Today we’d like to introduce you to Adam Roye.
Hi Adam, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was raised in a small town south of Fort Worth where music was a large part of my life starting at an early age. Anything I learned musically or creatively was an extension of our church. My family had a southern gospel group that had a record out and performed pretty regularly. My grandfather was the worship leader, and most of the band on the platform and choir in the loft were my family members. Mix in my uncle’s recording studio where I spent a lot of time, and it starts to make sense that I have landed where I have. Today I am the owner and executive producer of Pragmatic Sound Co., the one-man band behind Daphne Blues, and the embarrassing person in your family who carries their camera everywhere.
I began playing drums when I was around 4 years old. It started with me using pencils on church pews and somehow advanced to me playing drums for our church and later becoming the drummer for my family’s band. I picked up the guitar shortly thereafter and just by virtue of being around musicians all the time, they would sit me behind the piano, have me holding acoustic guitars, and generally just to see what my reaction would be to hearing or feeling the instrument vibrate. I attribute being a multi-instrumentalist today completely to the fact that I was immersed in it and had a family that whether on purpose or not gave me an avenue to nurture my God-given ability. When you’re young you have no real concept of what’s happening around you or what it means to sit in a studio and have to be quiet while recording and you’re 6 years old. My uncle would become a big part of why I wanted to become a producer and have a space of my own one day. When I was in high school, I would spend time reading manuals for him because he didn’t have the patience for them. He was pragmatic in the studio with his analog setup, always very hands-on constantly “learning by doing.” I can remember how massive the console was to me in his small space and the egg crate or mattress topper acoustics weren’t pretty but worked. The manuals I would be reading were to explain how to use a specific new piece of equipment in “plain” terms for him when he made the switch from analog to digital. He was an old-school honky tonk piano player who was more like Jerry Lee Lewis than Bill Gaither. When I was young he would teach me what every component’s job was and the purpose they played in the studio. He was patient, and lead open-handed showing me anything and everything I wanted to know.
I would spend my afternoons playing guitar instead of studying and writing songs rather than writing my History paper. I thumbed through Musicians Friend catalogs nightly reading every description of every instrument and later when the Sweetwater catalog was released, there were very few pages that weren’t circled and written all over or dog-eared. I was a sponge and still am. Later I would go on to have several bands, play in many talent shows, and release my solo EP. I shared stages with guys who kept going and that are now household names whose songs you’ve heard on TV shows or movies. For a while, I thought I made a mistake by putting what I thought was a pause on a budding solo career when it turned into a full stop. That was the turning point where instead of overthinking and forcing a song out of every time I picked up a guitar or trying to find a marketing strategy to get more shows booked, I was able to spend time with friends and just play music for fun again. There are many forks in the road at this point of my journey and one of those avenues was an invite to a friend’s house back in my hometown. She is an incredible songwriter and vocalist and her brother happened to be an up-and-coming hip-hop producer at the time. He was showing me around the studio and we just stopped in the control room while he was playing me some tracks he was working on. While listening I just picked up the guitar and played along with the track. After a few bars, he slams the spacebar stopping the track and yells for me to stop! I was startled and confused probably a little anxious and he says “you have to stop playing so I can hit record!! Everything you’re playing is a hit.” I laughed and probably simultaneously was struck with anxiety knowing that people were now paying attention to my playing. It was frightening. In hip hop, songs are broken down to about 8 to 16 measures (or bars,) a hook, or some type of melody over a beat and you were pretty much on to something. He picked that out from my playing immediately with that producer ear of his. What he heard in me just jamming and messing around turned into one of the first times I wasn’t playing to sound like someone else, I was just playing what I felt. The not-so-ironic part is that of course when I was playing, staying true to myself turns out was the right thing all along. This launched me into session musician mode playing with any and everyone I could. It was during a session where I was brought in to play lead guitar, I had done my part and everyone left except the engineer. We chatted about the track and I joked that since I knew how to play all the instruments you should just let me track them while I’m here instead of bringing those guys back. And that’s what happened.
I accumulated a collection of instrumental tracks I had recorded at my humble home studio at the time and I kind of knew I was done with the solo artist thing. The studio truly was my passion and the ability to now be a call guy for various sessions, it brought everything I’d loved and been shown since I was a kid back out of me. I took a few of the unused tracks later and turned them into demos which was more of a test. I didn’t want to go by name or have it be branded with my face all over everything. I just wanted to hide behind the music for once. I called it Daphne Blues, used a Pantone swatch as inspiration, and made the graphic in the famous Cadillac turned Fender finish, daphne blue. I released an EP on my own of those produced demos from our home studio in Dallas and it went out into the world. Through Daphne Blues, I was able to collaborate with a lot of great artists both locally and abroad on various projects as a session musician or producer. As the producer side of things seemed to pick up as did the gigs and I found myself now having options of yet another path to take my career which is when I started Pragmatic Sound Co. I wanted it to be a collaborative production company and landing zone where musicians and artists could work as a team versus all trying to find a smidge of the spotlight. In theory, it worked for a small amount of time warranting a shortly-lived podcast (The Pragmatic Soundcast.) Pragmatic Sound Co. became the umbrella I began producing and mixing bands and artists which opened doors just before Covid hit.
