February 21, 2024 • 37 mins
As the creaky floors of the Brooklyn Collector's Building echo with the stories of bygone eras, Fela Davis of One of One Productions and I, Charlie Shaw, sit amidst a place alive with the pulse of Charlotte's Black history and future promise. Our conversation meanders through Fela's post-grad days at Full Sail University, her ascent in the realm of sound, and the building's transformation into a sanctuary for minority-owned businesses. It's a heartfelt tribute to Black History Month and an illustrative tale of how history shapes our modern business landscapes.
The soulful strains of a jazz saxophone can evoke an entire spectrum of emotion, a truth I've come to know intimately through my own ventures in sound engineering. Weaving together anecdotes from my early days, I recount how moments of serendipity and the influence of jazz greats like Dizzy Elizabeth propelled my career from the indie scene to the grandeur of 18-piece bands. This episode is not just a nod to the luminaries of jazz but an empowering message to those yearning to carve their own path in music—with a special nod to the resilience and ambition of women and people of color.
Podcasting, in its myriad forms, has reshaped the art of storytelling and education, particularly in the solitude of the pandemic. I delve into the nitty-gritty of producing daily podcasts with diverse themes and the challenges of crafting the perfect sound for an array of clients, from award-winning musicians to corporate juggernauts. As we wrap up, the gratitude I feel for our listeners' engagement is palpable. It's your insights and feedback that fuel our passion and drive this journey of unfiltered conversation and discovery forward. Stay tuned for more episodes where we continue to unfurl the wonders of sound and communication.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Charlie Shaw (00:01):
Hello and welcome back to the Lil Mel Unfiltered
podcast.
I'm your host, Charlie Shaw,and I'm delighted to have you
join us again for anothercaptivating episode.
Today we have a special guestand an inspiring topic lined up
to motivate and uplift you.
Your ongoing engagement andcommitment to our show means the
world to us.
We truly appreciate the timeyou spend with us each week and
(00:25):
we're thrilled to have you hereonce again.
While further ado, let's diveinto this week's show and embark
on a journey of inspiration anddiscovery together.
Hello and welcome back to theLil Melon Filter podcast.
I'm your host, Charlie Shaw.
Well, folks, I flew up toCharlotte, North Carolina, this
(00:45):
morning to interview our nextspecial guest.
Her name is Fela Davis.
She's the owner, co-owner andfounder of One of One
Productions, and all of thesebusinesses are audio and podcast
production businesses.
Welcome to the show Fela.
Fela Davis (01:08):
Thank you, charlie.
I've seen you at quite a fewpodcast conferences, so I'm glad
we're getting to do somethingfor your podcast.
You were just looking to do apodcast first time we met, so
this is great.
Charlie Shaw (01:23):
I'm sorry.
I was talking about what, acouple years ago, we met.
Fela Davis (01:26):
Yeah, I think it was podcast movement Right, maybe.
Yeah, well, folks.
Charlie Shaw (01:32):
That's when I was trying to figure out what I
wanted to do when I retire and Iwasn't quite sure.
But I wanted to learn aboutpodcasts, and so what better way
to learn is go around?
People that saw our podcast andso I looked into it, found out
that there's conventions goingon, and the one we met at was, I
believe, a podcast.
Fela Davis (01:53):
Yeah, a podcast, and I think we met at a podcast
movement later.
Charlie Shaw (01:58):
Yeah, I was going to conferences without a podcast
and every time I saw Fela meshe was like did you get that
podcast started?
I was like, no, I haven't gotit started up yet.
I think it was always I was alittle fearful to get myself out
there and, plus, I was stillworking for the Marshall service
(02:18):
, so I didn't want tocross-contaminate the both.
But now that I'm retired Iretired in October and, as
promised, I started my podcast.
Fela Davis (02:28):
Yes, and as promised I told you I'd come on it, so
hey.
Charlie Shaw (02:34):
I thought she was joking, but you saw that I had
the podcast out there.
I put it out there on Facebookand next thing I know you're
liking it.
And now we ended up having aconversation and here I am in
your studio, charlotte, northCarolina.
Now the studio that you have.
(02:58):
This is a historical building.
Why don't you tell us a littlebit about it?
Fela Davis (03:03):
Yeah, we're at the Brooklyn Collector's Building in
Uptown Charlotte, northCarolina.
This is a historic buildingbecause back in 1920, this
building was built, so over 100years ago now.
For the black community thatwas here at the time, it was
(03:30):
upwards of 70,000 blackresidents in Uptown Charlotte,
and around the 50s into the 60swe started the city of Charlotte
, started moving the blackresidents out to build what is
now Uptown Charlotte, which isbustling with.
(03:53):
You can see across the streetthe NASCAR Hall of Fame, the
Charlotte Hornets play a blockaway from us and like three
blocks away is the CarolinaPanthers, so it became a very
big commercial district.
Once it got, you know, thosepeople got pushed out,
(04:15):
unfortunately, but this is thelast building from that.
So, yeah, it's pretty coolbecause this was like the
recreational department forthose black people.
Charlie Shaw (04:30):
It was basically a community center, a gathering
group, a gathering area, exactly, and a church and a church
waiting.
Fela Davis (04:37):
It's right next door , which was a part of that
community as well, and also theyhave like a museum downstairs.
from that perspective, yes, yes,they have a museum downstairs.
We're kind of a co-op up hereon the third floor, where my
studio was at.
You know different smallbusinesses and a lot of them are
(04:59):
probably about 80, 90% minorityowned businesses on this floor,
which was like the event spaceback in the day when they first
made this, when they first builtthis building.
So I feel very, I'm very gladthat we got into such a
(05:22):
historical building and doingwhat we're doing as far as being
a small business ourselves andminority owned.
So Right, right, right.
Charlie Shaw (05:31):
Well, that's excellent, man.
I mean, I did a little researchbefore I came in.
You know it was fitting thatyou're doing business out of a
historical black building duringthe month of February, which is
Black History Month, so youknow, I think that it was the
center of you was meant to beHell.
Yeah, so that's like $45,.
(05:53):
Well, I'm not gonna say theairline, you'll have to pay for
that, but I took that flight upthis morning.
I'm gonna fly back this weekend.
I appreciate you welcoming me.
Fela Davis (06:04):
Oh yeah, thank you for coming through.
Charlie Shaw (06:06):
Yeah, you know another thing Fela actually got
her education and training inOrlando.
Yes, and when we first met, westarted talking and I was like I
knew that they were doing thetraining.
You know that?
What's the name?
Full seal was training audioand video engineers out of there
(06:29):
.
Fela Davis (06:29):
Yeah, game designers , a whole bunch of stuff, yeah,
all that media stuff.
Yeah, I said, this is my world.
Charlie Shaw (06:35):
What year did you go to school there?
Fela Davis (06:38):
I went well.
I graduated in 2002.
So yeah, 22 years ago inOrlando.
Charlie Shaw (06:45):
So the funny thing is is when we were talking, I
told her I was like you know, Iused to do off-duty security
there when I was an OrangeCounty Sheriff Deputy that was
my zone the zone I don't knowfor a believe and I used to sit
in the parking lot and I waslike, what are they doing in
there?
You always wanted to sit inthere with you on the job.
