Recording Connection mentor Lance Dean of Prysm Talent Agency
Meet Lance Dean,
Recording Connection mentor, artist, and Chief Marketing Officer of Prysm Talent Agency, a company he and a number of pros founded during the lockdown. Lance is also a former Recording Connection employee who, among other things, lent his talents to successfully matching students with the mentors who would take them to the next level in their learning and careers. Now as an Ableton and Music Business mentor, Lance is helping his externs turn their dreams into goals, and goals into reality.
So Lance, you’re both a creative and a business person. Care to dispel the myth that one has to be either/or?
“There’s a lot of, you know, you either do this or you do that [mentality in the world]. There’s the business or the creative…. Like I was interested in music. I was also interested in business. When I started planning releases out, making campaigns, doing advertising and promo for the music that I had spent time creating, that’s when it really clicked for me that… I can not only have a creative brain on this, but I can also get creative with putting it to a big audience because it’s not hard to do. You just have to find the right audience for your music and put it there. And you don’t even need a record label for that these days. So, I’ve always had a strong passion for both…. There’s a lot of misconception, like if you’re going into any sort of industry that’s entertainment-based, you’re going to have a hard time on the business end and it’s not true. You just have to know business.”
Lance tells what he looks for in the artists he signs in our Straight Talk video below!
Speaking of business, Prysm Talent Agency is the result of a lot of work over many hours. Tell us about that.
“That was something that started up when everything was shut down. So, Colton Anderson, the CEO, and my manager, Justin Lizama, and Paul [Yu Asensi] … all of us collectively joined up to form Prysm Talent…. We were like, ‘So how do we build a company during a pandemic, especially when the company is centered around getting artists to perform places when there’s no performances?’ So, we got everything put together. I signed on a total of 50 artists and we had like nothing, nothing, nothing. And then the lockdown started ending [and] the floodgates opened. We’ve got 500 shows booked [until] …May 2022.”
How real is having to bring the hustle and put in the hours to build a career in music?
“If you want to do something like this or anything—radio, film, anything entertainment—I feel like you have to really, really go all in or don’t do it. Or if you want to, do it as a hobby. That’s cool too but… to take it full time, you have to put in so many hours.”
Considering you worked at Recording Connection/RRFC for a number of years, your perspective is unique. What’s your advice to our students?
“I feel like anytime that I was working for Recording Connection and we heard of something not so positive on the student end, it usually stemmed from hours not being put in, classes not being attended, lessons not being completed. You really, really have to dive in and just absorb all of, not only the information, but everything that the mentor is offering you like terms of sessions you can sit it on, projects you can work on.”
Have any star students you want to tell us about?
“Brandt [Krzenski, an Ableton EDM student], his music project
Stoic is being scouted by a record label (it’s still being confirmed/contracted but they’re planning for an April compilation release) and we’re collaborating on music to release under my
Blaqout project.
Lance Dean aka Blaqout spins Disco Donnie Presents at Dahlia Nightclub (Columbus, OH).
And Kai [Thompson], she’s gone from 1-100 so quickly on composing musical pieces. We put together a file system for her to organize her entire catalog and there’s close to 30 pieces already in it. I have her speaking with/submitting to a licensing company… that puts music in shows, movies, games etc. Versatility is a strong suit for her!”
Busy as you are, why do you choose to mentor for Recording Connection?
“The entire time I’ve worked for RRFC, I’ve really wanted to do this…. If you’re teaching somebody and they’re like into it, like really into it, there’s like this spark thing that really, you know, fires me up…. I’ve been doing this for almost 10 years, so I’m excited to take this knowledge and just be like, here you go.”
Learn more about
Recording Connection for Music Business, Audio Engineering & Music Production, DJing, Beat Making, EDM, Live Sound, and more!
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