 YourCreativeChord’s conversation with Maine-born composer Trace Callahan on her video game music composing process, first original musical, "Better Than Fine," and how she incorporates both suffering and joy into the creative process. by Jenny Leigh Hodgins My conversation with Maine-born composer Trace Callahan covered the gamut of her upcoming new musical to her involvement as a video game music composer and sound designer, to how being female relates to creative opportunities, and how she incorporates both suffering and joy within the creative process. Our discussion will also post in two Podcast episodes; Part 1 is a more universally artist-focused dialogue about the creative process, how being a woman impacts that process, and a snapshot walk-through of how Callahan created her songs for her upcoming original musical, ‘Better Than Fine.’ YourCreativeChord Podcast episode, It’s ALL Okay—Just Do YOU Part 2 is especially relevant to game music composers and musicians, as Callahan talks more about her technical, technological, and creative process for her original sound design and game music implementation. 🎧Listen Here to: YOURCREATIVECHORD PODCAST Episode, It’s ALL Okay—Just Do YOU Part 1 🎧Listen Here to: YOURCREATIVECHORD PODCAST Episode, It’s ALL Okay—Just Do YOU Part 2 WHO Is Trace Callahan? Trace Callahan and I met as co-admins of a Facebook group, Women Composers Collective. As I have a love for composing (and listening to) musical theatre songs, and studied voice and piano in my college days, I was excited to find that Callahan is also a composer and performer of musical theatre works. Callahan spent her college days performing as a busker on the streets of Portland, in local bars and coffee shops, and as a member of the Maine Songwriter’s Association. Expressing Spiritual Buoyancy with Creative Vision Interacting with Callahan is a true pleasure. She has an infectious, frequent laugh, and her utter enthusiasm for creating music is disarming and contagious. Her zest for constant learning, drive for overcoming her self-perceived weaknesses, and her strong desire to use her art to persuade others to feel "it’s ALL okay," made a palpable impact on the quality of our conversation. If all artists could have Callahan’s humility, unstoppable cheer, and the compassion she’s gained through surviving her own share of darkness, the world would enjoy quite a glittery jolt of rainbow-esque spiritual buoyancy. A Love of Video Games Morphs Into Composing In addition to her original musical, Better Than Fine, currently in rehearsal in Tampa Bay, where Callahan now lives, her musical background has forayed beyond musical theatre into creating video game scores and sound design. She began writing as a child in Dexter, Maine, where fellow students in the treble choir and jazz combo performed her original music. She studied opera and classical voice at the University of Maine while continuing to compose. While composing her original musical, she was asked to write music for a video game. Since she’s an avid gamer and enjoys working with “the stories, emotions, and wild unpredictability that infuses the video game world.”* Callahan has since been composing video game music and branched out into sound design and creating effects. She now balances composing her original game music, sound design, effects, and musical theatre works, while performing as an actress/singer in local and regional theatre productions throughout Tampa Bay. She approaches music composing through pairing stories and music, whether it be folk songs, musical theatre, or video game audio. Creative Conversation... YCC: You describe your music as "melodic and emotional, influenced by your skills as a flute player and vocalist, and by the cold, stark beauty and neighborly ways of Maine." You no longer live in Maine, though. You now live in tropical Florida. Does your new locale have an influence on your compositional style? TC: It definitely has an influence on my process! I compose while riding my bike during my hour-long commute each day to my teaching job! It’s a long time for silence, so I don’t wanna lose that moment. Ideas come to me. I start with lyrics I’ve already written. A melodic idea comes to me while I’m pedaling home, so I repeat it, singing it aloud, over and over until the phrasing is smooth. When I get home, I record my ideas into “Noteworthy” music notation software. Sometimes I record the idea by voice memo or save it in a file in a folder with notation. Then I usually leave it sitting for a while. I need space away from it to decide if I hate it or not. Next, I use my piano to experiment to find the right block chords for it while singing the melody. After that, I notate the chords in my notation software. I decide on instrumentation early on, so I know what instruments to start recording to flesh out the beat and accompaniment. When I decided to write my new musical, I was already clear in my mind it would be for two women, and I knew the instrumentation for it. YCC: Tell us how you started composing for video games! TC: I played games and was involved as a community staff member/storyteller for 16 years. I made friends with fellow gamers, and we wrote stories together. One of them formed a game company, built a game and