The Voice Coach Behind Glee & Hollywood’s Biggest Singers ft. Tim Davis | Coffeez for Closers

0:00Was bugging me after a number of times coming in and asking for me in my section. I didn't know why. She just called, basically called me out. She was like, I bet you're a really good singer. I want you to come to my office and I want to hear your demo. So after her bugging me probably three times, I went to her office. She listened to my demo for about 10 seconds, stopped it, didn't say a word, went over to the phone, picked up the phone, called a producer and said, yeah, I got him here. Can you work on Thursday? Yes. yeah he'll be there she wrote down an address on a sticky note and gave it to me and it was the producer who was at the top of my bucket list to work for welcome to another episode of coffees today i'm sitting down with a very well-renowned and very special guest tim davis he is the genius behind tv shows like glee some of the most famous musicians in the world all have worked with him have studied under him and have all implemented the singing strategies and learn from the best please welcome a man who definitely does not need an introduction tim davis thanks for jumping on today's show thanks jesus i do need an introduction but let's welcome me hello welcome thank you it's a it's a pleasure to have you um you know we have a lot in common we got a lot to talk about.

1:19I don't know much about the music industry and you're a guy who's dominated that space, very, very well renowned in that space. So I'll have a lot of questions about that. We moved to Nashville because I knew a lot of Christian artists that were there. I followed a lot of them and I knew a lot of the background singers were and I wanted to get in that camp, but I didn't know how. And so, um, I was just asking God, like, how, how do I do this? How, how am I supposed to break in? Like everyone was telling me, you've got to be really good at promoting yourself. You've got to be, you've got to be a networker.

1:58You've got to knock on these doors. And, and I would feel so that, that, that just felt off to me. I couldn't do it. It It felt slimy. It felt opportunistic. I'm not saying it's bad for everybody. I'm just saying for me, it wasn't the way. And the more I sought God on that, he would lead me to scriptures that said things like, promotion only comes from the Lord. Okay, so how do I get promoted, Lord? If you humble yourself under my mighty hand, I will lift you up when it's time. These are scriptures. Be like Jesus who made no reputation for himself. When you come into a party, take the lowest seat at the table.

2:51Don't lift up your head. Don't presume to take the seat of honor. And then the host has to say, actually, that's for somebody else. You go sit down there. Don't do that. Instead, come in low and allow God, when you humble yourself, I used to ask God, oh, God, humble me. That's not a biblical prayer. You humble yourself under God's mighty hand, and he'll lift you up when it's time. So I was like, okay, that's either true or it's not true. So I'm going to trust that that's true. Now, this was over 30 years ago that all of this was, that God was laying this foundation for me. But what he proved to me, and I don't have time to go into the whole story, but basically I was waiting tables at a restaurant in Nashville.

3:43And I was practicing listening to his instruction and reading the word and what he said to do. Because the word of God contained the keys to our success in life. And so I would read those things like, humble yourself, make yourself low, don't try to lift yourself up, allow God to do it. I was like, okay.

4:12So I'm waiting tables in this restaurant and these people are coming in that I want to work with on my bucket list, producers, singers, artists, and they're all sitting in my section. And I want so badly to go, oh my gosh, I want to work for you. Oh, my gosh, you're the best. There's everything in me that wanted to do that. But I kept hearing this voice. Don't say a word. Just serve them and walk away. And so it became a joke because of the people that came and sat in my section. I was like, this is hilarious, God. Thank you so much. Well, five months into my time at this restaurant, a woman came in.

4:56I did not know who she was she turned out to be the vice president of curb records and she was bugging me after a number of times coming in and asking for me in my section I didn't know why but she she just called basically called me out she was like you're you're I bet you're a really good singer I want you to come to my office and I want to hear your demo so after her bugging me probably three times. I went to her office. She listened to my demo for about 10 seconds, stopped it, didn't say a word, went over to the phone, picked up the phone, called a producer and said, yeah, I got him here. Can you work on Thursday?

