out of out of college. I think the biggest thing
that scarred me up is when I was in college
at Michigan State, I wanted to come down here to
Atlanta to go to the Freakness. I had a credit
card from m B and n A m B n
(09:24):
A and it had a thousand dollar limit on it,
and I called them and I told them I wanted
to up the limit. Yeah, I wanted to go to
that store structure and give me some new clothes. Right,
So I told him up at the hundred and they
told me, okay, they sent me. They sent me another
card in the mail. And what I didn't realize is
(09:45):
they created a whole another account. So I had a
thousand dollar limit and I had a dred limit, and
it messed up by credit score, and it scarred me.
When I graduated, I felt like the the lesson that
I learned was your credit score is a new form
of discrimination. They can't really use. They they're more subtle
(10:08):
about it if it's racial or age or whatever. But
they used that. And this was at ninety five when
I graduated, and I figured it out when I wanted
to go get a car, when I wanted to go
get an apartment, when I wanted to cut on my cable,
and I'm like, man, the only thing messing me up
is these two bad credit cards. And for a really
long time, it scarred me so bad that I canceled
(10:30):
my Source subscription, my Vibe subscription, and double Excel and
I subscribed the money magazine and the psychology thing, and
then I just I didn't understand the language. But you know,
in my mind, I kind of thought to myself, I said, man, everybody,
everything that we're doing, or every everything that people values,
it's based on money. Like if you want to do something,
(10:51):
it's the basis so many things. And you know what
you're saying. I think you have a really interesting background
because you said you went to school, you had a
psychology degree, and you actually started a recording studio in college.
So now you have this like, well, I gotta pay
attention to how money works in this society, but have
this interesting background of a psychology degree. Talk about starting
(11:12):
your first business and some of the hardships that you saw. Yeah,
we we started our record label in college and in
the studio when we finished. But um, the hardships was
was money. Like you know, the weird part of it's
it's so much stuff that you learned afterwards, Like it's
important to like in football, we we practice, we go
(11:34):
take the shower and then we'll watch the practice just
we did. We'll play a game and then before we
go get ready for the other game, will review what
we did so in my life. It's like that I'm
look back at things. So when I look back when
we first started, I would read the studies that they
would say most businesses failed within the first three years
or something, and I and I never really knew why.
(11:55):
Many years later, when I thought about it, I said, man,
everything that we tried to do, the finance companies would
only give us a three year lease. Right, we had
thirty six months, your first thirty six months, and when
you're making money, everything is just going out to these
pay to these businesses you're doing the business and stuff
like that. So it was weird just to be like,
(12:15):
why of these businesses that keep saying this number three years?
Because three years you got a big old weight on
your back. You're working hard, you're busy, but all the
money that you bring it in you paying out because
the traditional branks and credit unions didn't want to give
us money. So we're using these equipment finance companies with
high interest rates and so it was it was a
(12:36):
that was the biggest struggle was just you know, always
tell people when you when you open up a studio
or a business, you know, getting people to work there
typically isn't the hard part. The hard part is getting
people to pay you on time. You end up yeah, yeah,
you end up with a cash roll proom. Everybody want
to come in and record, but then when it's time
(12:56):
to get paid, it's hard to keep up. So the
people that pay you were slow, but the people that
do the work want to get paid right away, and
it creates a problem if you don't have access to capital,
you know what I mean. I am so curious. You've
had so many big names that have come through your studio,
You've worked with so many people. Do you have any
memorable recording session stories that you can share with our audience?
(13:17):
Hopefully something about Madonna? I mean, t I ludicrous? Tell
us something juicy. Well, I'll go. You know what. The
weirdest part is it because we do so much music.
I think one of my more memorable sessions, while I
actually set in the studio for three days, probably about
eight hours a day, was when fair Colm was here.
I don't know if people know he plays the violin
(13:39):
and he put out a double album probably about two
years ago. They we worked on being from l a Man.
When when Dr Dre came to Atlanta and he was
here for seven days. It was. You know what was
weird is like being at the Super Bowl just happened.
I feel like people paid homage to Dr Dre. The
whole city of it. Manna paid homage when he was
(14:01):
in Atlanta. It was so many people that came to
the studio from Jermaine Ushro the Ta to look. Every
producer and their mama came down here and just kind
of was like I remember at one point, Tip was
in the booth. Tar was in the booth and he
was rapping, and Dre was like, Hey, did you mind
doing it like this or trying to like this? And
Tip was like, sir, I will try anything that you suggest.
