We recently connected with Darryl Jackson and have shared our conversation below.
Darryl, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
I have had two careers going at the same time, throughout my adult life. Music was more than a hobby. It is because over 50+ years involved in the music business, any many facets of that industry, I devoted my talent in music in helping other budding musicians with my experience. My other career was working in the computer training industry. For over 35 years, I developed online training for adult learners, using various authoring tools for online development. In working with companies such as Boeing, Microsoft, AT&T, Starbucks Headquarters, and more over the years, I had developed a work ethic, that mirrored or reflected those I worked with in many facets of the industry. All of the knowledge I had gathered over that time, was mostly due to my work ethic and what I was able to accomplish using that as a tool to go further. This also spilled over into my music career. In the last 15 years, in becoming a solo recording artist, my work ethic flowed into my work processes. As an artist and music producer, composer, performer, recording engineer, and producer, work processes were and are critical in becoming a success in any challenge that came before me.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
Darryl (DJ) Jackson Music Background:
I started Piano lessons at age 6 and have continued to play most of my life and still involved in music today. Both of my parents were musicians. My Father was a professional piano player in the 30s and 40s as a featured guest at dinner clubs all over the California area. My Mother was not a professional musician, but played both piano and organ and both parents ensured I continued my piano studies as a young boy and into my teens. I was fortunate we always had a piano and organ in the house.
Living in Las Vegas most of my life and being exposed to great music and musicians that play in the clubs, lounges and showrooms, gave me my lessons in performance and musicianship. I was fortunate to have seen live, the best of the best over the years in showrooms in many hotel casinos over the years. From Elvis to Sinatra to Shania to Cher, to Michael Jackson and many more. I was fortunate to play at the Las Vegas Hilton lounge with the Jazz Alive Band I was a member of, as the Bassist and Producer of the band. With the many bands I was in during that time, we played all the popular night clubs and bars and even won a Battle of the Bands contest in the early 70s.
In my mid 20s to mid-30s, I went on the road throughout the mid-west touring with several various show bands, playing keyboards. Then in my late 30s, I decided to take up Bass guitar. I continued to play Bass in bands over the next 20 years, while still playing piano, keyboards, and guitar in my solo projects.
I have literally been playing music, recording, composing, arranging, producing, and performing in bands from Jazz to Country to Rock to Alternative over 50 years.
Q&A:
What is your favorite genre of music?
My favorite genre is what I may be listening to at any time and any mood. My favorite genre is something new, different. I have been listening to music for over 50 years and every genre you can imagine throughout those years. This includes earlier styles of Motown, Rock and Roll, Classical, to Classic Rock, Progressive Rock, Jazz, Smooth Jazz, Acid Jazz, Experimental, Electronic, Chill, Downbeat, Ambient, and much more. I also like orchestrated music for film/TV and have been working towards fitting segments of my music into the film industry.
What is your music recording experience?
My first recording experience was in a small studio in Las Vegas back in 1962. The band I was in had a great female vocalist and we did a rendition recording of “Summertime”. I played piano and the song turned out great. I still have a copy of that recording, which I cherish. It was recorded Analog on an 4 track tape machine at the time.
Later in my early 30s, I worked at Las Vegas Recording Studio, and was mentored and taught by the staff engineers on an Analog 32 channel board and the fine art of recording. I worked there about 3 years and was immersed in the recording industry. But eventually my music won out and I went back to playing and performing again in local clubs and a few hotel casinos in the Vegas area.
In 1995, I owned and operated, developed, designed, and built the original VectraSound Rehearsal and Recording Studios in Las Vegas. It had 12 rehearsal studios for bands to rent rehearsal space, as well as a complete live stage room and an adjacent 32 channel analog recording room. I recorded many local bands and some pro artists like Seals and Croft (Summer Breeze).
I retired from live performance with bands in 2010 and seriously launched my solo career in 2015. In 2025 I have recently released a new album, “Space Between Time”, offered on most digital outlets. I have a fully furnished home studio I built and use daily. Being a multi-instrumentalist and playing many instruments, requires balancing practice on each instrument during the week with recording projects of my own music and producing other music artists.
Tell us your experience as a musician.
Over a 50 year span of playing in bands, I played keyboards, guitar and bass guitar. And as a solo artist, I play all the instruments on my recordings including; Guitar, Bass, Keyboards, and Drums and also use WAV files on occasion for loops. I have used ProTools for years but my DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) App of choice and current is PreSonus Studio One Pro.