(07:05):
Then, you know, I was seeingall students coming in and out,
from all different ages.
Fela Davis (07:11):
Oh yeah 1880, you know, and at the time it was a
24 hour school.
That was.
They don't do it anymore likethat, now I think it kind of
closes at 1 am, but we used tohave labs that would start at 1
am until 5 am, like it was,because they were getting you
ready for the real world,Because you just you don't know
(07:33):
when you're going to work andwhen you're going to be mixing
and when you know certain thingsare going to go down.
So that was definitely ahands-on school for learning
audio engineering.
Yeah, they started out.
Charlie Shaw (07:44):
I watched it because I had that contract
doing off-duty.
I used to sign deputies there,you know, because it wasn't in,
it wasn't in a bad place, but itwas a busy place.
Fela Davis (07:59):
Yeah, something more .
Charlie Shaw (08:02):
And I remember they started out in just one
building Thanks, they play.
And then they, you know, a fewyears later, after I left the
sheriff's office and came in andwas riding on the east side, I
was like man, they didn't changethe whole thing.
I think they, I think theybought me Donald.
Yes.
Fela Davis (08:24):
They bought the block.
They did.
They did.
What we all dreamed to do isthey bought the block because
they definitely wasn't like that.
Yeah, when I was there 22 yearsago, yeah, they were in and
Bill, yeah, there was anAlvris's back when I went there
Exactly I remember.
Charlie Shaw (08:48):
You know, this is a small world and I think we're
all connected.
Oh yeah, we're all connectedsomewhere or another.
It may not be the season thatwe first come to counter, but
any seasons later.
Here we are 22 seasons.
Because what is this 24?
Fela Davis (09:05):
Yeah 22.
Yeah 22, yeah 2002.
Actually 23.
Charlie Shaw (09:09):
Yeah, 22 seasons, yeah, yeah.
With that being said, tell meabout your training in audio.
Fela Davis (09:17):
I guess.
So I'll even take it back alittle further.
People, I was wanting to wantto know how I got into audio.
When I was in eighth grade Itook a career placement test and
it had audio engineer and I.
It was intriguing even to mebecause I hadn't thought about
it.
I was in a band and stuff, butI knew I didn't want to play an
(09:41):
instrument you know for a living.
But the thought of recordingand being a part of all of that
was like oh, that was yeah.
It was like okay, I want to dothis.
And I started reading a bunchof magazines at the time because
the internet wasn't really athing in like 98 or 97 or so, so
(10:04):
, so, so, so.
So getting information on itwas was hard until I was in the
10th grade and I was still inband and I was looking at a
magazine that was like they saidlike things you can do in music
without playing an instrument,and I was like spot on, looked
in there and I found full sale,right, and I was in the 10th
(10:27):
grade.
So once I found that, I waslike this is it and that was.
It was like as soon as Igraduated high school I went to
full sale.
Yeah, it was.
Yeah, where was.
Where was home?
Home in South Carolina is aChoral South Carolina.
Our claim to fame is a DizzyElizabeth is our is from that
(10:52):
town.
So, yeah, which, yeah, so whichworked out because you know,
years later ended up touringwith Christian McBride and you
know mixing for some of the topyou know jazz artists you know
in New York City and in theworld and a lot of them had
(11:12):
played with Dizzy or was like inhis big band and stuff.
So that that was like wow, Iwas like placed in the right
place, right time and like heardstories of you know of him and
like everybody loved him.
It was just like such auniversal thing for him and so
(11:32):
for to end up in jazz and thejazz world because I mean I
could easily ended up in hip hopor R&B or you know something
else, but in particular I waslike 10 years of mixing, just
like the best jazz in the world,like some of the best players.
Because you know, christianalso had like seven different
(11:55):
bands.
He had a big band which the bigband they've won like four
Grammys.
They like every time.
Every album that he's done withthe big band is one of Grammy.
He has Quartet, quintets, duos,and I've mixed them all, like
all around the world with him.
So I was very, very blessed withgetting to, getting to be with
(12:20):
jazz artists and just peoplethat really mastered their
instrument.
You know so that that wasamazing and in 20 around 2017, I
started interviewing the peopleI would go out on tour with and
that's what got us in the gotme and my business partner.
(12:45):
We would.
Also, we would sometimesinterview them together into the
podcast world and that was howI started was just like touring.
I want to get you know thisperson on, you know on wax, you
know talking about their career,because it's just, you know, so
fascinating.
Charlie Shaw (13:06):
So yeah, I've always been interested in music
and how it's how it's produced.
You know, when I think of thebands, I'm like, okay, so you're
actually recording live, you'rerecording in studio, yep, and
you just know how to, how tobring all that sound to a
production where you candistribute it.
Fela Davis (13:26):
Yeah, yeah.
And with Christian, that was agreat thing because he wanted me
to record every time.
You know, I mixed him live so Igot a lot of multi track
recordings and, yeah, I did getvery deep into, you know, doing
a multi track recording for likean 18 piece jazz band, you know
(13:47):
, on the road, you know, and allyou got is that one take and
just making sure that every, youknow, all the microphones are
heated and, you know, at theright levels is real.
That was yeah, that was thatwas interesting.
And then that started my firstbusiness, which was 23 DB
productions and we startedrecording live bands all over
(14:10):
New York City and Brooklyn andstuff like that.
From my experience withChristian Because I mean, once I
dealt with that, likeeverything else was pretty easy.
Yeah, yeah, it was pretty.
It was like, okay, I've been toItaly and done this.
So I mean, yeah, was he prettyeasy to work with?
Oh, fantastic to work with,perfect.
Charlie Shaw (14:32):
Everything sounds like it's all positive.
What are the next?
Well, let's just hear.
One little bad experience thatkind of you know made you think
should I stay in there?
Fela Davis (14:44):
Oh well, no, I mean I wanted.
It took me 11 years to get to,you know at least, yeah, out of
school to get to where I want it, though.
So that was the hardship wasjust getting to that point to
mix excellent musicians likethat you know on the regular,
(15:06):
because you know you're mixinglike you know a bunch of like
indie bands or you know peoplethat's kind of going halfway at
it, but these people have spenttheir life at it, and I mean the
people that were in Christian'sbands like Teach it, juilliard
and New School, which are thoseare the top, you know, like jazz
(15:29):
programs in New York City, andI mean so just like seeing these
young, you know, even seeingpeople that came from there, and
just seeing them.
In my 15 years of being in NewYork City, that was interesting
to see that glow up like a JohnBaptiste and stuff you know from
(15:50):
like John, he's the musicaldirector for a fellow South
Carolinian, stephen Colbert.
Yeah, yeah, well, he was, he was.
He left last year.
Yeah, yeah, he won the Grammylast year for like best album
and stuff.
So I mean, when I got there, hehad just graduated out of like
(16:15):
out of Juilliard at the time, soit was funny to see that rise
of him to what he is now.
Charlie Shaw (16:22):
So with that being said, and you know, the show is
about inspiring and motivatingand finding motivation out of
others.
That was what was yourmotivation was to stay in there
because you saw greatness in thework.
Fela Davis (16:36):
Yeah, yeah, I saw people coming up.
You know, it's not just.
I knew that it wasn't anovernight success.