(14:26):
You know, you think I should do it this way,
I will happily do it that way. And it was
just a level of respect that it was. It was
Southern hospitality. But everybody, I don't want to say they
bound down, but everybody, you know, everybody recognized that we
had one of the greatest producers of our time here
in Atlanta, and they wanted to pay homage to him,
(14:47):
and they wanted to learn from him. And and the
cool thing about Dre they had all of our rooms books,
so you had all these different producers working at different stations.
One of the producers told me the biggest thing that
Dre did is when he came in the room, instead
of criticizing or being critical of their work, he gave
them things to add to the music or things to
(15:07):
try to make it better. And he was like, it
was dope. It wasn't like somebody was talking at me
or telling me what was wrong with my songs. His
approach was this is what I would do to make
this better or try this, and um, and it was dope,
you know. And I think it says a lot about
you know, true leaders, and like you say, true leaders
in an industry, they're not always the ones who are
(15:28):
like you know, yelling and screaming and trying to get
effect that way. So just being like, hey, it's very complimentary.
And then to have all these Atlanta grades, you know,
just respectfully being like, I want to learn from you.
That's that's a great story. I appreciate that. And I
and I gotta say these last two for me, So, um,
(15:49):
I grew up, and I grew up with the cassette
tapes and and after football practice, how I used to
relax and go to sleep was to Regina Bill, and
I popped about three hats and had to repair him
with my Regina Bell tape. And Regina Bell start coming
up here, and I was so scared of Regina. I
had so much respect for her that I was scared
to speak to her. It took about the fourth time,
(16:13):
so I finally got enough courage the caller in the
office and I told her the story and she was like, oh,
you know, you don't have to be scared of me.
That that right. So she was very nice, gave me
her number. Were cool now right now because of that experience,
and that was Regina. But when Patty Bell, when Patty
La Belle, now that that that's my all time right.
(16:35):
So when when Patty came, I was comfortable enough to
go speak to her because of how Regina Bell treated me.
And when I told Patty the story, she said, thank
God for my sister. You thought I was gonna be
a diva or be but because of the way she
talked to you and embraced you, it gave you the
(16:56):
confidence to come speak to me. I love Regina for that.
And those two was like, you know that ain't no
hip hop stuff, but the them the ones that you know,
I mean, they are legends, legendary, and it's also nice
to hear these beautiful stories because I think oftentimes people
misconstrue that, you know, celebrities, these recording artists are diva
(17:17):
like stars, right, So telling these stories about you know,
great like Regina Bell, Patti Labal, like you came to
gave them accolades and they just graciously accepted them, as
opposed to sometimes we only hear the stories about, oh,
they didn't want to talk to us. So it just
helps to, like, you know, dispel all those myths. I
think around a lot of them have one thing to that.
So I learned the lesson. The biggest, one of the
(17:38):
biggest lessons I learned years ago. We were we were
gonna have Junior Mafia in the studio with Little Kim.
I had seen all the album covers, I had read
the story, and she was calling herself the Queen Bee.
I never said I don't want to meet her. I
don't even want to see her when she come in.
She was the nicest artists that I met, and I
(17:59):
tell people herd t On from TLC taught me a lesson.