needed a composer. I got a text in 2017 asking for a few music tracks for their game. We batted around back and forth with a few concepts and decided it worked! YCC: You are an avid gamer. Do you feel that not being a gamer is a disadvantage for someone who wants to compose music for games? TC: Yes, but not a huge one. You can always go listen to the soundtrack to get ideas. But being familiar with games is an advantage because— that’s in your head. Listening to the music while playing games makes you associate music with different game parts. If there’s a big fight, the music tells you there’s a big fight. There’s a structural thing absorbed as a player through being familiar with how music connects to the game. Just like musicians have a language based on their musical training to communicate to others, being a game player gives you an edge of language to use with game developers. If you play, you have common reference points. A game dev can ask you to create something in the style of “X” game. You can go listen to that soundtrack, of course. That’s why I’m saying it’s not a huge disadvantage. But, if you love games and can talk about them with devs, they may enjoy working with you more, and that may get you rehired more maybe than a non-gamer. But if you write good music, and can give them what they want, it’s not a deal-breaker in my opinion. YCC: How is composing game music similar to or different from film music scoring? TC: Game music isn’t linear like film music, but sometimes there are cut scenes in games that are like scoring a film scene. Music for a film scene is timed specifically to go from point A to point B and there are hit points within the scene where music plays a key role. But game music can be either extended or shorter, depending on the player’s actions. But those hit points cannot happen until the player is there, so there’s a lot of repetition or looping in game music. It’s important to create looping music that’s not annoying. YCC: How do you create game music that loops without being annoying? TC: I think that a loop should be fairly long—2.5 - 3 minutes, for example. Within the loop, I make sure there are some variations like tonality changes. There are older games that do a lot of looping without much variation that worked; The Super Mario theme is short and highly repetitive. But that was for a different time and game style. It doesn’t work well for a 3-hour game! So I try to make the music interesting yet unobtrusive, which sometimes means less melodic. That’s counter-intuitive for me. But it works for game loops. I do a lot of instrumentation changes! Sometimes that’s all it needs to remain interesting yet less redundant for the listener. For me, I think rhythmic changes within loops can be a bit too abrupt. I usually like to stay with the same rhythmic feel until a hit point. YCC: Are all the musical instruments heard on your audio tracks from sample libraries, or do you perform any instrumental/vocal parts? TC: Mostly virtual instruments. I add my vocals, but usually quite distorted as part of background or a layer on top of a synthesizer line, or used for sound design as voice-over work, like screams, breathing, whatever is needed. I sometimes do record my penny whistle for things like a tavern scene or a place like a street fair to add to the authentic ambience. YCC: What advice would you give someone who’d like to compose for games, in regard to the most useful skills needed? TC: Well, composition skills are understood. You’ve gotta have at least the basics of writing or recording musical ideas. I’d say that communication is a big one. Especially with indie games because it’s mostly done remotely—using Skype, Slack, or instant messaging platforms. So you need to be open to clear communication. Be open to the ideas from the devs, coders and artists. They have their unique angles, struggles, deal breakers, and focus. You should always have that in your mind, and prioritize them over you. If you disagree, you must be able to express your viewpoint clearly to show them where it’s coming from. My team has completely different game archetypes, so our viewpoints sometimes aren’t the same. It’s important not to reject their viewpoints—or, if you do, communicate to clarify and backup your opinions. YCC: How did you learn the technology needed for composing for games? TC: I’m learning everything from my DAW (digital audio workstation), which is Reaper, to the Discord server (a gamer chat) or Slack (team communication tool) to share mp3s with the game team, to indie game middleware like Unity and Wwise, and even a C++ (programming language) class to learn coding. I just did some Google searching for these courses. I’ve learned to implement sound effects directly into games using the indie game software - Unity. I’ve learned mainly by playing with the software, and relying on Unity’s help docs. The online classes on coding, and Unity were through Udemy. Wwise has great tutorials on their website. YCC: What technology or music gear or skillsets do you feel are essential to your music-making and sound design for games? TC: I’d say at this point, learning C++ is not essential. Knowing how to use Wwise middleware for games lowers frustration. Wwise may be useful for landing