5:39Yes. Yeah, he'll be there. She wrote down an address on a sticky note and gave it to me. And it was the producer who was at the top of my bucket list to work for in Nashville. And I was on a session with him by myself that Thursday. And he called another producer for the next day. I was booked the next day. That producer called another producer. And literally over that weekend, I had to quit my job because I was booked for three weeks. And it never stopped. The Lord told me, You will not have to write an email, make a phone call, ask or solicit for any work. I will bring it all to you. If you do it my way, it's not the easy way because you relinquish control.

6:33But if you do it my way, I will elevate you to a place where no man can take you out of my hand. If you trust the feeble hand of man to lift you up, they'll get bored. Lord, they'll drop you. I will never drop you. And no one can take you out of the place where I put you. And he's proven that to me for the last over 30 years in the industry. So the foundation, I say all of that to just share that the foundation of my life in this industry has been in the secret place with God, learning his principles and seeking to walk in a way that honors him. I remember early on in Hollywood, I was on a set of a show and God said to me, like interrupted me and said, Hey, by the way, there's one reason that I have you here.

7:39It's not for your status. And this was at the beginning of the show Glee that I worked on.

7:48He said, you are a bridge for me to walk across and love these people that I created. That's it. That's the only reason I have you here. So don't get it twisted. This is not about you. so I just there's a scripture that says the perfect love of God casts out all fear it was in that moment I just felt like the fear of the opinion of other people just kind of fell off of me and I felt so free to just walk around to these actors and producers and directors and whoever was on set I felt free to just love people to be myself without fear. And that is kind of been my mission. And not to be a weirdo.

8:41Like I had, Christians can just be weird. Church people can be weirdos. We were saying that earlier, yeah. Who try to go into these places in the marketplace in business and be an evangelist. or it's fine. Like if that's what you feel like God's asked you to do, but I think more often what is most effective is when we can walk into the marketplace and be so skilled at what we do that our peers look at us and the people that hire us look at us and they're like, I want this guy around. Because of his faith? No, because of his skill. That's why in Proverbs it says, do you see a person of great skill?

9:25They will stand before kings. Why does God want to place us before kings? So that we can influence kings because kings influence culture. So it became very clear to me, God wants to trust us with these positions in society so that we can represent him and make him famous and love the people that we come in contact with. Wow, I'm really preaching. Sorry. No, you know, it's shocking that someone like you has been in a world that's entrenched in, like, anti-God rhetoric, right? Like, what you've experienced, and then you could be just this, like, glimmer of hope, this beacon of light in a world that's, like, so dark.

10:21because the music industry we all know and we've all heard the rumors that you know that's like these superstars have sold their soul though that's the we at least here that's the you know the gossip I don't know how much validity there is to all these superstars selling their souls of the devils you would know better than any of us I mean is there any truth to that I mean I don't know and that's oh yeah there's there's truth to it yeah because they just like I had a dream that I chose to ask God about, and I followed his precepts to get me there. They have a dream, and they also had a choice of which God they asked to get them there.

11:05And I do believe 100%, I know it, many of them have done some crazy things and sacrificed and compromise their souls for their money and fame, for sure.

11:26Yeah, but this is how I see it.

11:34Everyone is desperate for love and true love, the love of God. No one can deny that. Like, if you come at, I've had a lot of interactions with a lot of people who are in some pretty dark stuff. But I don't see it as us and them. I just see us as, we're the same, we're all just people that are broken. And if you hate God and you hate the church, it's probably because you were wounded in some way and traumatized by someone in the church that said to represent God. This is just a person who's hurting. That's how I see everybody. I mean, the reality is, and we've said this many times, just like the church is just a hospital.

12:32Everybody's sick together. We're all just sick together. Yeah. You know, there's like some person might be a little bit better than the other. but they're all sick. And even in my faith and in our culture, we've lost multitudes of people because of hypocrisy. It's like, no, it's not hypocrisy. That's just humanity. Humanity. Brokenness. Yeah, humanity. And we all struggle in the same aspects of life. Yeah, and I think you asked me how it's been to be, I think a lot of the church will say, well, why do you want to be a part of something so dark? Okay. It's like you're in the mortgage industry, correct?