They taught me that the bigger, the artists. A lot
of times, the nicer they are, they they have realized
that fans have afforded them their lifestyles. So the bigger
the artists are, they're they're usually the ones that will
take the time, that will speak, it will take the Yeah,
(18:24):
the people they that are the rudest are the new
artist you know what I mean, That that that are
trying to get there so they think that they're supposed
to behave a certain way. Those are the ones that
will walk by office, won't speak. Those are the ones
that will try to stand on your console. Those are
the ones that will just be rude to you. So, yeah,
if anybody's out there, typically if it's a big artist
(18:46):
and they're not with their family or their kids trying
to have a private moment, they're more accommodating than than
than than the people that think that they faceus. I agree,
I agree, all right, Curtis, tell us what's next for
Patchwork Studios? What can we look out for? Tell us
what to keep our years peeled for. You know, we
have another brand that's about we're going on twenty seven
(19:07):
years old, and our brand, I think it's going on twelve,
but thirteen um Our I do music brand that the
mission statement for that brand is to educate and empower
artists and musicians worldwide, and so underneath that brand is
where we did. Our workshops are tight thirty two's are
live performances, our master classes, and and man, I feel
(19:27):
so bad because we haven't been able to do anything
for the past couple of years since COVID. I literally
feel like, you know, for me, I feel like I'm
taking from our industry because that was our get back,
and you know, we got so many emails and phone
calls about people telling me that those were their networking opportunities,
that's how they met other people, that's how they learned,
(19:48):
and they've been pretty much begging for us to get
back started. And at the end of the year, I
had kind of promised that we would kick off what
we were doing by February, but then we got that
that I'm trying. Yeah, we we got the other variant
and it shut us down. So you know, I'm literally
just trying to get back to the point where we're
(20:09):
giving away stuff for you know, for educating and empowering
up and coming independent artists so that you know, we
can we can fill up what's at the top, at
the bottom or whatever. And so for us, I'm really
focused on that our core businesses fawn, you know, recording, mixing, mastering, distribution, paperwork.
I mean, we typically doing eleven and thirteen sessions, seven
(20:31):
days a week, starting later than ten am and wrapping
up around six in the morning. So the core business
is fine, but I feel like I'm taking from my
industry because our other arm Our podcasts, everything is just
kind of been under wraps because we've been trying to
be safe. So two thousand and twenty two, you know,
I just want to get back to that part of
(20:53):
giving back to um, to our community and our music
industry and providing a good quality educat to experience for
people that's affordable, you know what I mean. Well, we
love that and we appreciate it. We know that you are,
you know, focused on not just you know, building great artists,
creating a place for them to create, but also giving
back to the community, and that is incredibly important. So Curtis,
(21:15):
can you tell us where our audience can find you
on social media and let us know where they can
look out for some of these future programs that will
be relaunching YEP are for the studio. It's all at
Patchwork Studio and it's p A T C h W
E r K, So Patchwork Studio. I think on YouTube
and our Patchwork Recording Studios and Instagram and Facebook and Twitters,
(21:37):
Patchwork Studio should have the blue check on their and
then our website. We we still you know, we're still
old enough to make sure our website is on points
just patchwork dot com and um, there's a there's a
lot of UM. I'm really proud of our YouTube channel
and amount of content that we put out. Um. Typically,
if if I'll run into somebody that's apparent, that has
(21:58):
a kid, or somebody that wants to be in the
music industry, I'll typically tell them to go to our
website and go to our f a q s and
look at our services and then go to our I
Do Music podcast and that'll that'll get you going. I mean,
I just I'm really big on I feel like we
lose a lot of talented people in our music industry
when they run into the wrong person. So got you
(22:20):
got a mom. They're spending her money to help her
her daughter is chasing the dream, and then they run
into one of these bad producers that take their we
we lost that person. They out of our industry because
some butthhead robbed. The more they go to a studio
and they pay all this money and they create a
bad experience. So I do free consultations myself, either on zoom,
(22:43):
in person or you know call, and my goal is
to help people that try to try to be the
onboarding process for people that want to get into the
music industry but don't know where to start. So I
try to tell people that before you spend the dollar,
you know, set a meeting up. Let's sit down and talk,
and if we can't help you, we can we can
point you in the right direction or steer you to
(23:04):
somebody that's not on a Robbie. We want you in
our industry and we don't want you to get robbed
and get a bad tasting your mouth by dealing with
some of these crooks out here, because there's a lot
of man here. Well, that's such a great perspective, and
I think it happens so much more than you think
for people who are trying to break into the industry.
They come across the wrong a bad actor. Um, So
you guys make sure you check out Curtis follow him
(23:26):
on social media, and I mean, what a gracious, gracious
guest to even say that. Like, just on the regular
I take consultations, whether it's on Zoom, so that you
can have a better understanding of how to succeed in
this incredible industry. Thank you so much, Curtis, and alright,
Money Movers. That's all the time we have for today.
