There’s one night that Russell Sheffield says he’ll never forget. It was back in 1973, at London’s Hammersmith Odeon, when a little-known rock band called Queen had yet to explode onto the charts. Sheffield’s father—co-founder of Trident Studios—discovered the soon-to-be legends and financed their tour.
And 10-year-old Sheffield witnessed a sweet slice of history: a cake presented from Queen to the tour’s headliner, Mott the Hoople, a thank you for letting them be part of the ride.
With a moment like this seared into his memory, it’s no surprise that Sheffield’s career would be in music, doing everything from managing bands to trying to make it professionally as a drummer.
Although his whole family was in the music industry—his mother was also actively involved in Trident, as was his uncle—they didn’t encourage that particular career path.
“It was quite funny because they were always in some way saying, ‘Go and do something more sensible. The music industry is always a struggle. It’s always hard work,’” Sheffield recalls his parents saying. “But we never left it. It’s in our blood. And that’s a good thing.”
As a kid, Sheffield was a self-described “nerd” deeply fascinated with technology. In the late ’80s, he started a digital agency with his father and youngest brother, and he spent a good portion of the ’90s building websites and writing code. In 2003, Sheffield switched to financial services. He launched Paythru, “the world’s first mobile payment business.”
But eventually, it all boomeranged back to music.
“I just realized that the thread running through all of my life basically has been working with bands and managing bands,” says Sheffield. “Finding artists, supporting them as much as I could…that was the thing I realized I loved probably the most out of all of those. I needed to do something with music—really come back to that game.”
During the fall of 2013, Sheffield was out having a beer with James Eaton, a singer-songwriter he managed at the time. When Eaton voiced his frustrations with being unable to find other musicians to work with, he and Sheffield worked out a solution on the spot.
“A lot of artists run around with a phone full of ideas in Voice Notes, but they do nothing with them,” says Sheffield.
Their idea? An app called Trackd that allows musicians to collaborate and share ideas in a secure way.
“Nothing is shown to the world unless the artist decides to do that,” the WeWork member explains. “We had to come at it from that perspective first—the privacy.”
After putting together a prototype with developer Jack Eccleshall, the duo hit Austin’s annual South by Southwest festival, where they met multi-instrumentalist Aaron Ray. A big believer in the idea, Ray soon joined the Trackd team as CTO.
Since the Trackd app launched last August, the trio has acquired approximately 60,000 users, ranging from beginners writing songs in their bedrooms to popular bands using the app as a rehearsal tool to professional artists also in need of a secure platform for storing new ideas.
Though providing an easy way for musicians to connect with each other was the original goal, the Trackd founders are also dedicated to supporting their artists as much as possible.
According to Sheffield, “Our long-term philosophy is to really get behind our artists, invest in them, and be a very philanthropic business where we’re bringing talent through the app and engaging with other people, but also then picking out what’s really happening in the app and actually backing it.”
A recent example: singer-songwriter Jojo Abot, a Trackd user who was selected to perform at Trackd’s SXSW showcase this year. During her U.S. tour, Ray will be backing her on drums.
Not a musician, but want to keep up with your favorite bands? A recently added feature allows fans to follow their favorite artists within the app.
“It gives people an opportunity to find the next Ed Sheeran before he becomes famous,” says Sheffield with a laugh.
Rather than label himself as an entrepreneur, Sheffield simply says, “I just follow my heart. If you’re surrounded in an environment with people that make you smile, the best things come out of everybody. I’m a crazy dude sometimes—I have these mad ideas, but in the end it’s about empowering people and saying, ‘Let’s go do it. Let’s give it a go. We have nothing to lose.’”
Photos: Lauren Kallen, Trackd