more game composing jobs due to it being advertised as a required skill. I think my essentials for game composing would be; some kind of notation software, DAW, gaming platform and middleware software. YCC: How much of the production side do you handle with regard to the video game music and sound design? TC: I do most of it. But, I like having an extra set of ears for mixing. When I’ve had others mix, master, or even edit my music, it turned out much better. I have a need to get away from it. After working with a music piece for a while, it just sounds the way it sounds. Space away from it helps. Original Musical Features Strong Women In Opposing Stories YCC: Your new original musical, Better Than Fine, is currently in rehearsal in Tampa, Florida. Tell us about the story, and how you created the music, lyrics, script and book. TC: It’s a small cast and story about two women at completely different points in their lives. One of them is infatuated after a first date, the other is going through a divorce. They’re friends, and they sing about their journey, supporting each other in those places. Cora, a character who does a lot of freaking out on her rollercoaster from first date to engagement and beyond. Emily divorces her husband, reacts to his sudden dating immediately following their separation, gets stuck in darkness, and works to break herself out of that to a new view. YCC: What’s the central message of your musical? TC: I started writing it with the idea focused around the things you feel or think but don’t say. Like—to not seem overreactive or hyper-sensitive, we sometimes walk away from a person or situation with repressed emotions. Yet, we have those thoughts and feelings in the conversation inside our head. And it’s okay. I want to get across that all your crazy things you’re feeling or thinking are okay. YCC: What inspired you to create your musical? TC: It was a kind of perfect storm combo of things. I was inspired by my involvement as a local actress/singer in local theaters, seeing a lot of men getting cast in big roles, and many, many talented women waiting to be cast for smaller roles. I wanted to see some more meaty roles for women. I love the small theatre community and its inspiration. I have a fantastic show partner, actress/singer/director, Beth Phillips. We’d done several fun women-based shows together. Recently, I performed in Sister Act while she directed it. I thought, I wanna write a show for women! Hey, I know some talented women! So, I decided to write it. Beth plays Cora, which suits her so well because Beth can play weird and funny really well, but doesn’t get to do that kind of role often. YCC: What was the process of creating your musical? TC: I had the basic storyline of opposite experiences/life stories first. I thought it’d be neat to have friends talking each other through those different situations, as women do, supporting and understanding and helping each other through it. Then, I wrote lyrics to the songs, but not in order of the story, which was frustrating to have to go back and flesh out all the story gaps with songs. Once I had the lyrics, I came up with the music for the songs, then fleshed out the instrumentation to create learning tracks for us to use in rehearsal. YCC: Take us into your creative process to describe a snapshot scenario of how you composed a song for your new musical or an instrumental piece. TC: Vocal music is always inspired by the lyrics for me. The rhythm of the words. The song from my musical, Robot Wolves, was composed while riding my bike! It was a bright, sunny day, and I was thinking of writing a song about Cora, who’s worried her new boyfriend hasn’t called back after a first date. That was the seed or idea that started my creative process. I kept saying aloud, “He hasn’t called yet. Whatever.” I kept repeating that line in a particularly rhythmic way, until it led to a verse. I sang it over and over while riding my bike until the phrasing sounded fluent to me. Then, I went on to the next lyric and repeated that process, singing aloud repetitively on my bicycle. That’s how I composed the verses, then the chorus for that song. When I got home, I placed the melody and lyrics in my notation software program. Once an idea comes to me, the melody is strong in my mind. Next, I hash out some piano chords to fit the melody and record that in my DAW. I already have the instrumentation pre-thought out, so it’s just a matter of adding a beat, a bass line, then the instruments. For instrumental music, I find ideas a lot in white noise, like the sound of my computer, or the washing machine. I hear the overtones in that noise and it generates an idea. I did a “21 days of video game music composing challenge” recently that required I compose two to four measures a day. I used my ideas as song sketches, writing about 16 measures, enough for a strong call-and-response melodic idea. I was listening to the washing machine, it had shoes or something bouncing around with a rhythm that was catchy. I started listening to that, then singing it aloud and decided, “Ok! That’ll be what I use for a string ostinato today!" YCC: Describe your strengths as a creator. TC: Intense humility. And emotional honesty. The whole point of getting this out there is to