If you’ve ever defragmented a Microsoft server, odds are you dealt with Derek De Vette. The former VP Channel Development for Diskeeper Corporation (now Condusiv Technologies) was a staunch supporter of SMB Nation and attended numerous conferences from our earliest beginnings on the Microsoft campus. Few of us knew the once Channel executive was also a musician. And his band, Man Made Souls, has since taken off with a global debut on MTV Music Television and he now performs for audiences of thousands. I caught up with Derek for dinner a few months back in Los Angeles and asked him to talk about his new career and the impact technology plays in the life of a rock star.
(Pictured: Derek De Vette in performance. Photo Credit: Jessica Sterling Photography)
First off, congratulations on your debut on MTV and all the recent attention your band has been getting.
Thanks, man. It beats quarterly sales quotas (smile).
Do you draw upon your experiences in the SMB IT Channel to help you in your music career?
Yes, especially the knowledge gained from PC performance and optimization. Even storage devices, cloud and virtualization have come in handy. You can’t create an album these days without being computer literate. Music is composed and recorded completely in the virtual space of a PC with the majority of instruments, special effects and mixing tools all being software based. You also have to optimize the studio environment from hardware to software all the way down to the right drives used (in my case SSDs) to ensure no latency, delay or sound glitches happen. Most of these concepts I leaned from VARs doing Diskeeper server installations who wanted to ensure there was no performance hit on the production environments they’re responsible for. It’s the same with music. There are even specialized VARs who do studio installations.
What roles does technology play in the creative side of music?
Well it’s closed the physical distance gap on collaborations. For example, the bass player for Nine Inch Nails and Beck plays on our most recent album, Sleeping with Aliens. I never saw the guy. I paid him through PayPal, emailed an MP3 of a song, he recorded a few bass parts in his home studio, emailed them back to me as high res WAV files and we sync’d them up to the rest of the tracks in our studio. The song sounds incredible and we have a world class artist on our record as a result. For even larger projects, there are dedicated cloud storage sites for sharing huge music files back and forth between recording studios while albums are being worked on. This is the new norm.
In your opinion, how has the SMB IT Pro environment changed? Do you think this is for the better?
Better if you can keep up. Virtualization, managed services and some of the hybrid cloud offerings have brought incredible opportunities for VARs if they’re willing to step out of their comfort zones to learn and change old business models. Friends like Dave Sobel of Evolve Technologies are a good example of those doing it right. But the question is, what’s going to happen to the other VARs who are so used to the small consultant model of hourly billing and onsite management? I worry about them and hope they’re able to make the transition. Change can be bitter or sweet depending on how you view it.
On that note of change, what would you tell people who are thinking of changing careers? Any helpful tips?
I was mature enough to recognize that I’d given up a certain level of happiness for the security of a paycheck. I had a great Channel gig. But I realized it’s not where I wanted to be in five or ten years. So I made happiness my new priority. That’s the best advice I could offer. Make happiness your priority. I began consulting a research firm for income and made changes in my life which allowed me to operate out of my home office, spend more time with my gorgeous wife and concentrate back on the arts with my band. I’m the happiest I’ve been in years.
Any parting words for our readers?
Yes, buy the album or a song on iTunes—I have a wife to support guys! https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/sleeping-with-aliens/id426730494. Seriously though, I love keeping in touch with the SMB Nation community. So if you know me, or want to know me, friend my band on Facebook. And if I’m touring through your town, I’ll hook you up with backstage passes. It never hurts to know the lead singer!
Check out Derek’s band, Man Made Souls, on iTunes or Amazon. Click on the music video here to see his most recent MTV performance, Sleeping with Aliens.