But to make sure you follow Curtis on all his
social media handles. If we help you make your money move,
(23:48):
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(24:08):
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(24:29):
or wherever you get your podcasts from
Hey, Money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the key to the Kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Our next guest is
co founder and CEO of Patchwork Recording Studios. Patchwork Recording
(00:23):
Studios has been the home to more than a dozen
Grammy nominated audio engineers and over one Gold and Platinum records.
The studio has worked with major artists such as Ludicrous
t I Outcast, Dr Dre, Kenny Rogers, Share, Carlos Santana,
and Madonna. Patchwork has also been the creative force behind
several educational programs and music events such as Music University
(00:46):
weekend Workshops, I Do Music and R and B Live.
Money Movers, Please welcome to the podcast. Curtis Daniel the Third. Hi, Curtis, Hey,
good morning. How you doing today? Good morning, Good morning.
I'm doing great. Really excited to have you on the
cast today and learn more about your story, and I
think the money Movers are really excited to hear from you.
I'm excited to be here y'all, y'all talking about stuff
(01:07):
I'd like to talk about, Yes, making money Moves, generational
wealth excellence, entrepreneurship that is totally in the alley in
vein of what we do here on Money Moves. So
really excited to have you, and I want to start
off to let our audience have a better understanding of
how you started your music journey from when you were young.
You know, you started on the turntables and then there
(01:28):
was a point that you decided you wanted to be
a DJ. But also I think what's really unique about
your journey is you have a degree in psychology, So
how did all these influences get you to this point now?
I mean, my my dream was to be able to DJ.
I never I mean, you know, probably like it. I'm
from l A, I'm from Carson and Um I always say,
probably about the six or seventh grade, one of my homeboys,
(01:51):
his dad ended up buying him turntables and his house
was right behind mine, so I used to jump the
fence to build his house. And UM always said that
I've I've always had a good ear for music, like
I know what songs should come next, like if we're
doing a party or making a mixtape or something like that.
But I've never had the skill set to be able
to mix or blend records. So I know how to
(02:14):
work a mixer, I know how to fade over and
do little stuff, but I never can put anything on beat.
And so, you know, always joke was that that was
my dream, was to be able to DJ. I always
played records, So the only time I got the DJ
growing up is when he wanted to go dance over. Yeah,
(02:36):
I get to play like four or five records or whatever,
but I couldn't really blame them. And then I remember,
it's been years ago now, but I remember I thought
my dream had finally came true when they came out
with the Pioneers C DJ turntables. I was out of college,
I had a little bit of money, and I said, man,
I'm finally about to be able to DJ, because I
thought that it would do it for me. And so
(02:57):
I remember I went out to the Guadar Center. I
bought two turntables and mixers and little speakers, and man,
I still couldn't mix them records. Man. I ended I
ended up bringing the turntables to the studio and we
rented them out. And um so I always have a
lot of respect for DJ's because even though you know,
the technology or the tool has changed, you still gotta
(03:18):
be able to know how the DJ to be able
to do that stuff. So yeah, if I could do
anything in the music industry, I wouldn't want to be
a DJ because I could control the crowd and control
moods and stuff like that or whatever. But I don't
have a skill set. So so I'm I'm twenty six
years in the music industry, but I have zero music talent.
I don't write, I don't produce, I don't wrap, um,
(03:40):
I own a studio, but I'm never in the room man.
So I always tell people I'm like the last fan,
the last music industry fan. I'm straight up a fan.
But interesting to me because if we've had a lot
of musicians, we've had a lot of DJs, but a
studio executive. So you were really sort of like the
magical whiz behind the system, running you know, the studios
and helping these artists succeed. So how did you sort
(04:03):
of steer into that vein? So for us when we
we grew up, like I said, always tell people, Carson,
California is unique. Um, everybody on my block had two parents.