Over the last year, I’ve been branching out more full-time as a location audio engineer recording and editing dialogue for anything from documentaries to corporate videos locally and nationwide. It’s not something I originally saw myself doing but through these opportunities not only has the process of recording been something new and challenging but we are telling people’s stories. There’s something special about capturing vulnerable moments as people let you into a piece of their lives, it’s hard to describe. There is a built-in community and genuine respect for one another and the work. I’ve been blessed to be able to collaborate and travel with some incredibly talented people in the industry capturing stories and meeting the nicest people.
Focusing on the dialogue work has freed up that headspace where I am playing music again for fun. It’s also opened up this new affinity for photography that I didn’t know I had. It has fulfilled that creative space I didn’t know was void. Through a series of events of internet pirates taking down my original Pragmatic Instagram account earlier this year, it was time for a change. I knew what was coming and this seemed like the perfect time, and that is where I am today. I have just launched Pragmatic Creative Co. which exists as a branch of Pragmatic Sound Co. This portion of our brand is focused more on photography, celebrating creatives, set life or behind the scenes, and various creative work. Like the creative process itself, things are always evolving so it will be fun to see where it all ends up. I try to lead open-handed, learn how to always be saying yes, serve our team, and trust the process. It will open up more doors than any skill you’ve acquired. You will find yourself in the right places at the right time to showcase that exact skill you’ve worked so hard at for all these years.
Alright, 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?
Anything you start will always be faced with some challenges or difficulties. The majority of my career started before the age of the internet. It was a time of making demos for press kits and hunting for quick acoustic gigs. We spent days addressing envelopes to record labels that we found the addresses for in the bookstore’s “music business” publications. Pretty sure we never bought the books and I was the person always asking around for stamps. It was completely different than it is now. Beyond the lack of technological advantages, one of the obstacles I faced that I wasn’t prepared for was how saturated, comparative, and competitive the music scene was. Coming from a small town and living in my musical bubble, I had no actual clue about what was happening in the real world. I was terrified.
There was a competitive element that I had not dealt with before. I was used to playing with family members and artist friends where there wasn’t a competition. I am not a competitive person by nature but the difficulty wasn’t with my talents or skills, it was really about my emotional stability. Maneuvering how to handle the fact that I wasn’t the only guitar player or drummer in town with a dream took a lot of time to wrap my head around. There were a lot of contenders and nothing to reference what I was walking into or up against. I’m not sure if that feeling will convey while we live in a world of immediate connection and reference literally in our hands. Most of you are probably reading this very article on one. There are a lot of specific moments where the road has not been smooth, almost too many to mention here. For me, the most important takeaway from the obstacles or hurdles I still face is to stay true to the craft and yourself. I realize how that sounds like a greeting card or motivational poster, but it’s true. I started playing drums when I was 4 years old, by 2nd grade I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, and today at 39 years old I’m still learning and figuring it out. What enabled me to redirect the competitive concern was to stop worrying about my status or ability in comparison to those around me. It was very difficult for me to push through honestly and I wanted to give up so many times. It would’ve been much easier. I embraced the situation and opened doors to conversations with people I thought were too good to talk to me. To this day some of those people are still my closest friends. I’ve grown as a musician and producer by being around people who are far more talented than I am. I had to learn to take criticism, good or bad, and ask many questions. Become a sponge, then show someone else how you did it. Yes, the creative world is very competitive and saturated but I believe there are enough seats at the table for all of us. Without that risk of taking the first step, you may never know what’s on the other side for you.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
When I meet people and the question comes up “what do you do?” I used to pause a bit and think about how to answer because the short answer is that I’m a musician, and that feels safe to say without having to go into details. To be honest, it feels better to proudly say I own a creative production company that focuses on collaborating with creatives, bands, artists, videographers, and content creators to assist in telling narratives by way of song, dialogue, or image. Pragmatic Sound Co. is the large umbrella where things musically and creatively live. I spoke about my family history in the music industry and my time in my uncle’s studio which inspired me to be a session musician as well as a producer. My instrumental pursuit, Daphne Blues, was in large the beginning of a career I had started 30 years earlier. The response to Daphne Blues is why the production company side, Pragmatic Sound Co., exists today. There was a need to bridge the gap between my professional experience in the industry and my side ventures assisting others in what they were creating to finally connect all the dots and put the puzzle pieces together, it’s forever a work in progress.