Music has been my creative outlet and more than a serious hobby all my life. As a driven passionate composer and musician, I have devoted most of my life to music. Growing up in Las Vegas was a different experience than most. For sure, the caliber of musicianship was a demand. I went from jamming with friends at my house or their houses, to High School dances, to State Fairs and other small venues. Then in my mid-20s to mid-30s I was on the road, off and on through those years all over the Midwest from Montana to Minnesota, to Chicago, to Texas, to the Dakota’s to Michigan and Wisconsin. I was with several show bands during those years. From my 40s on, I played many hotel casinos and lounges in Las Vegas, as well as popular rock clubs throughout the city.
In 2003, I was inducted into the Las Vegas Rock & Roll Hall of Fame along with my band mates with the “Heads or Tails” band. In 2001, I moved to Seattle, Washington and have been a part of 3 major local bands playing large events annually. One of the high points in my career was in 2008 while with a band in Seattle (Astrocats). We won a battle of the bands contest in Issaquah, WA and were sent to Chefchaouen, Morocco (sister city of Issaquah) to open for one of their annual music festivals.
Tell us your future goals.
Getting more of my music published and listened to. Having as many people as possible hear my music is important for exposure and trying to be at the right place at the right time. Although I am currently presented on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and Internet Radio, my more immediate goal for 2020 and beyond is landing a film/TV music publishing deal. I have had over 500,000 listeners to my music world wide, garnered fans, through Jango Internet Radio and Airplay.
What artists have influenced you over the years?
After studying and listening to music over 50 years, it would take pages to list all of my influences that span all genres. Some of the most special artists topping my list would be; Prince, Hendrix, Doors, Eagles, Beatles, Kansas, ELP, Jeff Beck, Lyle Mays, Vince Gill, Garth Brooks, Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, Arthur Rubinstein, Chopin, Beethoven, Mozart, Greig, and tons and tons more.
Darryl DJ Jackson
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Everyone has a different qualities and attributes they bring to the table. These attributes are enhanced with learning the skills and developing knowledge from direct experience. To me, in order to be successful, you must have determination and faith in yourself to succeed. I have found these words of wisdom to work for me, “Those that fail to plan, plan to fail”. In any sort of business you pursue, planning your steps to move forward, are extremely important. Having a quality attribute such as determination and passion, will push you to be successful, and will help move you forward in your career. How do you get these qualities and skills?
Developing skills in your chosen path, as you move forward, you develop your skills in learning from your mistakes, make corrections, and staying positive. Find out how other successful people in your chosen field became successful. You will develop more and more knowledge as you are exposed more and more to experiences, in business and life. Remember, knowledge is power. Those that give up early, do not have the internal strength or determination to keep going. Those that dedicate themselves to succeeding, see no barriers, gates, or walls. They only see the other side of success, and keep that in their sights consciously and continuously every day to reach their goals.
Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?
Everyone is different and have different reasons for addressing being overwhelmed. Being overwhelmed can come in many forms. In business, or in life, too much of thrown at you, all at once, can be overwhelming. One of the things that have helped me, in my business career, was working with and understanding project management. Whenever I had many projects to work on, developing a project plan to address my set goal, was the only way I could accomplish everything I set out to do. Running 5 to 8 projects at once, with deadlines to have completed, was standard for me. I was only able to complete everything given to me through a very well thought out project plan. Now that I am retired, my time is my own. However, as a musician, recording engineer, and producer, planning my projects with included timelines and due dates is imperative for me to get my goals done. Example: Currently I have 2 goals in progress to the end of the year. One is to complete and release my second solo album, and the other is to complete my book of memoirs that covers my life from start to current. In order to accomplish both goals, having a plan of attack is critical in timelines and when I devote time to each project.
With my album, I work in the studio Monday through Friday for specific hours in the day. For my book, I spend specific hours a day writing and adding more chapters. Both projects require a project plan and what I expect to accomplish each day of the week. In other words, I have a daily work routine I follow, to spend designated time to each goal and continue making progress as I move forward.
This also has to do with work ethic, as I have applied my proven plans in the past to get my goals accomplished.
Lastly, my motto is, “If I don’t do it, it won’t get done.” I do not rely on others to help me complete my goals. But I do work with others for collaboration and what can they do, that I can’t, to help me move forward.
I do not feel overwhelmed, as long as I am following a pre-determind and thought out plan. When I follow that plan each day, I can see the progress daily and weekly, as I move closer to my end goal.
Contact Info:
- Website: DarrylJacksonMusic.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100014871573130
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/djackson007/
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/djackson123
- Other: VectraSound Recording Studio, located in Sparks, Nevada 89436 https://darryljacksonmusic.com/vectrasound-studio
Image Credits
Darryl Jackson
