Meet Tarra Beale & Cody Renfro | Musicians & Makers

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tarra Beale & Cody Renfro and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tarra Beale, every day, we talk about how much execution matters, but we think ideas matter as well. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
As musicians, we found it difficult to find opportunities to further ourselves and get our names out there. Especially in the days when a project is starting up and trying to gain momentum.

When starting a project, or even starting off, musicians may find it difficult to locate a place to openly play for an audience. VanJet Productions hosts a local open mic weekly at Bramblitt’s Yellow Dog Art Bar & Gallery. We also book entertainment for a number of Bless Your Bones markets in the area giving artists a welcoming place to share their craft and crafts.

VanJet Productions provides artists an affordable source for merchandise and a way to market it. We have the ability to produce hats, apparel, art prints, buttons, and other merch items for local artists. We offer artists an ecommerce platform, through our website, to sell their products. We even host a market booth that allows artists to sell their merch, wares, and art prints.

If an artist is looking to record their music, that’s a service we can provide as well. We can even help with the album art, logo design, and merchandise mockups.

Essentially, we built our business on the idea that we want to help others avoid the same struggles we faced in our early years as artists.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Tarra – It took a while for me to get settled in to a job. I jumped around in customer service, warehouse management, even production and manufacturing. For the last 6 years, I’ve been, by title, a graphic designer, but in reality, I do a little bit of everything. I can handle the bookkeeping, shipping/receiving, web design, brand development, and just about any other task thrown at me. Sometimes, it can feel like a burden being so heavily relied upon where I work, but my growth at the company has given me skills and connections we use to further VanJet Productions. A lesson I’m still trying to learn is to separate work from home life. This can be difficult because the work as a full-time employee and the work for VanJet Productions can be similar and overlap. I’ve found keeping my professional work to business hours and working on a physical project for VanJet, in between updating the website or creating a market post, keeps me from overloading myself.

Cody – By day I work in IT and have a pretty extensive background in that for the past 17 years. But my real passion is art and music. I really enjoy recording artists and finding new sounds and ways to do things in the studio. I also really enjoy designing album art. I feel that I’ve been turned away so many times, that turning down artists is not an option for us, and we want to bring as many options as possible to the table for those artists that we can. If you have an idea and want it brought to life, we will make it happen. The thing I’m most proud of personally, is our Open Mic spot at the Yellow Dog Art Bar. We have built an amazing community in just a short time, centered around painting and music. It’s something I look forward to going to every week.

We don’t see VanJet Productions as a brand, we see it as a source for creatives. “Art. Music. Merch.” is the tagline on our business cards. We are always open to help new artists and are welcoming to those who are brave enough to put themselves out there.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Denton has a wealth of hidden gems to visit! For breakfast, you can’t beat Cartwright’s. If you’re into a lighter lunch, such as sushi, we’d recommend Blue Ginger. One of our favorites is El Cucuy Burritos. The company has a couple of food trucks, with one usually stationed in downtown. In October, El Cucuy will be catering our wedding!

West Oak and Avoca are some of the best spots for coffee. We don’t drink alcohol, but Bramblitt’s Yellow Dog Art Bar & Gallery has the best mocktails, so we can only assume their cocktails are just as tasty.

There’s always a show to suit any taste of music. Rubber Gloves, Andy’s, Harvest House and Dan’s SIlverleaf host a number of artists throughout the week.

To kill some time, and lose some cash, Recycled Books is the place to visit. Books, Vinyl, CDs, Posters, etc. We also recommend Books & More for a similar vibe on a smaller scale.

Looking for a new plant? Try True Leaf Studio! Need a sweet fix? Try Atomic Candy or Beth Marie’s for some old fashioned ice cream.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
As cliche as it may sound, we would not be where we are without the support of each other.

VanJet is a portmanteau of our two music projects, Vanastro and Bela Jet. Without each other, there would be no VanJet Productions.

We encourage each other in our music, art, and even in making new connections.

Kim Harris of Bless Your Bones Boutique, and her market family, have been welcoming and instrumental in building our presence at local markets.

John Bramblitt, artist and owner of Bramblitt’s Yellow Dog Art Bar & Gallery, opened his establishment up to us giving us the perfect platform for hosting our open mic.

Website: www.vanjetproductions.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vanjet_productions/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vanjetproductions/

Other: linktr.ee/vanjet_productions