foster communication of emotion. YCC: Do you have resources (besides gear) that you regularly as a creator? TC: I write using my computer. Sometimes I write to get an idea out with writing. It’s a musical idea that needs to get out but sometimes I need to get the nonmusical stuff out of the way. So I write a scene out or something. This opens a new angle for the creative process. I write a page story or setting or a moment in my mind to explore it through text. Creativity is about sometimes needing to say something—however it births. I guess. I also read a lot of fantasy fiction like Tolkien. And I read a lot of personal development, and stuff about runners and training philosophy. YCC: Do you feel that being a woman has any influence on your composer process? TC: Definitely. But more in relation to game music than musical theatre because I’ve been immersed in theater for a long time and it doesn’t affect me as much. But with game music jobs, I tend to look at a job offer post and count off how many technical skills they’re asking for that I don’t have. Instead of just diving in, I hold myself back a lot. Someone was encouraging me about applying for game music jobs recently, saying I should apply for more of them, and I responded that I’m not ready because of my lack of technical skills. They said, “Oh, Hold up. You’re a woman. Read this.” They sent me an article, that I shared in Women Composers Collective, that was about how many women hold themselves back from job positions until they’re 98% confident of their skills. Versus men applying with only 40% capability for the job—and they just dive in to figure things out once they get the job! So, that. YCC: Do you feel that being a woman has disadvantages in regard to creative opportunities? TC: I haven’t personally experienced that. But I noticed how much I’ve held myself back from opportunities. I’ve talked to enough women, so I know other women who’ve experienced sexism in the music/media industry. It kinda stinks in musical theater. For every role, 17 women will audition and maybe ONE man. Casting calls have these amazingly talented women show up but they have to search for men. That’s frustrating ‘cause the bar to entry is higher for women. Male-centered musicals have lots of male roles but far less women roles. That’s why I decided to make a show about women. YCC: What influences your creativity positively? TC: I’m gonna say something that doesn’t sound positive, but it is. My twenties were hell. Lots of depression, several mental health and serious life struggles. Once I came out of that, I started focusing on my life and my future in the world. Like, ok, I’m still here. Now what? So I get real soap-boxy about joy and sorrow mixed together in my creative work. What I write is an oddly blended mix of extreme struggle and the feeling that, there’s still gonna be a tomorrow, so it’s ok. I write to show you can feel sadness yet have hope at the same time. That life experience of depression gave me my reason to create. I use my personal experience to put forth this combo of emotions. And it reinforces itself when I create. I express that it’s ok to allow yourself to feel the darkness and know there’s still a silver lining; tomorrow. This outlook is a kind of superpower for me. My goal is to always have both joy and suffering present together. YCC: What hinders your creative flow? TC: Time! I get kinda like a squirrel—I wanna write and I actually may have a few hours of a window, but I start to think of other stuff—and there’s always so much to do. Clutter and so many options make me feel overwhelmed and lose focus. So I have a ritual; I spend 10 minutes cleaning the clutter— to create empty space for creativity. YCC: Please share anything else that you feel is relevant to others interested in composing professionally and share with us your goals for your musical future. TC: I’m 40. I started composing for games only two years ago, which is late by many people’s terms. And I came at composing in a roundabout way. I didn’t study composition in depth, I didn’t get a degree in it. And, that’s ok. Lucille Ball and Jane Lynch created material for themselves after age 40. Lin Manuel Miranda wrote material for himself to create musical theater opportunities lacking for Latinos. So I think whether you’re 20 and in school, 20 not in school, 40 or 68, it doesn’t matter. Just do it. Don’t let limitations stop you from your creative process. Age is no block. As for my future, there’s always something new to learn, whether it’s software, DAW or production skills, musical forms, gaming tech. There’s so much next that it makes it hard to say what’s next other than a lot of experimenting! A lot of breaking things, and then learning how to recover from that. FIND Trace Callahan at: TraceCallahan.com https://soundcloud.com/trace-callahan 🎧Listen Here to: YOURCREATIVECHORD PODCAST Episode, It’s ALL Okay—Just Do YOU Part 1 🎧Listen Here to: 🎧YOURCREATIVECHORD PODCAST Episode, It’s ALL Okay—Just Do YOU Part 2 *Excerpted from TraceCallahan.com If you loved this blog don't forget to show your awesome support by Liking the link, Subscribing for more updates and adding your comment below! Find YourCreativeChord on Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook!