I literally was seeing peopleworking every night doing
different shows, doing this,doing it.
You know, whether you were amusician or a fellow engineer
Well, you know Phelous.
Charlie Shaw (16:57):
I'm glad that you said that, because it's hard to
stay in something consistent andnot see the fruit or come right
when you want it to you have tostay consistent, and that's you
know.
You got to find that motivationwithin, and sometimes you find
(17:17):
it within and you also haveother people that kind of
motivate you as well.
What would you say to somebodycoming up in the industry that
you are and I'm just gonna putit on as a woman, a black woman
at that what would be your, yourstaple in?
Fela Davis (17:42):
it only works when you're truly passionate about
what you do.
Charlie Shaw (17:47):
So the key to this .
Fela Davis (17:51):
Yeah, you really got to like it and there's always,
you know, down times andwhatever you do, but I always
had the passion.
I never was like, oh, I'm overthis, I don't want to do it
anymore, like it was, like thiswasn't the best show, but hey, I
(18:12):
will do the next one.
Well, you know, you know, yeah,just continuously getting
better, and that was what I did.
I mean, 10, 11 years after evenschool, of getting better.
You're gonna do something,right.
Charlie Shaw (18:28):
Yeah, stay with you, stay with your craft.
Yeah, you want that to be yourcraft.
Fela Davis (18:32):
Yeah.
Charlie Shaw (18:33):
Because, like you said, time creeps up.
Fela Davis (18:35):
Oh, and time is gonna happen, no matter what.
You might as well be learningsomething that you, you know you
can take on like well, I'm gladI kept going because I mean,
I'm not even touring anymore,but that time helped me to the
next thing that I did, andthat's where I wanted to lead in
.
Charlie Shaw (18:52):
Yeah, you did, did you?
Did you ever feel any burnout?
Fela Davis (19:01):
At times, yeah, like touring can, yeah, it can wear
you out, it can wear you out,but you see an end to it.
Yes, you know, that's the, soit's like, okay, I just got to
get to this and then you know Iwould have time to myself to
recuperate and get some sleep.
(19:21):
I mean, yeah, it's like sleepdeprivation a lot of times
because you just flying outevery morning to the next
country, not the next city, yeah, yeah, yeah, the next country.
Charlie Shaw (19:32):
You know you're in Europe and stuff, so, so what,
what, what provoked, what causedyou to stop touring, open up
your business and provide aservice to community?
And I would like you to tell usabout one of one, and you
basically explained 2020 DB.
Fela Davis (19:51):
Yeah, 23 DB, yeah.
So 23 DB started while I was ontour and I started getting more
into recording bands live.
My business partner in thatreached out to me on Facebook.
I had mixed his band years agoand he was like, hey, I got some
(20:16):
gear, would you like to jointogether and do like a studio or
something?
I was like I'm only doing livestuff.
We could do some live recording.
He was like, okay, he's like,let's get it.
So we ended up recording for,like you know, atlantic Records
(20:36):
Bow represents stuff like that,doing like pretty heavy
recordings, because at the timeit was still everything wasn't
digital consoles yet.
So it will.
You know, now in most digitalconsoles you can just record
with a, you know, an ethernetcable or something you can
record straight from a, from adigital console.
(20:59):
But at the time people werestill using a lot of analog,
especially in the city.
So we had our own equipment.
We would tap off of their boardor we would even just bring our
own preamps and just gostraight into our laptop, double
mic stuff and, you know, sendit to the labels or whatever.
(21:21):
So we were doing that and thenI was like, oh, I want to get to
know more of these artists thatI tour with and like do stuff
with them.
So it created a podcast calledthe Art of Music Tech.
So that, yeah, so that me and mybusiness partner sometimes he
would be on it, sometimes I'd beon the road I did one in like
(21:48):
Australia with, like with MarcusStrickland, a great tenor sax
player that was on tour withChristian.
I mean I would just do stuff onthe road because I was already
recording you know Christianstuff anyway, so I had recording
equipment on me.
So it was like why not just,yeah, use it on the road?
(22:09):
So I started that was where itstarted and then another friend
of mine which I also worked forher and her staffing company
doing AV, like when I was firstgetting my legs under me living
in New York, and she was like,oh, I want to do a podcast, and
then ended up doing a podcastfor her because she's a staffing
(22:30):
person and a lawyer and stuff,so, and then she put us on to
some more of her friends andthen we ended up creating one of
one together, all three of us.
So Dennis, my business partnerin 23DB, myself and and Joy
Pratcher we all just started,you know, doing podcasts and it
(22:52):
kind of just grew from there andthen we ended up doing a
podcast studio.
Charlie Shaw (23:00):
Okay, so tell me who's your target at all of you,
what you do business with.
You mentioned to me offlinethat you're you know you provide
a service.
Fela Davis (23:12):
Yeah, yeah, we do a lot of stuff now for for
businesses.
We were first doing a lot of,you know, trying to do some like
a lot of small business stuff,but doing what we do now we're
(23:34):
dealing with like commercialbusiness or like a bit or
government agencies.
So right now we're working withlike CDC podcast, human rights,
but we've also, you know, didthe first year of Ice Tees
(23:55):
podcast for iHeartRadio calledthe.
What is his daily game?
Um, yeah, yeah, so it gets adaily game.
But, yeah, he, we recorded hispodcast for him in like seven
(24:16):
sessions and it's a dailypodcast you can download right
now.
Yeah, ice Tease daily game, andyou know it's great because
it's just him and it was five,five minutes per episode.
He'll, you know, say a quoteand then he'll break down the G
code of it, you know, and sothat was pretty dope.
(24:37):
Yeah, him.
And then we also worked withEbony K Williams.
Actually she was our firstcelebrity podcast because Ebony
K Williams was the first blackmember of the Housewives of New
York City, so that was prettycool.
(24:58):
Bravo came through, shot somesome footage of her at our
studio in New Jersey, becausethis was, you know, kind of
COVID times when she hit us upand that, you know that helped
us.
You know, do even more than weend up doing some voiceovers
with, like BMW recording VictorCruz.
(25:21):
Yeah, we work with C C Sebathioand his podcast.
One time he came into thestudio and recorded.
So, yeah, it's a, it's wideopen, though you know we work
with a hearing aid company.
Is, you know, so anybody who'strying to get to a mass amount
of people and wanted at a highlevel, because we're I'm using
(25:46):
the same stuff I was using outon, you know, out on the road
with a Grammy award winner?
So, and they and those types ofpodcasts want high end
finishing and all of that sortof thing.
And my business partner alsolike writes music.
So he'll produce like their owntheme songs and stuff like that
(26:07):
.
So we get to do everythingwe're passionate about and I
like just the communication ofit, like getting out there to
information, because we also dowith the CDC thing is part of
NASDAQ, which is like a HIVprevention organization.
So it's great, you know, when Iwas working in music.
(26:29):
But it's like, wow, this isstuff that like helps to save
lives even more.
Charlie Shaw (26:33):
So, you know, music saves lives too, but wow,
but it's like also get that halfof it too, because of the
medical side is pretty cool, youknow we were talking offline
before we came on the show andpodcasting, like, for example, I
talked to my friends about itand they're looking at me like,
(26:54):
oh, what do?
Fela Davis (26:55):
you want to be a radio.