13:19There's a lot of crap that goes on in your industry that is evil and false and wrong, right? That's crap. I was actually just thinking that, like how many people sell their souls to the devil in music, but how many people sell their souls to the devil in finance? Come on. In any industry. Sorry. But we just don't have the same memes or whatever. We don't have the same PR. Because there's not celebrities as much in these other industries, so it doesn't get as much coverage. But where was I going with that? It was so good, too. I had such good things to say. I can't. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So the church says, my grandmother used to tell me this.

14:07Tim, she's Southern. Tim, don't give your talent to the devil. Don't give your talent to the world. You've got to use it for the Lord. Well, I can use my talent for the Lord in the marketplace. And I think so many people have run away. You know, the church used to be the place where all of the creative arts came out of. They all were born in the church. But because I think by and large, Christians have forfeited their... They've run away. They've run into the mountains and like run away from the industry because it's evil. I don't want to be corrupted. Well, that's why it's so corrupted, because the presence of God has left, because God's presence is carried through people.

15:04Hello? So why do we think that God doesn't want us in the darkest places in the world? That's who Jesus hung out with, the people that were the most depraved, the prostitutes, the criminals. He didn't care because he knew they needed life. He knew they needed love. He knew they needed him. Why do we think we're any different? So I've had several people over the years, people that I knew earlier in my life, who were religious. I'll say religious because they care more about the rules. and they don't care as much about Jesus and what Holy Spirit is doing in the earth, who would say to me, you know, I can't follow you anymore because you're promoting, you're on this television show that promotes darkness.

16:00And I would say, okay, peace. I mean, I don't know what to tell you. You're so short-sighted and you can't imagine that God could use somebody in the industry. and I did start to have this conversation with them before we ended it. They said, well, has anyone accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior? I said, first of all, that's not my job. My job is to communicate the love of the Father to people, to bring the kingdom of God and excellence to the earth and the marketplace. That's my job. And show it. And you live Christ. You lived it. That's it. You got to live Christ around all these people who just, they were like, what's up with this guy?

16:48And like, why is he so different? Why is he so happy? Why is he in such a good mood? Why does he have such great hair? That was the real question. It's a wig. I'm wearing a wig. No, so for me, I wouldn't change a thing. I mean, I'm so grateful. full. God allowed me to pursue my dreams and to do it in safety. He has directed every step of my life in this way. A man plans his path and God directs his steps. That's the truth. God, I want to sing on records. We're going to move to Nashville. Okay, you plan your path. Now listen to me. I'm going to direct your steps. I want you to do this and this and this and this.

17:39but we're so used to especially in the western culture do like do what everyone else is doing compare yourself and then run faster run harder paddle paddle paddle paddle do it do it better do it more it's just not that's not the kingdom of God that's not how God set things up to be I don't think now let me ask you you were drawn into the movie into the music industry as a background singer that's what drew you in yeah and what do you think has kept you in the industry this long um to be able to work in the industry this long i think it's skill again um if you can so these two principles i'm always talking about the two pillars of skill and humility if you can walk in humility and be teachable and coachable and learn.

18:38I'm a learner. I'm always trying to learn and be better and with skill too. Here's the fact. After 30 plus years of singing in the recording studio, my voice cannot do what it used to do. That's just the fact. Your voice becomes aged and it's not as resilient. and that's just humanity. But what can I do to continue to use this gift and everything that has been invested for the last 30 years in my life to help other people? That's where I am now after 30 plus years. It's not so much about, gosh, I hope I get called to sing on this record or this film or this TV show. My thing started shifting about 10 years ago into how can I help bring in the next generation?

