Meet David Pinder of Cold Coffee Entertainment in Glendale

Today we’d like to introduce you to David Pinder.

David, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My story begins at the age of 12. I grew up in Fargo, ND, a city made famous by the film Fargo. When I entered middle school, I was given a choice to be apart of the choir or band class. Long story short, I ended up choosing to learn to play percussion in band class. The drums are an instrument that I had always admired, so this was a very instinctual decision.

I made it about two years in a band, before getting kicked out for being “too loud” and was told to start my own band. Little did I know that this was going to be just the beginning of my musical career. Throughout high school, I played in a plethora of local metal/pop-punk bands, which is where my love for music really began to blossom. There was just something magical about how music connects to people and brings all walks of life together. This feeling is truly unlike anything else, and I knew no matter what I did with my life, I wanted to make sure music was at the heart of it all.

Once I graduated from high school, I continued to play in bands, as well as doing some light touring here and there. After getting accepted into North Dakota State University, I found myself coming to the tough decision on what I wanted to do for a living. In Fargo, playing music or working within the music industry wasn’t an option or looked at very highly, so I found myself in an Architecture program, wondering what I was doing there.

After a year, I knew I was making the wrong decision, so I looked to my father for some advice. During winter break of 2011, I sat my father down and told him how I felt about what I was doing, and he gave me the best advice that inspired me to pursue my dreams. He asked, “David, how long have you been doing architecture?”, I answered, “One month.” He followed up my answer with, “How long have you been playing the drums?” and I responded with, “7 years.” That’s when I knew what I needed to do.

In 2012, I made a move to Los Angeles, where I attended the Musicians Institute and received an Associate of the Arts Degree in Drum Performance. While attending the Musicians Institute, I took a music business class that really sparked an interest in the professional side of the industry. Having then joined a Los Angeles based band called Elovay, who I currently still play for, I was quickly inspired to start helping out on the business side of things, which ignited a passion for the work that I was doing.

This drove me to pursue a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Music Business from Berklee College of Music. While attending Berklee, my business partner, Desanka Julia Ilic (a local artist and actress), and I began to develop the possible idea of starting some sort of collective allowing us to relieve independent artists of business duties, giving them the opportunity to solely focus on their musical passions. This gave us the chance to help independent artists develop their careers, and give them a platform to let their music thrive and flourish.

Being an independent artist myself, I have experienced the many obstacles and financial burdens that DIY artists face without having all of the knowledge and connections to properly market themselves for potential success. The music business is truly a tough industry, and having really grown fond of all aspects of it, I wanted to find ways of helping new, up and coming artists develop themselves as professionals without signing their creativity and power away to a record label. And thus, Cold Coffee Entertainment was born.

Has it been a smooth road?
Overall, the development of Cold Coffee Entertainment has been a pretty smooth ride. In the beginning, it took a lot of development, research, as well as attending local events, establishing relationships throughout the music industry, and countless hours at local coffee shops.

Being such a young company, it took a lot of support from members of the Los Angeles music scene and community as a whole, in addition to positive word of mouth. We grow and evolve every single day, engulfing ourselves into as much knowledge as we can possibly soak up as young professionals.

It really has been an enjoyable ride and incredibly fulfilling to have the opportunity to make a positive impact on the music industry, while helping fellow artists to achieve their dreams.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
Cold Coffee Entertainment’s main focus is on the well-being of the artist. Being artists ourselves, we know what it’s like to struggle and bang your head against the wall, attempting to ensure that your next move is the right one.

As a company, our overall goal is to relieve the artist from these struggles, allowing them to focus on their art. We specialize in website development, public relations, content management, digital media strategy, content creation, playlisting, artist development, and artist management. We also recently just launched our Cold Coffee Blog, where we are able to shine a light on fellow artists within the music industry.

It truly means a lot to be able to give independent artists what they need, without putting them into debt or taking away control of their passions. We have a very tight knit team that continues to put our artists first, allowing them to thrive and for their music to be heard.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Some would say that Los Angeles is saturated with similar companies, but from work, we have done over the past year and a half, as well as the artists we have worked with, we have found that there are a plethora of artists that struggle to find honest companies that care about who they work with.

With such a large market of musicians, it’s impossible not to say this is an amazing city for businesses like ours. New artists move to Los Angeles everyday and having companies like ours here to help give them a head start is a very comforting feeling.

Contact Info:

• Website: coldcoffeeentertainment.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coldcoffeerecords/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/coldcoffeerecords
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/wearecoldcoffee

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.