Today we’d like to introduce you to David Hokanson.
Hi David, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I grew up actually not liking music all that much. I even got kicked out of middle school band. (That’s a story for another day.) My older sister was gifted a cheap acoustic guitar right before she went off to college. She decided to leave it at home when she went off. I do remember a moment when Death Cab for Cutie went on the Tonight show and they played “I Will follow you into the Dark.” I was probably thirteen at the time. I had never heard of the band or the song but for some reason that song became a goal of mine to be able to play on my sisters guitar. The song requires a capo which i didn’t even know what that was. So I remember trying to duct tape two clothes pins to the guitar. Also guitar hero the video game had just came out so I think that combination led me into guitar and actually seeking out music for the first time. Over the next couple years I really dove in deep into music and learning guitar. I decided to go the University of North Texas. Initially it was cause a close friend was going there, but also I knew they had a really good music program.
During my senior year at UNT a co-worker of my moms reached out to me and said that he was touring a music studio in Dallas that had just opened and nicely asked if I wanted to go along with him. So we toured the space and one of the owners Todd nicely talked with us. I think he could tell that we weren’t necessarily there to book time we just wanted to be in that environment briefly. He politely answered all of our questions. A couple weeks after that I emailed Todd just asking if there was any type of internship opportunities, and luckily they were indeed looking for some people to help out.
I’m forever grateful they took a chance on me. I was very green and had no prior experience. I sat in on sessions for several months. I asked an annoyingly insane amount of questions I’m sure of it. I then eventually ran my own sessions. It was incredibly stressful and didn’t always go well. I didn’t even really consider myself an engineer for probably three years into running sessions. That could be due to massive amounts of imposter syndrome, but also you really have to juggle so many things at once in sessions. You need to know very technical aspects. How to fix things if something breaks. Communication is key. We are sometimes amateur psychologists, and time management is huge.
I slowly gained some confidence. I would stay late at the studio usually till 2 am. Trying to replicate songs I liked or trying to make my own songs. Then when the pandemic hit. We had one client who wanted me and Will another one of the eningeers/producers at the studio to remotely recreate popular songs for them to sing over. They wanted the songs to be as close as possible to the original. Doing this really helped my engineering ear and began to help with my producing and really investigate why some songs work. After that I began to slowly start producing for clients more and more.
I’m now in my twelfth year at the studio. I still have a real drive to continue to get better and continue to learn. I would say that now the majority of my sessions are producing either singles or in some cases full albums with my clients. It’s the pathway that overtime I’ve discovered I enjoy the most.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It’s been a smooth road only in the way that I perhaps stubbornly can’t see any other path that I would want to be on. If that makes sense. Besides that this job has come with a lot of sacrifices. For basically the last ten years every weekend and most evenings I’ve been at work and running sessions. That certainly has had an impact on my social life and friendships. Especially during my twenties. Eventually my friends would stop inviting me to things cause they knew I wouldn’t be able to make it.
There were years and years of feeling inadequate and not capable. Hoping I honored the clients vision, and putting a lot of pressure on myself hoping I did.
I’ve had several occasions of doing sessions with clients who unfortunately are going through a mental crisis. Also dealing with band dynamics and calming people down after an initial conversation about the guitar tone lead to a full on screaming match about one thing or another. Trying to keep your sanity and your head clear. For example last week I worked on seventeen different songs from six different clients. It can be hard to think straight some days.
The biggest hurdle of course which goes for most creative jobs is financial security. That’s been a huge sacrifice. I don’t really know what to say to people who ask me if they should pursue a career in music. If you are stubborn like me you’ll find your way and not care what people say is my hope.
The artist community and the studio has been amazing though. We all have each others back and everyone tends to be willing to help each other in a moments notice.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My favorite part of my job is building songs from the ground up with my clients. I cherish those moments where sometimes it’s not even a spoken thing. It goes from an idea and scribbles to an actual song or form of some kind. I’m big on communication and talking ideas out before we even begin. I feel so lucky that occasionally I get to ask and hear about a clients dream or the colors and imagery they see. Not a lot of peoples jobs are getting to talk about abstract thinking and memories and I’m grateful and feel very precious about that. My relationships and respect for my clients is crucially important to me. It doesn’t always go smooth in the studio. Some days it just doesn’t work but keeping that dialogue open and honest I’ve been doing this long enough to know that if that stays good then we will figure it out.
I tend to produce music through analog means. That’s not always the case. I’ve used samples and midi for production all the time, but I tend to always gravitate to instruments I can touch and feel. I do see myself as very adaptive. Dallas doesn’t really have a particular sound to me. It’s very international and all over the place. Which has kept my job from being boring and a lot of the people I’ve met have enriched my life.
I’ve worked on thousands of songs over the years. Songs that have been used in dance programs. Some that are in commercials. Some songs that will never get released because it wasn’t about that and the client just wants to listen to it on occasion, and have a sense of accomplishment. Songs about a break up or a new love. I have immense pride about being a small part of all of that.
I’m very proud of the little community we’ve built at the studio. I feel strongly that all of us at the studio really care and are in this for the right reasons. We all really try and be accessible to people of all skill levels. I was also lucky enough to go and record with my long time client Jayson Bunch who goes under the name Raging Bunch at Blackbird studios in Nashville. Where a lot of all time classic albums have been recorded, and I didn’t feel completely out of my depth.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Relying on my strengths for sure. I’m not someone who can disassemble or rewire an analog compressor, but I am someone who can try and meet my clients where they are at. Show them care and respect, and earn their trust. Once that is there we can do anything.
At Fifty50 we’ve built a team of people with lots of different interests and strengths at the studio. Some engineers are better at some genres than others and I think having people from different back grounds has kept us open and a good resource for our clients.
Pricing:
- The Lair our Vocal suite $60/hr
- The Library Our full production room $80/hr
- Mixing starts at $100
- Mastering $40
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.fifty50studios.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/david_hokanson/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=fifty50studios
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/fifty50studios/