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Interview with Composer, Sound Designer & Course Creator, Alex Pfeffer Germany-based Creative Professional, Alex Pfeffer By Jenny Leigh Hodgins
Germany-based Alex Pfeffer is an award winning composer and sound designer who has composed music for games (Crysis 2, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, Risen 3, Battleforge etc.), movie trailers, production music (Pacific Rim, Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes etc.) as well as audio content and official sound library demos for many world class sample library developers! He’s also an audio editor on the 60 million EUR show “EQUILA” which is currently being performed in Munich, Germany, and arranged for Frank Peterson (Sarah Brightman, Gregorian, Andrea Bocelli)! Pfeffer has a sample library store, String Theories, and offers an online blog and courses for audio production creatives. To learn more about Alex Pfeffer, check out his music and sound library links here: http://www.alexpfeffer.net https://stringtheories.space https://lifebuff.blog Here is YourCreativeChord’s interview with Pfeffer: YCC: As a creative professional with 10 years of sound design and successful professional composing experience, 30+ years of guitar playing, and your constant thirst to learn more with recording gear, plugins and hardware, you have a lot to offer music and sound creatives! Your personal story is equally inspiring. Please tell us about your hearing loss and your family’s experience with your daughter’s health, and how these personal experiences moved you to create your online blog and courses for creative professionals. Pfeffer: First of all, thank you for having me! When I was three years old I suffered from a cholesteatoma, which is sort of a destructive and expanding growth inside the ear. The resulting and necessary surgery left me deaf on my right ear for the following ten years. At around the age of 13 I had another surgery resulting in bringing back some hearing to around 30%. This may have been responsible to dive into the audio world to somehow compensate what happened to me. When I was 14 years old, I started to play guitar and took private lessons. Fast forward, when my daughter was born, it was pure chaos. No one had any clue or could say how she would turn out and besides that there wasn’t a lot of sleep going on. However, I made sure to approach the whole situation as positively as possible. Throughout the years, as she grew older, I was amazed by how mindful, peaceful and funny this little girl was. Even though she suffers from epilepsy, can’t walk or talk, she seems to be happy to be alive and enjoys every single day. I learned so much from her and became aware that this was the only way to work it out! I researched, learned and worked a lot on myself. I looked back and noticed what a confident man I have become. I am someone who, no matter what, wouldn't want to miss a second of anything that's happened in my life! Around this time I really noticed how many people really are suffering from everything the audio industry brings along: Impostor Syndrome, Stress, Lack of Self Confidence, Existential Fear, you name it. So I decided to do something about it. I started my blog and my courses to contribute to the audio industry. YCC: What was pivotal for your interest in creativity and life boosters as a specialty? Pfeffer: When I came back from studying music in Los Angeles at the Los Angeles College of Music, I started to work as a guitar teacher and got hired as a lead guitarist in a rock pop band. Throughout that time I really enjoyed what I did but, especially while recording our album, I was fascinated by the work “on the other side of the studio console." From then on I tried to compose more. A few years later, I was able to land my first gig for a video game, called Railroad Pioneer. YCC: What was pivotal for your interest in creativity and life boosters as a specialty? Pfeffer: I really like to break things down, no matter if it's a problem, a new skill, or why a human being behaves like he/she does. There are so many tutorials, courses and lessons around that deal with the topics of studio gear, plugins, songwriting, music theory, getting rich and successful. But you hardly ever find anything about creativity and mindfulness tailored towards the audio industry. You can be the best composer on this planet, make tons of money and get one well paid gig after another, but creativity and mindfulness are the driving fuel to make music. We all know what happens when your car runs out of fuel or your smartphone’s battery is low! YCC: Describe one of your favorite aspects of your job. Pfeffer: Of course, in some way we always work for someone, but I really appreciate that I can make money by doing what I love. Not just that I have a specific love towards music, but the fact that I can work by doing what I love. To me, this is the driving force for investing more time, being eager, more focused and truly dedicated to each project. YCC: Describe your strengths as a leader on the topic of creative process. Pfeffer: I think we both know that there aren’t many websites, courses and people in general who care about the well-being of people working in the audio industry. Of course, if someone is interested in meditation, breathing techniques and becoming more mindful, that person can research and strive to achieve those skills. But, most of the time I see people posting around on social media complaining that they don’t feel very well. Most of the time it is about topics such as the Impostor Syndrome or insomnia. As for me, personally, it was time that I try to do something about that! YCC: Describe your typical day as a composer, sound designer, creativity educator. Pfeffer: The night before, I roughly make a plan of what I want to work on the next day. I don’t have a specific structure. But I try to make sure to either take a walk or do some exercising, and most importantly, do at least 10 minutes of meditation. There is nothing better to reset your brain, especially since it is the “main tool” we need to compose music or write a blog post. YCC: Tell us a bit about what is covered in your LifeBuff Pro courses and your teaching approach toward creative professionals. Pfeffer: My LifeBuff Pro course consists of three essential things: Building blocks that deal with the topics of stress relief, becoming more mindful, improving your self-confidence, worrying less, and getting into basic psychology. These topics are essential to work on the topics in more advanced blocks, like dealing with customers, achieving your dreams, overcoming impostor syndrome, self doubts, writer’s block and so on. Besides the building and advanced blocks, my courses include general blocks on topics such as