Charlie Shaw (26:58):
Yeah, basically, you know, like I said, I learned
.
I learned about podcasts acouple years ago during the
pandemic.
Yeah, because you couldn't goanywhere and everybody was
switching over to you know, toit.
Yeah, so it was when it waseducational piece where you were
like what you were talkingabout?
(27:18):
When you're interviewing theartist, you can go pull up your
podcast that's still inexistence and hear artists learn
something new in an industrythat you didn't know before.
Or audio books or you knowsomebody you know telling you
about, about a you know tellingyou the story behind books.
(27:39):
Or true crime.
What I'm doing is theinspiration and motivational
part of it.
There's all different genresthat folks can get into.
So that's why I thought itwould be interesting talking to
you about it because, oh yeah,you've been on you know, you've
(27:59):
been on both sides of the audiopart of it and you know helping
people produce their own, theirown shows.
So it's very educational for me.
We were talking I didn't haveto come all the way up here.
Yeah, we could have did it overonline.
Yeah, what it sounds insane.
(28:23):
Yep, I'm a.
Fela Davis (28:25):
I have to see.
Charlie Shaw (28:26):
Yeah, oh yeah, studio, but I thought that it
would be great to come out hereand see what you're working with
and how you know go about your,about your day with it, totally
, yeah.
Oh, there was a couple otherthings.
I wanted to ask you, thebusiness side of it.
(28:47):
Tell me a little bit about that.
How hard is it getting thosecontracts and what would you
tell the person that you want toinspire to stay motivated and
stay in that?
Fela Davis (29:01):
Yeah, it worked out.
Okay, go ahead.
Charlie Shaw (29:06):
Because one people think that like artists are
started.
Yeah, yeah, you might thinkthat podcasters are started.
Maybe some of we don't know.
I'm new to it, so I don't know.
I'm you know, I'm trying tolearn.
What would you?
What's your take on it?
Fela Davis (29:26):
For me.
I um, we have a unique positionbecause I have a background in
audio and that's why it was somuch easier and as far as like
how we can do we work with suchhigh end people, that's because,
kind of from my previous life,you know, and being able to take
(29:50):
on those clients, I'm not,they're not going to they knew
that they weren't going to showup to like a yeti or something
you know, to the snowball, mightyou know, like that, yeah, the
best buy.
You know, I knew that it wasn'tgoing to be that, and so it was
(30:12):
much easier for us to get thosehigher end clients and to
convince them that we could doit, because we had these other
things in our backgrounds and wehad really good equipment that
helped us out to take it to thenext level.
But still, this isn't, thisisn't something that has a lot
(30:43):
of gatekeepers yet.
Charlie Shaw (30:45):
Well, we mentioned .
It's like a little while ago.
Fela Davis (30:48):
Yeah, yeah, it's pretty wide open.
So it's like if you could pitchyourself to the right person,
like anybody could really, youknow, could get in the game.
You know, basically have thissubject yeah, so yeah, or just
say, hey, I'll, you know, workwith you, let's build this up,
you know, you know.
So that kind of depends on youas the person, on how you, you
(31:12):
know, what's your motivation?
Yeah, what is your motivation?
Is it you wanting to do yourown podcast or would you like to
do this for other people?
Yeah, you can work behind thescenes or in front of the mic,
exactly, exactly.
Charlie Shaw (31:25):
I learned that on one of those conferences.
There's people there I thoughtmaybe they were the personality.
Oh man, we want you to comeover here and record with us, so
we want to edit and you know,edit your project Exactly.
There's a career in this if youwant.
Fela Davis (31:42):
Yeah, it depends on which way you want to take it.
Yeah, totally so.
In whatever you do, whether you, you know, work in a coal mine
or to you know whatever you cantalk about, yeah, there's this,
you could put that out there.
Like nobody not that manypeople knows about that
particular thing.
(32:02):
I look at, you know, youtubeand I see how, like you know,
the beekeeper lady, like peoplelike seeing stuff that they
don't do every day, yes, and youknow they like to know about it
and, essentially, if you couldput a visual to it, that really
does something.
But even audio wise, like youknow, it helped me to be aware,
(32:24):
more aware of what was going onin my niche when I was doing,
like you know, my podcast was onaudio engineering and like,
what did you use for this album?
And, you know, I wanted to knowmore, and so basically, your
audience was geared towards theengineer engineer and their
(32:45):
story engineers, but also themusicians and how they started
to make it and how thetechnology help out the.
You know their situation aswell.
So, basically, that?
Charlie Shaw (32:57):
that was your niche.
Is the education part of it?
Okay, yeah, like that, there'sthat.
Like you said, it's a whilewhile, was it yeah?
Fela Davis (33:06):
Oh yeah.
So I mean, anybody can get intoit, I feel, and you know you
put in some time and like,really do your due diligence and
finding out why certain thingsare taken off and why you know
you can make it happen.
Charlie Shaw (33:27):
Well, you know, I like to end the show with what.
What is, what's your besidesbusiness?
What joy do you get out ofdoing what you do for others and
working in your field?
Fela Davis (33:48):
Like I said, I'm realizing I really love
communication, like I'll whetherthat was communication of great
music or communication of anemergency that's going down in
your state city or you knowwhatever level that is, and I
want it to sound great.
I really love audio.
(34:09):
It's a, it's something I'mreally passionate about and when
you find something you reallylike and you would do regardless
, like you know, that's the goal.
Charlie Shaw (34:22):
So, like what you like, what you're doing.
Fela Davis (34:24):
Love it.
Yeah, yeah, that's what'sgotten me through everything
Passion.
Charlie Shaw (34:31):
So what advice would you give me?
Fela Davis (34:33):
Oh hey, just keep, keep doing it, cause I mean, you
don't know where it's going totake you.
No, I don't.
You know that's the.
You know you'll hear somethingand be like, oh okay, I had no
idea I would get into podcasting.
I thought I would always be inmusic until, you know, four or
five years ago, and now I'm like, wow, I love this, I love being
(34:53):
able to talk to you.
If I, you know, I'd be out andabout somewhere, I'd be, you
know, out in a different country, or, you know, being able to,
you know, talk with people, thisis great.
Charlie Shaw (35:07):
Well, I really appreciate you coming on the
show.
Fela Davis (35:10):
I appreciate you inviting me up here as well.
Oh, thank you for comingthrough.
Charlie Shaw (35:15):
It was um and it wasn't hard at all.
Like I said, I'm not going totell you what airline.
Fela Davis (35:26):
With those numbers that you said earlier, I think
everybody should know if youflown on any flight.
So who, where that is, but yeah, folks.
Charlie Shaw (35:38):
Um, we appreciate um failure coming up coming on
the show and, um, as always, weappreciate you guys listening to
little metal and filter podcast.
Um, we hope that today'sdiscussion inspired you, know,
and gave you some thoughtprovoked ideas on what you can
do, um, with whatever projectthat you want to turn, in turn
(36:00):
into something you knowfulfilling to you, or or
something that you can sharewith the world.
Um, as I conclude the show, Ijust wanted to thank you guys
again for taking time out tolisten, to listen to the show
and don't forget to subscribe,um whatever platform that you
listen to, to our show until thenext time.
(36:21):
Take care and thank you.
