Today we’d like to introduce you to David Gounder.
David, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I have been in the music industry professionally since 2000. Growing up, I always knew that I wanted to do music for a living. Basically, it started when I was at the age of 13, my favorite rappers at the time were bone thugs n harmony so I joined a message group called the “BTNH board”. This was a big online community with so much talent you wouldn’t believe it if I told you. Within a couple of months from joining the online community, I notice that they had a sub group called the “Members Audio Talent” and this is where people would show off their music. After listening to a couple of songs made by other people, it motivated me to start recording myself and start collaborating with other individuals with the same vision as me. With the help of some of the members on the message board, I was able to learn basic recording skills which then inspired me to create my own studio in my bedroom and start recording my close friends/family. My music started to get recognition and people started to ask me what studio I would go to and who was mixing my music. I’ve always been the type of person who takes pride in my art so when people would tell me they like how my stuff sounded, it left an imprint on me and made me realize that I can record and mix music for living if I really wanted too.
By the age of 18, I already knew that music was more than a hobby for me so I decided to open up my own recording studio in Burbank, CA with one of my good friends. Knowing I was about to open up my own recording studio, I went back to the BTNH board and asked for help once again. I asked my fellow peers what they would recommend me getting with my budget and with what I was trying to accomplish and they helped me out as always. This time I had to make one of the biggest changes in my life, I would have to change my recording program. My fellow peers told me if I wanted to be a professional in the music game, I would have to change to a real audio program and that when I decided to make that leap into “Pro Tools”. At this point of time in my life, I had a hate and love relationship with “Pro Tools” the program. For some reason, I couldn’t get it to work like my previous audio recording program “Cool Edit”. There was a point of time in my life were I low-key wanted to go back to Cool Edit because I couldn’t learn how to use Pro Tools. After years and years of trial and error and losing my first studio, I felt like I needed to take the next step in my career. I felt like If I wanted to make it in the music game, I would have to go to school and get a degree in music.
At the age of 25, I decided I wanted to stop rapping and become a full-time engineer and attend the Los Angeles Recording school to pursue my career. I met a couple of my good friends at this school but I would definitely not recommend it to anyone who is interested in attending their school. This school is only good for networking in my eyes. I remember a point of time where I asked the school career service to help me apply for an internship they had available and they told me I was under-qualified for the position. I’ve always been a firm believer of if you want something done right, then you have to do it yourself, so I went online and found the studio email address and sent my resume directly to them and got the position a week later. After graduating the Recording school, I decided to intern for a couple of other famous studios and producers but never really landed a job. Most of these studios want free labor and after interning for a full year for Brian Kennedy, I decided to leave and open up another recording studio in Hollywood this time. This is where I started to get a heavy cliental base and started to get a buzz in the music game. I was in my Hollywood studio for about two years and was getting feed up with my landlord and the parking situation to the point where I decided to move my studio to a different location. In 2016, I decided to make the jump from Hollywood to North Hollywood and this is where everything changed for the better. I landed a gig with Chief Keef artists “The Glo Gang” and this is when I met my good friend now Waldo.
After doing a couple of sessions for Waldo, he told me he wanted me to work with his best friend who lives out in North Carolina. I told him whenever he comes to California to let me know and well get a session in. A couple of week later, I get a phone call from waldo telling me he is in California with his best friend John “Dababy”. This was the first time ever hearing about Dababy and I already knew from the first time we recorded he was going to be a MEGASTAR. We Worked on a handful of projects and I can proudly say I saw the evolution of Dababy and I am glad I was apart of his whole journey. One of our first songs we recorded was “Gorilla Glue” and that was an instant hit! We worked for about two years together and in 2019 we recorded “Babysitter”. Babysitter was the second single off of “Baby On Baby” and this song is what changed my life completely. The song went gold and I received my first RIAA plaque for babysitter. After receiving my first plaque, I started getting work from all over the world. It only took me 15 years to get my foot in the door but now that we’re inside I won’t stop. This is only the beginning and I know my value now.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road to success is never smooth. I took plenty of losses to get to where I am now. It took over ten years just to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I had to overcome so many obstacles and one of the main ones was value. In order to make it in this music game, you must know your value.
Please tell us about Creative Wave Recording Studio.
My name is David “MixedByDG” and I am a platinum Recording/Mixing engineer located in North Hollywood, CA. I specialize in recording and mixing music in any genre. I am known for some of my recent work with the artist “Dababy”. What separates me apart from other engineers and producers is my ability to work under pressure and make hit records, as well as to being able to work on many other genres of music.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
One of my favorite memory growing up was recording in my bedroom with all of my brother’s friends. My parents use to work the graveyard shift so my older brother would always have his friends come over and I use to record them in my bedroom. This is when I first started learning how to engineer and rap.
Contact Info:
- Website: MixedByDG.com
- Phone: 7478008310
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mixedbydg/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MixedByDG
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/turnmeupdg
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/creative-wave-recording-studio-los-angeles-4
- Other: https://soundbetter.com/profiles/136796-mixedbydg
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