your body & mind, sleep, nutrition, your workplace, meditation lessons tailored to audio people, some exercises that can be done in your studio or workplace, and much more. All in all my full course features around 100 lessons. There will be one new lesson each week from now. YCC: Who would be eligible to participate in learning from your courses? Pfeffer: Generally every creative person. Even though I talk about the audio industry, you could simply replace "tracks" with "graphics" or "videos." But in the end, it doesn’t matter if you are a composer, singer, musician, songwriter or a graphic designer, writer... The course is especially for creatives. YCC: What are some of the best tips toward successfully tapping creativity that you’ve gleaned from your career? Pfeffer: To be able to know when to stop and breathe for a moment. We tend to solve problems at night, we work as long as possible because we think this is the most productive way. We try to be more efficient when it comes to work so we also try to trim down our spare time. Then we get back from holiday or have two days off, and suddenly realize how refreshed we feel! What really made me wake up is becoming aware of this and realizing that, with decent breaks, some meditation and fresh air, we are capable of getting more done in less amount of time. YCC: What role does technology play in your exploration of creativity? Pfeffer: A very important one when it comes to researching creativity and how to learn about all the different methods on this planet. There are some great games, shows and other tools which can boost your creativity. However, when it comes to maintaining your own creativity, it is important to not forget that we are human beings. When our brains are too exhausted by using too much technology, even if our body isn’t tired, this creates problematic imbalance. YCC: What advice would you give someone who wants to make a living as a creative professional? Pfeffer: To be successful, you really have to work your butt off. You truly have to invest a lot of time and money, believe in what you do, and absolutely focus on it. I’ve experienced so many people giving up too early. A truly successful professional has probably failed more times than someone else has ever tried. However, you have to find a balance between spending energy and recharging yourself. The most essential thing someone has to learn is how to convert negative stresses into positive challenges, and learn to take care of the body and mind. YCC: What are the three most important skills you recommend to pave a path as a creative professional? Pfeffer: A strong belief in yourself, focus and consistency! YCC: What are your goals for your future with regard to creativity? Pfeffer: I take care to maintain my creativity because it is my daily fuel, whether it is writing blogs posts, creating worksheets or composing music. A balanced body and mind are fuel for creativity. We all know what happens with a car when it runs out of fuel! I will keep researching, experimenting, finding solutions, writing blog posts and creating course material on how to maintain your creativity and keep a sane mind in the audio industry. Click here to learn more about Alex Pfeffer’s courses on creativity for audio industry professionals. And...if you loved this blog don't forget to show your awesome support by Liking the link, Subscribing for more updates and adding your comment below! CLICK HERE for a list of piano and music-making resources I use and recommend.
Under Creativity in my website menu, under the Interviews With Creators section, I feature my interviews with composers, artists, choreographers, writers, photographers, directors, and other creatives about their work, and the creative process. The purpose of each interview is to learn positive strategies that work to tap creativity, address the inner critic or other hindrances to creative flow, and build a successful creative life. The following features my chat with talented, young composer from Salt Lake City, Joshua Sohn. by Jenny Leigh Hodgins
Bolting From The Gate I met Korean-American composer, Joshua Sohn, in an online Facebook group for film score composers that I co-admin. We arranged a Skype chat to discuss his composing endeavors. He’s an energetic young guy, passionately exerting himself to develop his career as a film composer. Although he got a teaching degree, and landed a job as a percussion specialist for school bands, he quickly found his interest was in creating rather than teaching. He has already built his music production company, Sohn Compositions, and has begun gaining experience in creating music for film, games, song production, and jingle-writing for businesses in the Salt Lake City area and beyond. Having A Blast Sohn enjoys creating sound design and musical compositions with virtual instrument applications and his Digital Audio Workstation of choice, Cubase. He’s also proficient in ProTools, another popular choice among professional composers. Sohn’s pure interest in all things composing comes across easily. He loves discussing the tools of the trade, and his various film, advertising and other collaborative projects. For example, since 2014, he has composed music for the Air Force Reserve, a 48-Hour Film Festival, Slamdance Film Festival, Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Audience Awards Film Festival, Filmquest Film Festival, and the Salt Lake Symphony! He also wrote music for “Come As You Are,” an anti-bullying musical play for grades 6-12. Recently, he also composed the sentimental, holiday song, SnowFlake Snow, in collaboration with the author, J. R. Holbrook’s Gingerbread Jimmi: Magical Storybook. His adeptness for composing catchy, infectious melody, along with fitting instrumentation for the holidays, in a cheerful musicality suitable for children, is evident upon first listen. Just for fun, he also had one of his compositions recorded by a live orchestra! The musical piece was written for the Ravel Film Scoring competition, as a live orchestral waltz. Sohn says he created the music to evoke a ballroom scene with dancing couples sparking a romantic intensity. His waltz incorporates a clarinet solo, and features string and percussion hits. Listen to his waltz, Mysterioso here. TOP TIPS ON Success Mindset Sohn has parallel traits that successful film composers possess. In an article from Los Angeles Times, John Duffy, composer and president of Meet The Composer, a national service organization in New York that channels financial support to composers, confirms the necessary qualities for composer career success, ”By any measure, it takes tremendous grit, resiliency, reason and a fresh eye to succeed in the musical world. Diligence, hard labor and street smarts can open doors and save you time.”