Thank you for joining us forthis episode of the little metal
on filter podcast.
We hope you found today'sdiscussion inspiring and thought
provoking.
Your ongoing support andengagement are incredibly
valuable to us and we appreciatethe time you spent with us.
Remember to stay connected withus on social media and share
(36:44):
your thoughts and feedback.
Your input helps us continue toimprove and deliver content
that resonates with you.
As we conclude today's episode,we want to extend our sincere
thanks to our special guests forsharing their insight with us
and, of course, a big thank youto all of you for being part of
our podcast community.
(37:05):
Until next time, take care andstay inspired.
This is Charlie Shaw sign off,wishing you all the fantastic
day ahead.
We look forward to having youjoin us again for our next
episode of little metal onfilter.
Goodbye for now.
Hello and welcome back to the Lil Mel Unfiltered
podcast.
I'm your host, Charlie Shaw,and I'm delighted to have you
join us again for anothercaptivating episode.
Today we have a special guestand an inspiring topic lined up
to motivate and uplift you.
Your ongoing engagement andcommitment to our show means the
world to us.
We truly appreciate the timeyou spend with us each week and
(00:25):
we're thrilled to have you hereonce again.
While further ado, let's diveinto this week's show and embark
on a journey of inspiration anddiscovery together.
Hello and welcome back to theLil Melon Filter podcast.
I'm your host, Charlie Shaw.
Well, folks, I flew up toCharlotte, North Carolina, this
(00:45):
morning to interview our nextspecial guest.
Her name is Fela Davis.
She's the owner, co-owner andfounder of One of One
Productions, and all of thesebusinesses are audio and podcast
production businesses.
Welcome to the show Fela.
Fela Davis (01:08):
Thank you, charlie.
I've seen you at quite a fewpodcast conferences, so I'm glad
we're getting to do somethingfor your podcast.
You were just looking to do apodcast first time we met, so
this is great.
Charlie Shaw (01:23):
I'm sorry.
I was talking about what, acouple years ago, we met.
Fela Davis (01:26):
Yeah, I think it was podcast movement Right, maybe.
Yeah, well, folks.
Charlie Shaw (01:32):
That's when I was trying to figure out what I
wanted to do when I retire and Iwasn't quite sure.
But I wanted to learn aboutpodcasts, and so what better way
to learn is go around?
People that saw our podcast andso I looked into it, found out
that there's conventions goingon, and the one we met at was, I
believe, a podcast.
Fela Davis (01:53):
Yeah, a podcast, and I think we met at a podcast
movement later.
Charlie Shaw (01:58):
Yeah, I was going to conferences without a podcast
and every time I saw Fela meshe was like did you get that
podcast started?
I was like, no, I haven't gotit started up yet.
I think it was always I was alittle fearful to get myself out
there and, plus, I was stillworking for the Marshall service
(02:18):
, so I didn't want tocross-contaminate the both.
But now that I'm retired Iretired in October and, as
promised, I started my podcast.
Fela Davis (02:28):
Yes, and as promised I told you I'd come on it, so
hey.
Charlie Shaw (02:34):
I thought she was joking, but you saw that I had
the podcast out there.
I put it out there on Facebookand next thing I know you're
liking it.
And now we ended up having aconversation and here I am in
your studio, charlotte, northCarolina.
Now the studio that you have.
(02:58):
This is a historical building.
Why don't you tell us a littlebit about it?
Fela Davis (03:03):
Yeah, we're at the Brooklyn Collector's Building in
Uptown Charlotte, northCarolina.
This is a historic buildingbecause back in 1920, this
building was built, so over 100years ago now.
For the black community thatwas here at the time, it was
(03:30):
upwards of 70,000 blackresidents in Uptown Charlotte,
and around the 50s into the 60swe started the city of Charlotte
, started moving the blackresidents out to build what is
now Uptown Charlotte, which isbustling with.
(03:53):
You can see across the streetthe NASCAR Hall of Fame, the
Charlotte Hornets play a blockaway from us and like three
blocks away is the CarolinaPanthers, so it became a very
big commercial district.
Once it got, you know, thosepeople got pushed out,
(04:15):
unfortunately, but this is thelast building from that.
So, yeah, it's pretty coolbecause this was like the
recreational department forthose black people.
Charlie Shaw (04:30):
It was basically a community center, a gathering
group, a gathering area, exactly, and a church and a church
waiting.
Fela Davis (04:37):
It's right next door , which was a part of that
community as well, and also theyhave like a museum downstairs.
from that perspective, yes, yes,they have a museum downstairs.
We're kind of a co-op up hereon the third floor, where my
studio was at.
You know different smallbusinesses and a lot of them are
(04:59):
probably about 80, 90% minorityowned businesses on this floor,
which was like the event spaceback in the day when they first
made this, when they first builtthis building.
So I feel very, I'm very gladthat we got into such a
(05:22):
historical building and doingwhat we're doing as far as being
a small business ourselves andminority owned.
So Right, right, right.
Charlie Shaw (05:31):
Well, that's excellent, man.
I mean, I did a little researchbefore I came in.
You know it was fitting thatyou're doing business out of a
historical black building duringthe month of February, which is
Black History Month, so youknow, I think that it was the
center of you was meant to beHell.
Yeah, so that's like $45,.
(05:53):
Well, I'm not gonna say theairline, you'll have to pay for
that, but I took that flight upthis morning.
I'm gonna fly back this weekend.
I appreciate you welcoming me.
Fela Davis (06:04):
Oh yeah, thank you for coming through.
Charlie Shaw (06:06):
Yeah, you know another thing Fela actually got
her education and training inOrlando.
Yes, and when we first met, westarted talking and I was like I
knew that they were doing thetraining.
You know that?
What's the name?
Full seal was training audioand video engineers out of there
(06:29):
.
Fela Davis (06:29):
Yeah, game designers , a whole bunch of stuff, yeah,
all that media stuff.
Yeah, I said, this is my world.
Charlie Shaw (06:35):
What year did you go to school there?
Fela Davis (06:38):
I went well.
I graduated in 2002.
So yeah, 22 years ago inOrlando.
Charlie Shaw (06:45):
So the funny thing is is when we were talking, I
told her I was like you know, Iused to do off-duty security
there when I was an OrangeCounty Sheriff Deputy that was
my zone the zone I don't knowfor a believe and I used to sit
in the parking lot and I waslike, what are they doing in
there?
You always wanted to sit inthere with you on the job.
(07:05):
Then, you know, I was seeingall students coming in and out,
from all different ages.
Fela Davis (07:11):
Oh yeah 1880, you know, and at the time it was a
24 hour school.
That was.
They don't do it anymore likethat, now I think it kind of
closes at 1 am, but we used tohave labs that would start at 1
am until 5 am, like it was,because they were getting you
ready for the real world,Because you just you don't know
(07:33):
when you're going to work andwhen you're going to be mixing
and when you know certain thingsare going to go down.
So that was definitely ahands-on school for learning
audio engineering.
Yeah, they started out.
Charlie Shaw (07:44):
I watched it because I had that contract
doing off-duty.
I used to sign deputies there,you know, because it wasn't in,
it wasn't in a bad place, but itwas a busy place.
Fela Davis (07:59):
Yeah, something more .