Even through the twists and turns of the industry, I’m proud of a few opportunities that presented themselves by just word of mouth. Several original compositions were used in the documentary about local 1310 The Ticket radio legend Mike Rhyner entitled Not in This Town: The Improbable Rise of The Old Grey Wolf which premiered at the Granada Theater. During the pandemic, I was contacted to produce an episode of the nationally recognized podcast “88 Cups of Tea” hosted by Yin Chang. I’ve been producing and composing music with a notable Influencer for the last 5 years or so with more on the way. I’ve spent a lot of time in studios with fantastic musicians that spend their weekends on stages in arenas with even more incredible artists and I’ve been able to perform with some of DFW’s finest. Through the power of social media, some of my photography has been used by local tourism bureaus, businesses, and brands alike. I’m honored to be a part of the Aesthetic Influencers show and production company covering special events hosted at the Bellagio, Las Vegas, and The Ritz Carlton, Marina del Rey. Possibly one of the most surreal moments as of late has been sitting on a flight and randomly watching a vignette our crew filmed and produced for American Airlines right there on their in-flight app for the very first time. There is a very long list of things I’m proud of in my career that in a lot of cases I was handling all facets of the projects myself. These days I’ve found the sweet spot of working with a team of people who genuinely care for each other and bring excellence to everything we do.
I’ve expressed this before but I feel that my talents and gifts make up about 40% of what I do or who I am as a person. But what sets me apart is the other 60% is serving and putting people first. I wish there was a big reveal, but just serving others has driven my career over the many bumps and downfalls along the way. The typical thought is that success is measured by notoriety, money, or possessions. The culture and approach for anything Pragmatic Sound Co., Daphne Blues, or Pragmatic Creative Co. are rooted in honoring God, honoring people, and respecting the craft. When you are consistent in those small things, you will be amazed at how many of those bigger doors automatically open for you. It’s a revolving door of the unchanging reason why we are made to create. People over projects, and collaboration over competition, always.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? Risk is something I’ve spent the better part of my adult life walking the tightrope of. Nervous by nature I guess. For those of you that know about the Enneagram test and how it works, I am a type 6 or better known as “The Skeptic.” Without going into great detail here, just a brief snapshot of how I, an Enneagram type 6, view risk. This is taken from an article by Molly Owens from Truity about Enneagram types from their website truity.com:
“Sixes are defined by their desire for safety and security. They seek to anticipate and avoid risk and ally themselves with trustworthy authority figures and institutions. Sixes are alert and vigilant, always thinking several steps ahead to anticipate and prepare for what could go wrong.”
I believe most that know me, know that description would suit me very well. In my daily life, they would be correct that I am on high alert the majority of the time. However, for some reason when it came down to finally going all in 100% and starting Pragmatic Sound Co. there was not a lot of planning I feel, but also not a lot of fear of the risk for me at that time. I know I had sketched out several ideas and had started making lists and scouring the internet on the legal and best way to start a business. I’m a dreamer by default, and I’ve wanted to have a studio and produce music since I was a kid, so to have that conversation with my wife was a small surreal miracle. I did have semi-steady clients and some green numbers were rolling in very slowly but I think she could see a vision for where I was trying to go. Maybe not the vision yet, but when she said do it, I was ready.
I had a lengthy conversation about this topic with my friend and podcast host Byron Craig on his show The Random Thoughts Hour, Episode 64 specifically. There is a section during the show when we were sharing our experiences of how I had just gone full-time freelance and Byron was naming reasons why he was afraid to do so. During our conversation, I thought I had made a good case for why or how I had gone freelance. When the episode came out I, of course, listened to it and when it came to that part, what Byron listed as his concerns, it hit me how big of a deal this was and that this wasn’t a game anymore this was real. Something key that Byron hit on was that to go freelance you need to have the financial backing or a sponsorship/endorsement deal. Those are both great ideas and options that I never gave a single thought to. What I lack in business knowledge my wife excels at, she also has tons of grit and has helped me on many if not all occasions when I was in the weeds. Both financially and in need of endless encouragement.
Some risks are inevitable when you branch out, it doesn’t even have to be in business it could be risking it all on a design or pitch or even proposing to the love of your life. Risk is everywhere, it’s in a lot of the decisions we make daily without knowing it. It’s the things that keep this Type 6 up at night, unfortunately. I will say that you will lose and maybe miss out on some big things if you don’t take that step. There’s a reason why whatever it is you want to do in life is alive and beating in your chest and taking up all your thoughts. I’ll attempt to wrap this up but I am all in for following your heart and chasing down your dreams. If I could provide any advice or go back and do it again I would say plan financially for any and every possibility. You can have a nest egg and possibly have been saving for years with a date on the calendar circled when you were going to do that thing that you eat sleep and breathe, and you should. But, if you save, save more before you fully commit. I was not ready for the expenses of starting a business in filing fees, certificates, licenses, and forms. Add in website, hosting, graphic, branding, social media, and more all adds up and repeats monthly. Above all do not go down this path alone. My wife has always been by my side and gave me support and space as she let me figure a few things out on my own before I humbly asked for help. She supported me in following a dream and has jumped in so many times graciously and we are better at this as a team. It doesn’t make it any less risky, but it does help to have someone to plan with and dream with as well. Absolutely could not and would not do this without her. TY, K.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.pragmaticsoundco.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pragmaticcreativeco/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pragmaticsoundco
- Other: https://linktr.ee/psco
Image Credits
Dean Xu
Eddie Adesodun
Vinny Saenz
Natalie Barrett