Although a music degree is not necessary, according to an article by Patrick Gleeson, Ph. D., most successful film composers have one. Fortunately, Sohn has a solid foundation with his music education degree, percussion skills, and has used technology throughout his youth, in his former teaching position, and for the composing projects he’s already accomplished. He has forged relationships with a few directors by composing for their projects locally, invaluable training for learning the film-maker’s perspective.
What’s GOING ON One of the coolest thing about Sohn is his desire to contribute to others. On that note, he has launched an ongoing composer video tutorial series to teach what he knows about composing for film, different genres, instrumentation, and the use of electronic gear. You can follow his series here. My interview with young film composer Joshua Sohn reveals he has all the qualities for a successful career in film scoring. Click here to learn more about Joshua Sohn’s music. If you loved this blog don't forget to show your awesome support by Liking the link, Subscribing for more updates and adding your comment below! Feel free to SHARE this with others who may benefit from this info! Thank you!  Composer Jonathan Price By Jenny Leigh Hodgins
HAVING A MENTOR During our Skype interview, Denver-based composer Jonathan Price spoke affectionately of his music mentor, R. J. Miller. Rightly so, as Miller is a master of orchestration and scored music for the digital re-release (1993) of the original (1920) The Last of the Mohicans, among other films. Miller is also author of Contemporary Orchestration: A Practical Guide to Instruments, Ensembles, and Musicians (Routledge Publishing/Taylor & Francis Group, 2014). Price’s already respectful, friendly demeanor grew exponentially as he described how his friendship with R.J. Miller developed. Their discussions sprang from a mutual love of film scoring and soundtracks. Later, Miller developed what is now the film scoring program at MSU. He taught Price how to “present melodies with harmonic structure, options and the orchestration that enhances them.” It was Miller’s confidence in him that motivated Price to leave college to pursue his career as a composer. Getting Started When asked what was in his initial marketing arsenal, he laughed, “a smile and a good personality.” He had no website, CD or IMDb credits. Price applied the honest feedback from his family and friends to develop himself. When they commented that his music demo “didn’t feel right,” he would rework the music until it was “something they could understand.” He knew audio production “from running sound in bands,” but it took him 3 years until he “felt comfy with audio production skills for film.” He gained experience scoring student films and other zero or low budget projects. Boosting Production Quality He further honed his production skills by preparing MIDI mockups (manipulating digital parameters of virtual instruments to emulate a recorded orchestral piece) of John Williams’ scores. Tampering with instrumentation, EQ, compression, reverb, and panning to emulate Williams’ music enabled him to develop both orchestration skills and a faster workflow. Price discovered that his sound improved as he invested in “decent speakers (not just headphones) that showed all frequencies, reverb, bounced off walls, air. I first started on…Bose speakers that were factory-preset for mixing. But my mixes didn’t sound right.” When he upgraded his studio with abundant RAM, hardware, a good audio interface, analog speakers, plugins, and sample libraries, it dramatically boosted his production quality. Pitch Like A First Date As a rookie, he found that pitching to potential clients for music work was the same process as a first date. “If a guy shows up in PJs on a first date, you don’t wanna go out with him…Appearance, packaging, body language and psychology are critical in pitching to directors.” He determined to never offer anything less than his best quality. A Hollywood scriptwriter/director Price met through a friend told him his music was “too good to not be paid for it.” The director had just finished a Hallmark film, and told Price he wished he’d met him earlier so he could have hired him as the composer. That encounter, coupled with his mentor’s confidence in him motivated Price to begin charging for his work. “Once you start charging full value, directors start taking you seriously.” Networking Strategy Price threw himself into networking at local meet-ups, film network functions, and social media groups. In particular, he launched with a vengeance into attending face-to-face filmmaker events. He rarely pitched his composing services. Rather, he focused on creating friendships to learn as much about each person’s work and passions as possible. He paid attention to the body language and psychology of the filmmaker. Anything he delivered, pitched or said to clients was “very calculated” toward matching his music with their vision. His networking paid off as his demo qualities improved. Price sent his five-track demo of 15-second music samples via emailed MP3s or Soundcloud links to his growing network. He has enough composing work now that he doesn’t bother marketing anymore. Film Scoring Career Since 2003, Price has been scoring professionally, including projects ranging from production house music clips, web-series, audio dramas, podcasts, to short and feature films. Although he has scored everything from drama to horror, romantic drama is both his favorite genre and specialty. His IMDb credits include the comedy, Army & Coop (Director Dennis Hefter), and the sci-fi, River of Time (Director Gss Santosh Kumar). Price enjoyed the variety of composing 10 different styles for Army & Coop. Some of his IMDb credits are waiting for the directors to complete festival or YouTube campaigns. Many of Price’s clients just wanted to make a film for family and friends, as a hobby. As a result, some films scored by Price never saw the light of day, due to those filmmakers being uninterested in publicly promoting their work. Recently, Price composed two short films; Pure (Director Stephan Eigenmann), the sweet story of a young cancer survivor, and Exit (Director Stephen Mathis), a story about transferring consciousness to another to help the mentally ill or someone with sensory problems by replacing and reprogramming the troubled mind with a healthy brain. He is currently composing for a web-series turned episodic TV show meant for distribution to university film schools. The 10-episode PBS-style documentary uses a cinematic storytelling approach to teach scriptwriters. Price’s marketing arsenal still does not include a website. He has had more success landing work by emailing his resume, music and video samples directly. Due to parenting three children, he turns down certain projects that he doesn’t consider morally acceptable, to focus on romance, drama, and fantasy-adventure. Studying The Masters His ensemble experience heightened his grasp of the recorded orchestra sound. “Once you realize how flutes are playing with the violins, and so on,” he explains, the orchestration “fixes everything in the mix.” Listening to a score by great film composers like John Williams, Alexander Desplat, or Alan Silvestri, has taught him both orchestration and production. Through listening and creating MIDI mockups, he learned to pay attention to which instrument or section was being highlighted. He says his favorite film scores “are such delicate, careful orchestrations, that they stand on their own. They don’t need any production—which is why they stand well on concert stage.” His ensemble background gave him the advantage of knowing how instruments are played, interact with each other, and how both those aspects change the orchestra sound. This foundation helps him understand how to emulate the music of his favorite film composers. Tips For Composers Price joined the Facebook group, Film Scoring & Orchestration Applied to practice film scoring “for fun and skill development, to learn from other composers and hopefully give my two cents worth. I would love to help out and do whatever I can do to help people get where they need to be.” He has contributed weekly video tutorials to the group, showcasing his film scoring process. Creative Process He explains that he watches a film “as much as I can til I’m sick of it.” Then he takes a break from it, plays piano, or takes care of his kids. Meanwhile, he is “always thinking through the orchestration in my head, always singing melodies and recording into my phone—so if I get really stuck, I use something recorded.” Later he listens through his recordings to find something to start with, records a piano version of it, and starts transforming that into orchestration. Price encourages budding music-makers to detach from their work, as “something you created but…not who you are. It’s a product.” He built his rapport with clients on two things; treating his music as a product to serve the client’s creative vision, while interacting with a balanced blend of confidence and humility. Price’s insatiable hunger for learning, coupled with his humble, contributive attitude betrays his vast experience and production skills. “If you stop learning and you think you’ve reached where you wanna go, you are done.” What’s Next Price is currently working with writer/director Dennis Hefter on a romantic drama film, and has a screenplay show coming up with director, Rick Ramage. He is also having fun composing and covering audio for an Atlanta church audio drama series. ***************************************************************** Musical Foundation Price grew up singing, playing piano and trumpet for 10 years. He learned cello and woodwinds. He was determined to learn many instruments, so he could orchestrate them. He studied composition with R. J. Miller at Metropolitan State University, CO. Once he knew the basics of music theory and composition, Price was encouraged to pursue a composing career instead of finishing his degree. ***************************************************************** Price on NETWORKING: Appearance Packaging Body Language Psychology ************************************************************************************** FAVORITE TOOLS: DAW: Logic Pro X 2009 MacBook Pro 128GB RAM 4T HDs in drive bays 42” 4K monitor PreSonus Studio192 Orchestral Tools Berlin Strings Berlin Brass Berlin Woodwinds Metropolis Ark 1,2 String Runs Percussion Musical Sampling Soaring Strings Trailer Strings Spitfire Audio Symphonic Strings Olafur Arnolds Toolkit and Evolutions Impact Sound Works Pearl Concert Grand Output Signal Rev iZotope Ozone 8 Neutron 2 Alloy 2 Altiverb 7 Omnisphere 2 ************************************************************************************** A DAY IN THE LIFE Price juggles work with being a stay-at-home parent of three children. He says he gets a good amount of cardio from chasing his “2-year old most of the day.” 6am - Rise early, breakfast and Bible study 8am - Client communications, composing Afternoon - Composing, marketing, studying, mixed with household chores and toddler-tracking Family Dinner - NO EXCUSES! Evening - 2+ hours composing Night Routine - Quality time with wife |
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