Everybody's house probably about eight hundred thousand, nine hundred thousand dollars. Now,
I literally didn't feel like there was a need for
any gangs in our neighborhood. And um, we grew up
(04:25):
with two parents, and like I said, my mom was
always telling us we can do anything that we wanted
to as long as we worked hard. And then our
dad was modeling that behavior by working hard. And so
what we're you're I'm just really curious because I think
that's a really interesting point. You know a lot of
people think l A, they think Compton, they think you know,
music came strictly at AM, and you're in this really
(04:46):
interesting Carson area where it's like, hey, listen, there's black
families that had two parents. So what was the narrative
around like success and actually how your family taught you
to like look at making money, saving money, building wealth
for a family. I mean, there's you know, really still
I think that like as as you know, as as
I'm matured, and you kind of looked back at how
(05:08):
you came up, and you know, I've even had my
parents apologized a couple of times for some things that
they didn't do. Like, for instance, you know, I went
to Michigan State on the football scholarship, and you know,
During that time, I was taking trips around the country
by myself to go visit these colleges. It wasn't until
my nephew went to Arizona and I actually went to
the school with them, they realized that that was important,
(05:31):
you know what I mean. And then we never I
mean I remember always remember, probably like twice a month,
my mom and dad would just be sitting at the
dining room table paying bills. I would see their right
bills and stuff like that. Now you know where where
they had. They never had the conversation about credit. They
never had the conversation about mortgages. They never really had
(05:53):
that conversation. And I think now when they see what
I'm doing with my nieces and their grandkids, they'll sometimes
apologize and be like, we didn't know anygether, and then
you know, they're they're you know what was weird is
that I told my mom one time. I was like, man,
you you know you. My mom then bought their house
at nine. I was born in seventy two, so they
(06:14):
bought their house in nineteen seventy four for forty seven
thousand dollars. The house is probably worth about eight fifty
and they still have a mortgage on it all these
years later, and I would be like, they kept refinancing,
which is fine, And but then I would tell my mom, like,
how come you never told me about that and you
never taught to your kids that lesson? And she was like, well,
(06:34):
you know, our our philosophy was you learned on your own.
And I would and we would literally have a debate
about why would you let your daughter walk off that
cliff when you could have when you walked off the cliff,
and and and it kind of puts you in a
bad position. Why wouldn't you tell us that if you
knew that? And she was like, oh, I knew that,
but men, your dad figured y'all would figure it out,
(06:56):
and it was it's weird where I didn't. I don't.
I don't appreciate that style. Like my my style is, yeah,
I'll let people kind of stuff they're told to a lesson,
but if I feel like they bought to walk off
the house and possibly can damage themselves long term, then
I'll volunteer that information. I learned over the years that
(07:16):
I literally have to specifically ask and pull stuff out
of my mom. Now I don't think they didn't know
nothing because they didn't tell me, but their style Louisianna, Yeah, okay,
you know, they had to learn on their own and
so they that's what they do. I almost liken it
to how a lot of folks, black folks that did
learn to swim. They'd be like, yeah, my daddy just
(07:37):
threw me in the water, right, And now you fast
forward because that's what they how they learned and how
they knew and now you fast forward this generation. We
have our kids and swimming lessons. They're probably you know,
because we want to equip them with all the tools
that we did not have and that are at our
fingertips now. I think. So, I think it's a generational
thing and we're all doing better and why I love
(07:57):
sharing stories like this. Yeah, I think that we we
we have a more value and appreciation for education now
and there's there's more than one way to learn. So
even though you threw that kid in the water and
he learned how to swim, but now he's scared of ocean,
you know what I mean. So you you did two things.
You kind of damaged them and you forced them to
(08:19):
learn under pressure. But it's scarred that person and now
they's scarred up it's scarred up by that. So I
always tell them, like even like my converences conversations, it's
funny we on this always talk about multiple forms of currency.
Where some people value money, I always value the education
because I think I can use the education to make
the money. So I'm big on teaching and learning and
(08:40):
studying experts and and and and and learning from people
that are that are made mistakes and did things in
the past. But we didn't. We didn't get that particular
to talk. You know, It's weird when I hear when
I hear a lot of rap music and stuff, and
people talk about how their parents weren't there and how
they want to be a better parent because they saw
something that they did do. Mine is more like that,
(09:02):
with finances and credit and and knowing and learning that
part of it. It's like, man, it was, it was
a gap. It kind of hit me when I got
out of out of college. I think the biggest thing
that scarred me up is when I was in college
at Michigan State, I wanted to come down here to
Atlanta to go to the Freakness. I had a credit
card from m B and n A m B n
(09:24):
A and it had a thousand dollar limit on it,
and I called them and I told them I wanted
to up the limit. Yeah, I wanted to go to
that store structure and give me some new clothes. Right,
So I told him up at the hundred and they
told me, okay, they sent me. They sent me another
card in the mail. And what I didn't realize is
(09:45):
they created a whole another account. So I had a
thousand dollar limit and I had a dred limit, and
it messed up by credit score, and it scarred me.
