On the practice

Marketing fundamentals. Artistic practice.

Coordinating architecture proposals across engineers and partners on $5M–$30M projects taught me to write under pressure, and eight years of that at Iredale built the discipline before any of the music work mattered to a stranger. Self-producing five of my eight singles, mastered at Sterling Sound by Joe LaPorta, taught me to listen for what actually works in a song. The work I take on now uses both.

This page is the long version: six capabilities in the order I usually move through them on a project. Communications and marketing direction lead because that is where most of the income lives, and original music, sonic branding, video direction, and voice coaching carry equal weight in the practice even when they appear later in the sequence. The same practice runs all of them.

The combination is the differentiator. Mid-market clients hire me because they have been burned by vendor coordination and want one through-line for the brief, the campaign, the score, and the film. I am rarely the cheapest option for any of these in isolation. I am often the cheapest option for the combination.

  1. Communications

    Strategic communications.

    The work spans nonprofit, healthcare, architecture, and public-sector clients across fifteen years of strategic communications practice. At Iredale Architecture, that meant coordinating proposals across engineers and partners on $5M–$30M projects; at Family Caregivers of BC, it meant writing for readers who are exhausted, often grieving, and skeptical of institutional messaging. The FCBC Sandwich Generation provincial campaign syndicated through Black Press and Glacier Media is the most recent large-scale example. The discipline of writing under pressure for a regulated audience is the spine of every other capability on this page.

    The discipline of writing under pressure for a regulated audience is the spine of every other capability on this page.

  2. Marketing

    Marketing direction.

    Brand strategy work across nonprofit, healthcare, architecture, and public-sector clients, with arts-adjacent work for independent artists and small studios on the side. Embedded engagements run three to six months, long enough to own the strategy and stay through the execution. The fractional creative director positioning: one person running the thinking and the making, not managing a roster of vendors doing both.

  3. Original music

    Songwriting and production.

    Eight self-released singles between 2017 and 2024. Five self-produced. Mastered at Sterling Sound in New York by Joe LaPorta. The 2024 single "Crossroads" picked up by Hype Machine on release and covered across Tinnitist, DNü, Music for the Misfits, and BKonthescene. Earlier work with producer Adam Sutherland — including "Waterfall" (2018) and "Bad to the Hyde" (2019) — shaped the sound. Acoustic instruments running into synths, vocals that have been called bright and tender by people who didn't have to be polite about it.

    Bright, warm, expressive, tender.

    Tinnitist · Darryl Sterdan
  4. Sonic branding

    Sonic branding and original music for brands.

    Custom audio identity for brands, podcasts, and campaigns. Audio logos, brand anthems, and podcast sonic kits written, produced, and delivered broadcast-ready. The differentiator is that the person writing the brief and the person writing the score are the same person, which means the sound arrives already knowing the strategy rather than learning it after the fact.

  5. Video direction

    Music video and brand-film direction.

    Co-direction on the 2022 self-produced single "Wicked Woman," tracked over a pulsating bass line and shot inside a 1930s mansion. The video was picked up by Tinnitist and BKonthescene and is the proof point for the service: I was on both sides of the camera for it. Artist and director at once. Music video direction for select indie artists by referral. Director-fee model with optional production coordination.

  6. Voice and presence

    Voice and presence coaching.

    One-to-one coaching for recording artists, executives, and speakers. Singers usually need breath and recording presence. Executives usually need to land a sentence in a boardroom without it losing the room. Same instrument, different room. Active recording artist with fifteen years in communications. I teach from practice, not theory.

Featured in

  • Black Press / Glacier Media
  • FCBC
  • Tinnitist
  • DNü
  • Music for the Misfits
  • Hype Machine
  • BKonthescene