Charlie Shaw (08:02):
And I remember they started out in just one
building Thanks, they play.
And then they, you know, a fewyears later, after I left the
sheriff's office and came in andwas riding on the east side, I
was like man, they didn't changethe whole thing.
I think they, I think theybought me Donald.
Yes.
Fela Davis (08:24):
They bought the block.
They did.
They did.
What we all dreamed to do isthey bought the block because
they definitely wasn't like that.
Yeah, when I was there 22 yearsago, yeah, they were in and
Bill, yeah, there was anAlvris's back when I went there
Exactly I remember.
Charlie Shaw (08:48):
You know, this is a small world and I think we're
all connected.
Oh yeah, we're all connectedsomewhere or another.
It may not be the season thatwe first come to counter, but
any seasons later.
Here we are 22 seasons.
Because what is this 24?
Fela Davis (09:05):
Yeah 22.
Yeah 22, yeah 2002.
Actually 23.
Charlie Shaw (09:09):
Yeah, 22 seasons, yeah, yeah.
With that being said, tell meabout your training in audio.
Fela Davis (09:17):
I guess.
So I'll even take it back alittle further.
People, I was wanting to wantto know how I got into audio.
When I was in eighth grade Itook a career placement test and
it had audio engineer and I.
It was intriguing even to mebecause I hadn't thought about
it.
I was in a band and stuff, butI knew I didn't want to play an
(09:41):
instrument you know for a living.
But the thought of recordingand being a part of all of that
was like oh, that was yeah.
It was like okay, I want to dothis.
And I started reading a bunchof magazines at the time because
the internet wasn't really athing in like 98 or 97 or so, so
(10:04):
, so, so, so.
So getting information on itwas was hard until I was in the
10th grade and I was still inband and I was looking at a
magazine that was like they saidlike things you can do in music
without playing an instrument,and I was like spot on, looked
in there and I found full sale,right, and I was in the 10th
(10:27):
grade.
So once I found that, I waslike this is it and that was.
It was like as soon as Igraduated high school I went to
full sale.
Yeah, it was.
Yeah, where was.
Where was home?
Home in South Carolina is aChoral South Carolina.
Our claim to fame is a DizzyElizabeth is our is from that
(10:52):
town.
So, yeah, which, yeah, so whichworked out because you know,
years later ended up touringwith Christian McBride and you
know mixing for some of the topyou know jazz artists you know
in New York City and in theworld and a lot of them had
(11:12):
played with Dizzy or was like inhis big band and stuff.
So that that was like wow, Iwas like placed in the right
place, right time and like heardstories of you know of him and
like everybody loved him.
It was just like such auniversal thing for him and so
(11:32):
for to end up in jazz and thejazz world because I mean I
could easily ended up in hip hopor R&B or you know something
else, but in particular I waslike 10 years of mixing, just
like the best jazz in the world,like some of the best players.
Because you know, christianalso had like seven different
(11:55):
bands.
He had a big band which the bigband they've won like four
Grammys.
They like every time.
Every album that he's done withthe big band is one of Grammy.
He has Quartet, quintets, duos,and I've mixed them all, like
all around the world with him.
So I was very, very blessed withgetting to, getting to be with
(12:20):
jazz artists and just peoplethat really mastered their
instrument.
You know so that that wasamazing and in 20 around 2017, I
started interviewing the peopleI would go out on tour with and
that's what got us in the gotme and my business partner.
(12:45):
We would.
Also, we would sometimesinterview them together into the
podcast world and that was howI started was just like touring.
I want to get you know thisperson on, you know on wax, you
know talking about their career,because it's just, you know, so
fascinating.
Charlie Shaw (13:06):
So yeah, I've always been interested in music
and how it's how it's produced.
You know, when I think of thebands, I'm like, okay, so you're
actually recording live, you'rerecording in studio, yep, and
you just know how to, how tobring all that sound to a
production where you candistribute it.
Fela Davis (13:26):
Yeah, yeah.
And with Christian, that was agreat thing because he wanted me
to record every time.
You know, I mixed him live so Igot a lot of multi track
recordings and, yeah, I did getvery deep into, you know, doing
a multi track recording for likean 18 piece jazz band, you know
(13:47):
, on the road, you know, and allyou got is that one take and
just making sure that every, youknow, all the microphones are
heated and, you know, at theright levels is real.
That was yeah, that was thatwas interesting.
And then that started my firstbusiness, which was 23 DB
productions and we startedrecording live bands all over
(14:10):
New York City and Brooklyn andstuff like that.
From my experience withChristian Because I mean, once I
dealt with that, likeeverything else was pretty easy.
Yeah, yeah, it was pretty.
It was like, okay, I've been toItaly and done this.
So I mean, yeah, was he prettyeasy to work with?
Oh, fantastic to work with,perfect.
Charlie Shaw (14:32):
Everything sounds like it's all positive.
What are the next?
Well, let's just hear.
One little bad experience thatkind of you know made you think
should I stay in there?
Fela Davis (14:44):
Oh well, no, I mean I wanted.
It took me 11 years to get to,you know at least, yeah, out of
school to get to where I want it, though.
So that was the hardship wasjust getting to that point to
mix excellent musicians likethat you know on the regular,
(15:06):
because you know you're mixinglike you know a bunch of like
indie bands or you know peoplethat's kind of going halfway at
it, but these people have spenttheir life at it, and I mean the
people that were in Christian'sbands like Teach it, juilliard
and New School, which are thoseare the top, you know, like jazz
(15:29):
programs in New York City, andI mean so just like seeing these
young, you know, even seeingpeople that came from there, and
just seeing them.
In my 15 years of being in NewYork City, that was interesting
to see that glow up like a JohnBaptiste and stuff you know from
(15:50):
like John, he's the musicaldirector for a fellow South
Carolinian, stephen Colbert.
Yeah, yeah, well, he was, he was.
He left last year.
Yeah, yeah, he won the Grammylast year for like best album
and stuff.
So I mean, when I got there, hehad just graduated out of like
(16:15):
out of Juilliard at the time, soit was funny to see that rise
of him to what he is now.
Charlie Shaw (16:22):
So with that being said, and you know, the show is
about inspiring and motivatingand finding motivation out of
others.
That was what was yourmotivation was to stay in there
because you saw greatness in thework.
Fela Davis (16:36):
Yeah, yeah, I saw people coming up.
You know, it's not just.
I knew that it wasn't anovernight success.
I literally was seeing peopleworking every night doing
different shows, doing this,doing it.
You know, whether you were amusician or a fellow engineer
Well, you know Phelous.
Charlie Shaw (16:57):
I'm glad that you said that, because it's hard to
stay in something consistent andnot see the fruit or come right
when you want it to you have tostay consistent, and that's you
know.
You got to find that motivationwithin, and sometimes you find
(17:17):
it within and you also haveother people that kind of
motivate you as well.
What would you say to somebodycoming up in the industry that
you are and I'm just gonna putit on as a woman, a black woman
at that what would be your, yourstaple in?
Fela Davis (17:42):
it only works when you're truly passionate about
what you do.
Charlie Shaw (17:47):
So the key to this .
Fela Davis (17:51):
Yeah, you really got to like it and there's always,
you know, down times andwhatever you do, but I always
had the passion.