19:37How can I help teach them what I've learned? Because by the way, in this specific niche of the industry, studio singing is what it's called, where you go into the recording studio and you sing and you don't see these singers a lot. You hear them on records or film trailers or commercials or whatever. This is a viable career that most singers don't even know exists. It's called studio singing. So how can I find singers that are super talented, that have great voices, that need opportunity? Because there is no platform in the world that shows singers how to do this. Until I started what I started in 2014 called the Studio Singer Intensive, which is where I bring singers in who are interested in this kind of work that I was, who have a dream to make a living with their voice.

20:35And I bring them into the recording studio and train them like for, I put them behind the mic, we learn songs, and I try to run it like a real session is run. It's very demanding, it's intense, that's why it's called an intensive. And it's like five hours in the studio, but I'm just like giving direct feedback, honest feedback to help people so that when they get called for a real job they don't go in there and flounder um there isn't there never has been any kind of training in the industry for this there's always there's acting classes there's you can go to engineering school you can go to dance classes these are all things for all of the different disciplines in the arts in the industry but there's never been anything for studio singing until now.

21:27So I have zero competition in the marketplace. I was telling you, I just started as an entrepreneur. Like I'm really diving into building up this business of actively looking for singers around the country. I was just in Houston last week. I was in Miami before that. I'm in Vegas next week. and I'm trying to bring in singers that want this kind of opportunity and show them the ramp into the industry. Well, how do they know this opportunity exists? First off, it's not marketed. Second off, it's something that only those that know know. Yeah. And it's something that's essential. So how do people even find out about it?

22:18How do they get involved with it? You're one of one. and you have no competition. Well, there's a guy named Joseph Shalabi. I don't know if you've heard of him. Anyway, he invited me to be on his podcast to try to help me get the word out. Yeah, it's exactly what we were talking about before the show, content creation. I am learning so much. I'm learning what a road this is, like how hard you have to work and be so consistent in churning out scripts and content and filming and managing and looking at, like I am working 12 to 14 hours a day and seeing very little fruit from it for the last six months.

23:09But I know that it will pay off. it's very different because in the industry for the last 30 years of in what i've done it's always been instant gratification hey tim come to the studio uh i do two days of work get a fat paycheck go home hey tim come to the studio go to work get a fat paycheck come home all these different things and it's instant gratification and now it's and now it's like months nothing but i love it because here here's here's what i love about it there is no greater joy that i have this is true then finding that then getting an opportunity having some production company call me like we need singers for this or we need singers for that and connecting those opportunities with talented singers that can do the job with excellence and skill and elevate the whole industry like that excites me so much and the fact is i'm the only one going out into the world looking for singers to bring them in it otherwise how do you even find them like what are you doing on instagram like what are you doing to find instagram youtube tick tock whatever and And I – Do you do like where you test them?

24:37Like I'm going to be here at this date, singer's – I have them – so I have them apply to come to an intensive. And I – And where do you market it? You just market it on your Instagram? Yeah. I use a company called Upper Hand Creative. I'm signed to them. So they do all my content like editing and like management. So I film. They do all the editing. They put it on a schedule. They churn it out. They're incredible, truly. And it's really a challenge to keep up with all of the demands. But that's how the word has been getting out. And Google ads as well, Facebook ads. So, yeah, these people apply.

25:23They send in some kind of video or voice sample. and man I just heard this kid in Vegas and he's a he actually is a hairdresser his voice I was like oh my gosh this guy is insane he's so good and he needs to be working in the industry like he he's just that insanely talented so I can't wait to like because I'm going to work with him in Vegas next week. He's one of about 20 singers that'll be there. And anyway, I love finding diamonds like that. And then hopefully connecting opportunities. I had a production company from France reach out to me and say, we're doing this concert tour with an orchestra.

26:12We need a soloist. She has to be able to sing in Italian, French, and German. She has to be able to sing rock and classical legitimately, like in all these different styles and the range is crazy from low to high. I'm like, wow, insane. But this girl popped into my head who I had met in Nashville. Most people don't realize how much their personal information is being bought and sold every day. Data brokers are making billions, pulling details about you from public records and the internet. and then packaging and selling it, usually without your consent. That's how your information lands in the hands of scammers, spammers, even stalkers.

