Derek Olds(I)
- Composer
- Producer
There is something to be said about an artist who collects life experiences and transforms them into creative fodder. Derek Olds-Musician, Producer, Engineer and Humanitarian-has enough moments to fill records for the rest of his life, yet he continues collecting them and in turn they become beautiful music. Olds has spent the greater part of his career thus far readying his official debut. It's finally time.
For almost a decade, Derek spent his life on the road performing music in a myriad of likely (and unlikely) situations. Born in Memphis, music runs through Derek's DNA with a father who is both a singer and guitarist. While attending UNC-Chapel Hill, Derek was Pre-Med until the music bug bit him around. He dropped out of school and headed to New York City, where he began an ill-fated internship until a phone call from his mother changed everything. "You're the first person in our entire family to go to college and you're doing this!', Derek was told by his mother. So I said, "Okay, I'm coming home." He returned to school and completed a degree in Psychology. His reasoning was sensible. "I wanted to go back and learn about people so I could write better songs," he says. "I wanted to learn about life and death and sex and hate and horror and happiness and all the things that an artist constantly struggles to put in perspective."
The years since deciding to pursue music and 'the life of an artist' have been quite a ride. Derek taught Pro-Audio at Apple for several years, arriving at recording studios around the world to train engineers in new software. His first band signed a record deal, but after it fell apart (usual industry stuff!), he headed to Brazil to work as an Engineer & Producer. Derek traveled Europe-from Amsterdam to Germany-after finding a temporary home in Miami working under the tutelage of Multi-Grammy Award-winning engineer Carlos Alvarez. After cutting his teeth as an engineer, Derek headed to New York to get his reps in as a musician, ultimately making Los Angeles his home. While Derek's career has been punctuated with awesome milestones, his charity work is admittedly the most life- changing. In addition to working in Haiti during the devastation of the 2010 earthquake, Derek has traveled to Bolivia and Venezuela as a performance musician & producer moonlighting as an activist for the corrupt prison systems that plague both areas. "It was a high profile cause by the time we did all the talk shows," he says of the initiative, which ends jails from imprisoning entire families when a man commits a crime. "So we went down and actually visited one of the jails, and the government got really pissed and held us kind of hostage in a hotel until they could figure out if they were going to let us leave and all this crazy stuff." That's just one memory for the books.
When Derek reached Los Angeles, his music career came into full focus. After co- founding Elation Entertainment, Derek hit Hollywood to take things to the next level. So far it's paid off. In addition to sharing his talents with top-notch acts like Snoop Dogg, Ne-Yo and Oprah Winfrey, Derek produces showcases at venues such as The W Hotel in Hollywood that host star-studded casts of artists including Justin Bieber, Nick Jonas, and even Prince and R. Kelly. The stage is now set for Derek Olds to move from behind the boards and in front of the microphone.
"I would describe Derek's music as a modern Peter Gabriel mixed with a Rock N' Roll John Mayer" says label owner David Adams of his friend. "His music is very complex and complicated in a genius way. He spends an insane amount of time on sections, and you can tell. There's a difference between real music and music that's made for money." Derek has a catalog of songs he's been working on for years. "One of the songs was recorded in over 30 recording studios, because "I lived in over 60 studios around the globe," Derek says, citing his rigorous travel schedule as the gift and the curse of putting together a project. His masterpiece is nearly done, and before long it will have its formal release. Major labels have already begun a quiet bidding war.
Sometimes life takes a series of turns, and for Derek Olds it all leads to one destination. His artistry is complex, but his mission is quite simple: to make the best music he can possibly make. "I've decided to drop everything and dive deep into 'the point of all this', and that's getting my project out there," Derek says. "So I'm putting my artist hat on."