I never was like, oh, I'm overthis, I don't want to do it
anymore, like it was, like thiswasn't the best show, but hey, I
(18:12):
will do the next one.
Well, you know, you know, yeah,just continuously getting
better, and that was what I did.
I mean, 10, 11 years after evenschool, of getting better.
You're gonna do something,right.
Charlie Shaw (18:28):
Yeah, stay with you, stay with your craft.
Yeah, you want that to be yourcraft.
Fela Davis (18:32):
Yeah.
Charlie Shaw (18:33):
Because, like you said, time creeps up.
Fela Davis (18:35):
Oh, and time is gonna happen, no matter what.
You might as well be learningsomething that you, you know you
can take on like well, I'm gladI kept going because I mean,
I'm not even touring anymore,but that time helped me to the
next thing that I did, andthat's where I wanted to lead in
.
Charlie Shaw (18:52):
Yeah, you did, did you?
Did you ever feel any burnout?
Fela Davis (19:01):
At times, yeah, like touring can, yeah, it can wear
you out, it can wear you out,but you see an end to it.
Yes, you know, that's the, soit's like, okay, I just got to
get to this and then you know Iwould have time to myself to
recuperate and get some sleep.
(19:21):
I mean, yeah, it's like sleepdeprivation a lot of times
because you just flying outevery morning to the next
country, not the next city, yeah, yeah, yeah, the next country.
Charlie Shaw (19:32):
You know you're in Europe and stuff, so, so what,
what, what provoked, what causedyou to stop touring, open up
your business and provide aservice to community?
And I would like you to tell usabout one of one, and you
basically explained 2020 DB.
Fela Davis (19:51):
Yeah, 23 DB, yeah.
So 23 DB started while I was ontour and I started getting more
into recording bands live.
My business partner in thatreached out to me on Facebook.
I had mixed his band years agoand he was like, hey, I got some
(20:16):
gear, would you like to jointogether and do like a studio or
something?
I was like I'm only doing livestuff.
We could do some live recording.
He was like, okay, he's like,let's get it.
So we ended up recording for,like you know, atlantic Records
(20:36):
Bow represents stuff like that,doing like pretty heavy
recordings, because at the timeit was still everything wasn't
digital consoles yet.
So it will.
You know, now in most digitalconsoles you can just record
with a, you know, an ethernetcable or something you can
record straight from a, from adigital console.
(20:59):
But at the time people werestill using a lot of analog,
especially in the city.
So we had our own equipment.
We would tap off of their boardor we would even just bring our
own preamps and just gostraight into our laptop, double
mic stuff and, you know, sendit to the labels or whatever.
(21:21):
So we were doing that and thenI was like, oh, I want to get to
know more of these artists thatI tour with and like do stuff
with them.
So it created a podcast calledthe Art of Music Tech.
So that, yeah, so that me and mybusiness partner sometimes he
would be on it, sometimes I'd beon the road I did one in like
(21:48):
Australia with, like with MarcusStrickland, a great tenor sax
player that was on tour withChristian.
I mean I would just do stuff onthe road because I was already
recording you know Christianstuff anyway, so I had recording
equipment on me.
So it was like why not just,yeah, use it on the road?
(22:09):
So I started that was where itstarted and then another friend
of mine which I also worked forher and her staffing company
doing AV, like when I was firstgetting my legs under me living
in New York, and she was like,oh, I want to do a podcast, and
then ended up doing a podcastfor her because she's a staffing
(22:30):
person and a lawyer and stuff,so, and then she put us on to
some more of her friends andthen we ended up creating one of
one together, all three of us.
So Dennis, my business partnerin 23DB, myself and and Joy
Pratcher we all just started,you know, doing podcasts and it
(22:52):
kind of just grew from there andthen we ended up doing a
podcast studio.
Charlie Shaw (23:00):
Okay, so tell me who's your target at all of you,
what you do business with.
You mentioned to me offlinethat you're you know you provide
a service.
Fela Davis (23:12):
Yeah, yeah, we do a lot of stuff now for for
businesses.
We were first doing a lot of,you know, trying to do some like
a lot of small business stuff,but doing what we do now we're
(23:34):
dealing with like commercialbusiness or like a bit or
government agencies.
So right now we're working withlike CDC podcast, human rights,
but we've also, you know, didthe first year of Ice Tees
(23:55):
podcast for iHeartRadio calledthe.
What is his daily game?
Um, yeah, yeah, so it gets adaily game.
But, yeah, he, we recorded hispodcast for him in like seven
(24:16):
sessions and it's a dailypodcast you can download right
now.
Yeah, ice Tease daily game, andyou know it's great because
it's just him and it was five,five minutes per episode.
He'll, you know, say a quoteand then he'll break down the G
code of it, you know, and sothat was pretty dope.
(24:37):
Yeah, him.
And then we also worked withEbony K Williams.
Actually she was our firstcelebrity podcast because Ebony
K Williams was the first blackmember of the Housewives of New
York City, so that was prettycool.
(24:58):
Bravo came through, shot somesome footage of her at our
studio in New Jersey, becausethis was, you know, kind of
COVID times when she hit us upand that, you know that helped
us.
You know, do even more than weend up doing some voiceovers
with, like BMW recording VictorCruz.
(25:21):
Yeah, we work with C C Sebathioand his podcast.
One time he came into thestudio and recorded.
So, yeah, it's a, it's wideopen, though you know we work
with a hearing aid company.
Is, you know, so anybody who'strying to get to a mass amount
of people and wanted at a highlevel, because we're I'm using
(25:46):
the same stuff I was using outon, you know, out on the road
with a Grammy award winner?
So, and they and those types ofpodcasts want high end
finishing and all of that sortof thing.
And my business partner alsolike writes music.
So he'll produce like their owntheme songs and stuff like that
(26:07):
.
So we get to do everythingwe're passionate about and I
like just the communication ofit, like getting out there to
information, because we also dowith the CDC thing is part of
NASDAQ, which is like a HIVprevention organization.
So it's great, you know, when Iwas working in music.
(26:29):
But it's like, wow, this isstuff that like helps to save
lives even more.
Charlie Shaw (26:33):
So, you know, music saves lives too, but wow,
but it's like also get that halfof it too, because of the
medical side is pretty cool, youknow we were talking offline
before we came on the show andpodcasting, like, for example, I
talked to my friends about itand they're looking at me like,
(26:54):
oh, what do?
Fela Davis (26:55):
you want to be a radio.
Charlie Shaw (26:58):
Yeah, basically, you know, like I said, I learned
.
I learned about podcasts acouple years ago during the
pandemic.
Yeah, because you couldn't goanywhere and everybody was
switching over to you know, toit.
Yeah, so it was when it waseducational piece where you were
like what you were talkingabout?
(27:18):
When you're interviewing theartist, you can go pull up your
podcast that's still inexistence and hear artists learn
something new in an industrythat you didn't know before.
Or audio books or you knowsomebody you know telling you
about, about a you know tellingyou the story behind books.
(27:39):
Or true crime.
What I'm doing is theinspiration and motivational
part of it.
There's all different genresthat folks can get into.