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27:33Start your free trial today at aura.com slash remove. Protect yourself now at aura.com slash remove. Do all that. Who could do all of it? And so I sent, and I hadn't talked to her in five years. I recorded, I produced her vocal reel for her and I remembered her because I had worked with her. But then I called her and I was like, hey, would you want me to submit you for this thing? She goes, 100%. So she got the job and she's gonna do this tour and make a lot of money. And that makes me so happy. And I get$0 of that referral because I don't need that. I don't do it for that. I love to help people.

28:18You're just doing God's work, man. I'm doing God's work. If I can make a living also doing it, which I am, he's blessing that as well. So that's good. Amazing. It's amazing what you're doing, and it's amazing that you're finding these remarkable talents. In a lot of ways, that's kind of my job too. I'm just kind of like a talent scout. yeah you know so that's and i and also being a talent scout i find the talent i help mold the talent and elevate the talent and come up with new ways innovations to basically you know help them really really uh shine um i mean in music it's much more niche you gotta and that you know especially with singing so you're you've kind of created your own american idol or something kind of but i can't make you a star on the stage i can maybe help you have a career with your voice yeah but do you put them in touch with agents and get them interestingly there are no agents for studio singing there's no management for studio singing boom there you found another job right there.

29:33Yeah. Yeah. So people are like, what you, you should really turn this into an agency. Well, I think that would, I, that's way too complex and it would, it's just placing talent where there's a job needed. Yeah. That is the job of a vocal contractor, which is in existence. That is a job in existence already. Um, but I'm, but what I, what I do, if I find someone who's just incredible, I love to send them around to the different contractors that I know in LA, Nashville, New York, Orlando. Those are the main hotspots for recording right now and, um, Connect them with opportunities. And yeah, as I say, there's no greater joy in doing that.

30:27Let me ask you, what's the difference between someone who's talented and someone who's actually working in the industry? Because I feel like you can be talented, but you still can't get a job. Because you see some of these singers, these famous ones, are they talented or are they just beautiful? if they satisfy some look or they did something to get famous or maybe i mean there's no way like nikki minaj is a super talented singer or something like that i don't know you know like yeah okay so that's just someone who comes to my head you know well you're you're talking about you just spoke about two different categories one is the artist which that's not what the world i'm dealing in.

31:13I'm dealing with the people behind the scenes, the background singers. I will tell you why a very talented person will not work as a background singer. And it's usually because they're entitled. They don't play well with others. I'm talking about, I've had so many singers I've worked with who are just incredible, who blow up every room that they go into because they don't know how to behave themselves or they think they're just so incredible and they start to tell other people what to do it's like oh my gosh you are a nightmare and you need to go away i like you when you or you need jesus yeah well that too when you when you go into these rooms but also that happens in churches too yeah with church singers and which is a whole nother level a whole level anyway uh these these people are super skilled vocally the ones i'm thinking of but they just don't know how they're traumatized and they're fearful of missing out on an opportunity so they feel like they have to like posture and position themselves in the room to be seen and heard and it's such a repellent it's such a turnoff so for me I don't I don't want to hire those people because they don't bring any life into the room it's all they suck the life out of the room because it has to be about them so I think that's that's a reason that a lot of really talented people aren't working.

32:56Yeah, but I feel like, you know, your gift will make room for you, scripture says. So if you have a gift, you can get in the room, but you can absolutely sabotage it with your lack of self-awareness and your trauma that you've not dealt with in your life that just comes out of you. does that make sense yeah i mean and their tongue in general yeah in general i mean sure i i can't even imagine the the egos you've dealt with but you've worked with like lady gaga and and these massive brands these massive singers where they did they start off as just i have worked with gaga and she's lovely um i i can tell you let me think about this before i say it