Deron Wade is a Singer/Songwriter/Entrepreneur. His music has been described as "James Blunt meets U2 kicking it at a cafe with the lyrical seance of Bob Dylan." TV/Film placements include "Brooke Hogan Knows Best" "Dancing with the Stars" "Road Rules" & more. In Los Angeles, he was the first acoustic rock artist to sell 20,000 CD's in a two year period with an mp3 player and headphones on the streets of Venice Beach, Santa Monica Promenade, The Grove, Hollywood & Highland & Downtown LA (next to the Grammy's)
"I found that busking always made folks a little shy with approaching the artist, so I decided to meet them instead with my headphones and an mp3 player of my songs. Best part, I was completely portable, no guitar or amp weighing me down. I was absolutely astonished by how many folks would stop and listen to my songs and buy a CD. To this day, I'm still driven because of their faith in me and my songs. I have the streets to thank for that."
Taking these experiences that he learned from the streets and wanting to give back to the independent artist community, he started hosting open mics and developed/founded the Independent Scene in Downtown, LA. These experiences would evolve into co-founding 77LIVE with Documentary Director/Recording Audio Engineer friend Thom Zelenka at the Seventy7Lounge in Culver City. 77LIVE was focused on building a community of independent artists with a "power in numbers" mentality.
"I started all this because as an artist, I hated the Pay-to-Play circuit. So many of my friends were so damn talented and weren't getting the recognition they deserved. I decided, I would take off my artist hat and become a promoter/booker and actually DO the work. Most of these Bookers just expect artists to bring their friends, they're not trying to help artists grow their fan-base. Thom and I wanted to cultivate a scene, where people would come back repeatedly for "Damn Good Music."
"Culver City had a farmer's market and I realized I could point to the venue where the shows were happening the following week which was ideal for building an email list. I could then find sponsors within the community to support the artists. It was a win-win, for the artist, fan and venue and THAT to me was something huge!"
Some of the early adopters/performers included Nice Peter of YouTube Fame and Nashville's "Smooth Hound Smith" who have opened for the Dixie Chicks.
Within this time-period, he also co-founded the music tech platform Tuneport.com with his friend and LA Beatmaker Momchil Stefano which to this day continues to help artists sell their music online direct-to-fans and is currently transitioning to meet the needs of Streaming and Live Performance.
In 2022-2023, coming out of the throes of Covid he wrote, produced and recorded 12 songs in 12 months at the Vault Recording Studios in his current home of Missoula, MT. These songs will be featured on his new album "Inside Out" and will be released month-to-month in 2024.
When's he's not writing and performing, Deron can be found running his business Countertops in Montana providing a one-stop-shop kitchen concierge experience for MT Homeowners.
See below his music video "LA" written for the actors, writers, musicians who struggle daily to make their dreams happen.