So that's why I thought itwould be interesting talking to
you about it because, oh yeah,you've been on you know, you've
(27:59):
been on both sides of the audiopart of it and you know helping
people produce their own, theirown shows.
So it's very educational for me.
We were talking I didn't haveto come all the way up here.
Yeah, we could have did it overonline.
Yeah, what it sounds insane.
(28:23):
Yep, I'm a.
Fela Davis (28:25):
I have to see.
Charlie Shaw (28:26):
Yeah, oh yeah, studio, but I thought that it
would be great to come out hereand see what you're working with
and how you know go about your,about your day with it, totally
, yeah.
Oh, there was a couple otherthings.
I wanted to ask you, thebusiness side of it.
(28:47):
Tell me a little bit about that.
How hard is it getting thosecontracts and what would you
tell the person that you want toinspire to stay motivated and
stay in that?
Fela Davis (29:01):
Yeah, it worked out.
Okay, go ahead.
Charlie Shaw (29:06):
Because one people think that like artists are
started.
Yeah, yeah, you might thinkthat podcasters are started.
Maybe some of we don't know.
I'm new to it, so I don't know.
I'm you know, I'm trying tolearn.
What would you?
What's your take on it?
Fela Davis (29:26):
For me.
I um, we have a unique positionbecause I have a background in
audio and that's why it was somuch easier and as far as like
how we can do we work with suchhigh end people, that's because,
kind of from my previous life,you know, and being able to take
(29:50):
on those clients, I'm not,they're not going to they knew
that they weren't going to showup to like a yeti or something
you know, to the snowball, mightyou know, like that, yeah, the
best buy.
You know, I knew that it wasn'tgoing to be that, and so it was
(30:12):
much easier for us to get thosehigher end clients and to
convince them that we could doit, because we had these other
things in our backgrounds and wehad really good equipment that
helped us out to take it to thenext level.
But still, this isn't, thisisn't something that has a lot
(30:43):
of gatekeepers yet.
Charlie Shaw (30:45):
Well, we mentioned .
It's like a little while ago.
Fela Davis (30:48):
Yeah, yeah, it's pretty wide open.
So it's like if you could pitchyourself to the right person,
like anybody could really, youknow, could get in the game.
You know, basically have thissubject yeah, so yeah, or just
say, hey, I'll, you know, workwith you, let's build this up,
you know, you know.
So that kind of depends on youas the person, on how you, you
(31:12):
know, what's your motivation?
Yeah, what is your motivation?
Is it you wanting to do yourown podcast or would you like to
do this for other people?
Yeah, you can work behind thescenes or in front of the mic,
exactly, exactly.
Charlie Shaw (31:25):
I learned that on one of those conferences.
There's people there I thoughtmaybe they were the personality.
Oh man, we want you to comeover here and record with us, so
we want to edit and you know,edit your project Exactly.
There's a career in this if youwant.
Fela Davis (31:42):
Yeah, it depends on which way you want to take it.
Yeah, totally so.
In whatever you do, whether you, you know, work in a coal mine
or to you know whatever you cantalk about, yeah, there's this,
you could put that out there.
Like nobody not that manypeople knows about that
particular thing.
(32:02):
I look at, you know, youtubeand I see how, like you know,
the beekeeper lady, like peoplelike seeing stuff that they
don't do every day, yes, and youknow they like to know about it
and, essentially, if you couldput a visual to it, that really
does something.
But even audio wise, like youknow, it helped me to be aware,
(32:24):
more aware of what was going onin my niche when I was doing,
like you know, my podcast was onaudio engineering and like,
what did you use for this album?
And, you know, I wanted to knowmore, and so basically, your
audience was geared towards theengineer engineer and their
(32:45):
story engineers, but also themusicians and how they started
to make it and how thetechnology help out the.
You know their situation aswell.
So, basically, that?
Charlie Shaw (32:57):
that was your niche.
Is the education part of it?
Okay, yeah, like that, there'sthat.
Like you said, it's a whilewhile, was it yeah?
Fela Davis (33:06):
Oh yeah.
So I mean, anybody can get intoit, I feel, and you know you
put in some time and like,really do your due diligence and
finding out why certain thingsare taken off and why you know
you can make it happen.
Charlie Shaw (33:27):
Well, you know, I like to end the show with what.
What is, what's your besidesbusiness?
What joy do you get out ofdoing what you do for others and
working in your field?
Fela Davis (33:48):
Like I said, I'm realizing I really love
communication, like I'll whetherthat was communication of great
music or communication of anemergency that's going down in
your state city or you knowwhatever level that is, and I
want it to sound great.
I really love audio.
(34:09):
It's a, it's something I'mreally passionate about and when
you find something you reallylike and you would do regardless
, like you know, that's the goal.
Charlie Shaw (34:22):
So, like what you like, what you're doing.
Fela Davis (34:24):
Love it.
Yeah, yeah, that's what'sgotten me through everything
Passion.
Charlie Shaw (34:31):
So what advice would you give me?
Fela Davis (34:33):
Oh hey, just keep, keep doing it, cause I mean, you
don't know where it's going totake you.
No, I don't.
You know that's the.
You know you'll hear somethingand be like, oh okay, I had no
idea I would get into podcasting.
I thought I would always be inmusic until, you know, four or
five years ago, and now I'm like, wow, I love this, I love being
(34:53):
able to talk to you.
If I, you know, I'd be out andabout somewhere, I'd be, you
know, out in a different country, or, you know, being able to,
you know, talk with people, thisis great.
Charlie Shaw (35:07):
Well, I really appreciate you coming on the
show.
Fela Davis (35:10):
I appreciate you inviting me up here as well.
Oh, thank you for comingthrough.
Charlie Shaw (35:15):
It was um and it wasn't hard at all.
Like I said, I'm not going totell you what airline.
Fela Davis (35:26):
With those numbers that you said earlier, I think
everybody should know if youflown on any flight.
So who, where that is, but yeah, folks.
Charlie Shaw (35:38):
Um, we appreciate um failure coming up coming on
the show and, um, as always, weappreciate you guys listening to
little metal and filter podcast.
Um, we hope that today'sdiscussion inspired you, know,
and gave you some thoughtprovoked ideas on what you can
do, um, with whatever projectthat you want to turn, in turn
(36:00):
into something you knowfulfilling to you, or or
something that you can sharewith the world.
Um, as I conclude the show, Ijust wanted to thank you guys
again for taking time out tolisten, to listen to the show
and don't forget to subscribe,um whatever platform that you
listen to, to our show until thenext time.
(36:21):
Take care and thank you.
Thank you for joining us forthis episode of the little metal
on filter podcast.
We hope you found today'sdiscussion inspiring and thought
provoking.
Your ongoing support andengagement are incredibly
valuable to us and we appreciatethe time you spent with us.
Remember to stay connected withus on social media and share
(36:44):
your thoughts and feedback.
Your input helps us continue toimprove and deliver content
that resonates with you.
As we conclude today's episode,we want to extend our sincere
thanks to our special guests forsharing their insight with us
and, of course, a big thank youto all of you for being part of
our podcast community.
(37:05):
Until next time, take care andstay inspired.
This is Charlie Shaw sign off,wishing you all the fantastic
day ahead.
We look forward to having youjoin us again for our next
episode of little metal onfilter.
Goodbye for now.
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