When I graduated, I felt like the the lesson that
I learned was your credit score is a new form
of discrimination. They can't really use. They they're more subtle
(10:08):
about it if it's racial or age or whatever. But
they used that. And this was at ninety five when
I graduated, and I figured it out when I wanted
to go get a car, when I wanted to go
get an apartment, when I wanted to cut on my cable,
and I'm like, man, the only thing messing me up
is these two bad credit cards. And for a really
long time, it scarred me so bad that I canceled
(10:30):
my Source subscription, my Vibe subscription, and double Excel and
I subscribed the money magazine and the psychology thing, and
then I just I didn't understand the language. But you know,
in my mind, I kind of thought to myself, I said, man, everybody,
everything that we're doing, or every everything that people values,
it's based on money. Like if you want to do something,
(10:51):
it's the basis so many things. And you know what
you're saying. I think you have a really interesting background
because you said you went to school, you had a
psychology degree, and you actually started a recording studio in college.
So now you have this like, well, I gotta pay
attention to how money works in this society, but have
this interesting background of a psychology degree. Talk about starting
(11:12):
your first business and some of the hardships that you saw. Yeah,
we we started our record label in college and in
the studio when we finished. But um, the hardships was
was money. Like you know, the weird part of it's
it's so much stuff that you learned afterwards, Like it's
important to like in football, we we practice, we go
(11:34):
take the shower and then we'll watch the practice just
we did. We'll play a game and then before we
go get ready for the other game, will review what
we did so in my life. It's like that I'm
look back at things. So when I look back when
we first started, I would read the studies that they
would say most businesses failed within the first three years
or something, and I and I never really knew why.
(11:55):
Many years later, when I thought about it, I said, man,
everything that we tried to do, the finance companies would
only give us a three year lease. Right, we had
thirty six months, your first thirty six months, and when
you're making money, everything is just going out to these
pay to these businesses you're doing the business and stuff
like that. So it was weird just to be like,
(12:15):
why of these businesses that keep saying this number three years?
Because three years you got a big old weight on
your back. You're working hard, you're busy, but all the
money that you bring it in you paying out because
the traditional branks and credit unions didn't want to give
us money. So we're using these equipment finance companies with
high interest rates and so it was it was a
(12:36):
that was the biggest struggle was just you know, always
tell people when you when you open up a studio
or a business, you know, getting people to work there
typically isn't the hard part. The hard part is getting
people to pay you on time. You end up yeah, yeah,
you end up with a cash roll proom. Everybody want
to come in and record, but then when it's time
(12:56):
to get paid, it's hard to keep up. So the
people that pay you were slow, but the people that
do the work want to get paid right away, and
it creates a problem if you don't have access to capital,
you know what I mean. I am so curious. You've
had so many big names that have come through your studio,
You've worked with so many people. Do you have any
memorable recording session stories that you can share with our audience?
(13:17):
Hopefully something about Madonna? I mean, t I ludicrous? Tell
us something juicy. Well, I'll go. You know what. The
weirdest part is it because we do so much music.
I think one of my more memorable sessions, while I
actually set in the studio for three days, probably about
eight hours a day, was when fair Colm was here.
I don't know if people know he plays the violin
(13:39):
and he put out a double album probably about two
years ago. They we worked on being from l a Man.
When when Dr Dre came to Atlanta and he was
here for seven days. It was. You know what was
weird is like being at the Super Bowl just happened.
I feel like people paid homage to Dr Dre. The
whole city of it. Manna paid homage when he was
(14:01):
in Atlanta. It was so many people that came to
the studio from Jermaine Ushro the Ta to look. Every
producer and their mama came down here and just kind
of was like I remember at one point, Tip was
in the booth. Tar was in the booth and he
was rapping, and Dre was like, Hey, did you mind
doing it like this or trying to like this? And
Tip was like, sir, I will try anything that you suggest.
(14:26):
You know, you think I should do it this way,
I will happily do it that way. And it was
just a level of respect that it was. It was
Southern hospitality. But everybody, I don't want to say they
bound down, but everybody, you know, everybody recognized that we
had one of the greatest producers of our time here
in Atlanta, and they wanted to pay homage to him,
(14:47):
and they wanted to learn from him. And and the
cool thing about Dre they had all of our rooms books,
so you had all these different producers working at different stations.
One of the producers told me the biggest thing that
Dre did is when he came in the room, instead
of criticizing or being critical of their work, he gave
them things to add to the music or things to
(15:07):
try to make it better. And he was like, it
was dope. It wasn't like somebody was talking at me
or telling me what was wrong with my songs. His
approach was this is what I would do to make
this better or try this, and um, and it was dope,
you know. And I think it says a lot about
you know, true leaders, and like you say, true leaders
in an industry, they're not always the ones who are
(15:28):
like you know, yelling and screaming and trying to get
effect that way. So just being like, hey, it's very complimentary.
And then to have all these Atlanta grades, you know,
just respectfully being like, I want to learn from you.
That's that's a great story. I appreciate that. And I
and I gotta say these last two for me, So, um,
(15:49):
I grew up, and I grew up with the cassette
tapes and and after football practice, how I used to
relax and go to sleep was to Regina Bill, and
I popped about three hats and had to repair him
with my Regina Bell tape. And Regina Bell start coming
up here, and I was so scared of Regina. I
had so much respect for her that I was scared
to speak to her. It took about the fourth time,
(16:13):
so I finally got enough courage the caller in the
office and I told her the story and she was like, oh,
you know, you don't have to be scared of me.
That that right. So she was very nice, gave me
her number. Were cool now right now because of that experience,
and that was Regina. But when Patty Bell, when Patty
La Belle, now that that that's my all time right.
(16:35):
So when when Patty came, I was comfortable enough to
go speak to her because of how Regina Bell treated me.
And when I told Patty the story, she said, thank
God for my sister. You thought I was gonna be
a diva or be but because of the way she
talked to you and embraced you, it gave you the
(16:56):
confidence to come speak to me. I love Regina for that.
And those two was like, you know that ain't no
hip hop stuff, but the them the ones that you know,
I mean, they are legends, legendary, and it's also nice
to hear these beautiful stories because I think oftentimes people
misconstrue that, you know, celebrities, these recording artists are diva
(17:17):
like stars, right, So telling these stories about you know,
great like Regina Bell, Patti Labal, like you came to
gave them accolades and they just graciously accepted them, as
opposed to sometimes we only hear the stories about, oh,
they didn't want to talk to us. So it just
helps to, like, you know, dispel all those myths. I
think around a lot of them have one thing to that.
So I learned the lesson. The biggest, one of the
(17:38):
biggest lessons I learned years ago. We were we were
gonna have Junior Mafia in the studio with Little Kim.
I had seen all the album covers, I had read
the story, and she was calling herself the Queen Bee.
I never said I don't want to meet her. I
don't even want to see her when she come in.
She was the nicest artists that I met, and I
(17:59):
tell people herd t On from TLC taught me a lesson.
They taught me that the bigger, the artists. A lot
of times, the nicer they are, they they have realized
that fans have afforded them their lifestyles. So the bigger
the artists are, they're they're usually the ones that will
take the time, that will speak, it will take the Yeah,
(18:24):
the people they that are the rudest are the new
artist you know what I mean, That that that are
trying to get there so they think that they're supposed
to behave a certain way. Those are the ones that
will walk by office, won't speak. Those are the ones
that will try to stand on your console. Those are
the ones that will just be rude to you. So, yeah,
if anybody's out there, typically if it's a big artist
(18:46):
and they're not with their family or their kids trying
to have a private moment, they're more accommodating than than
than than the people that think that they faceus. I agree,
I agree, all right, Curtis, tell us what's next for
Patchwork Studios? What can we look out for? Tell us
what to keep our years peeled for. You know, we
have another brand that's about we're going on twenty seven
(19:07):
years old, and our brand, I think it's going on twelve,
but thirteen um Our I do music brand that the
mission statement for that brand is to educate and empower
artists and musicians worldwide, and so underneath that brand is
where we did. Our workshops are tight thirty two's are
live performances, our master classes, and and man, I feel
(19:27):
so bad because we haven't been able to do anything
for the past couple of years since COVID. I literally
feel like, you know, for me, I feel like I'm
taking from our industry because that was our get back,
and you know, we got so many emails and phone
calls about people telling me that those were their networking opportunities,
that's how they met other people, that's how they learned,
(19:48):
and they've been pretty much begging for us to get
back started. And at the end of the year, I
had kind of promised that we would kick off what
we were doing by February, but then we got that
that I'm trying. Yeah, we we got the other variant
and it shut us down. So you know, I'm literally
just trying to get back to the point where we're
(20:09):
giving away stuff for you know, for educating and empowering
up and coming independent artists so that you know, we
can we can fill up what's at the top, at
the bottom or whatever. And so for us, I'm really
focused on that our core businesses fawn, you know, recording, mixing, mastering, distribution, paperwork.
I mean, we typically doing eleven and thirteen sessions, seven
(20:31):
days a week, starting later than ten am and wrapping
up around six in the morning. So the core business
is fine, but I feel like I'm taking from my
industry because our other arm Our podcasts, everything is just
kind of been under wraps because we've been trying to
be safe. So two thousand and twenty two, you know,
I just want to get back to that part of
(20:53):
giving back to um, to our community and our music
industry and providing a good quality educat to experience for
people that's affordable, you know what I mean. Well, we
love that and we appreciate it. We know that you are,
you know, focused on not just you know, building great artists,
creating a place for them to create, but also giving
back to the community, and that is incredibly important. So Curtis,
(21:15):
can you tell us where our audience can find you
on social media and let us know where they can
look out for some of these future programs that will
be relaunching YEP are for the studio. It's all at
Patchwork Studio and it's p A T C h W
E r K, So Patchwork Studio. I think on YouTube
and our Patchwork Recording Studios and Instagram and Facebook and Twitters,
(21:37):
Patchwork Studio should have the blue check on their and
then our website. We we still you know, we're still
old enough to make sure our website is on points
just patchwork dot com and um, there's a there's a
lot of UM. I'm really proud of our YouTube channel
and amount of content that we put out. Um. Typically,
if if I'll run into somebody that's apparent, that has
(21:58):
a kid, or somebody that wants to be in the
music industry, I'll typically tell them to go to our
website and go to our f a q s and
look at our services and then go to our I
Do Music podcast and that'll that'll get you going. I mean,
I just I'm really big on I feel like we
lose a lot of talented people in our music industry
when they run into the wrong person. So got you
(22:20):
got a mom. They're spending her money to help her
her daughter is chasing the dream, and then they run
into one of these bad producers that take their we
we lost that person. They out of our industry because
some butthhead robbed. The more they go to a studio
and they pay all this money and they create a
bad experience. So I do free consultations myself, either on zoom,
(22:43):
in person or you know call, and my goal is
to help people that try to try to be the
onboarding process for people that want to get into the
music industry but don't know where to start. So I
try to tell people that before you spend the dollar,
you know, set a meeting up. Let's sit down and talk,
and if we can't help you, we can we can
point you in the right direction or steer you to
(23:04):
somebody that's not on a Robbie. We want you in
our industry and we don't want you to get robbed
and get a bad tasting your mouth by dealing with
some of these crooks out here, because there's a lot
of man here. Well, that's such a great perspective, and
I think it happens so much more than you think
for people who are trying to break into the industry.
They come across the wrong a bad actor. Um, So
you guys make sure you check out Curtis follow him
(23:26):
on social media, and I mean, what a gracious, gracious
guest to even say that. Like, just on the regular
I take consultations, whether it's on Zoom, so that you
can have a better understanding of how to succeed in
this incredible industry. Thank you so much, Curtis, and alright,
Money Movers. That's all the time we have for today.
But to make sure you follow Curtis on all his
social media handles. If we help you make your money move,
(23:48):
please make sure to let us know by sending us alike,
sharing the knowledge, and leaving us a review. On Apple Podcasts,
make sure to tune in Monday through Friday and subscribe
to the Money Moves podcast powered by Greenwood, so that
YouTube can have the keys to financial freedom you so
rightly deserve. Thank you so much for tuning in Money
Moves audience. If you want more or a recap of
(24:08):
this episode, please go to the bank Greenwood dot com
and check out the Money Moves podcast blog. Money Moves
is an I heart radio podcast powered by Greenwood Executive
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(24:29):
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