http://thecomet.com/posts/composer_jason_graves_beathes_musical_life_into_dead_space_two

Jason was also kind enough to answer some questions from Full Sail University students:

Q: How do you submit score as a new composer? – Kevin Green, MBBS Graduate

A: The Catch-22 of any industry is that if you haven’t worked on anything, no one wants to work with you.  No one wants to hire an unproven talent.  There’s not really a “submission process” – go to local game networking meetings.  Find people in town – developers with small projects and small budgets are more willing to work with new composers.  Get your foot in the door and establish relationships – that’s what it’s all about.  We’ve all heard it before – it’s not what you know, it’s who you know – it’s the same in games.  Obviously you have to write good music, and be patient – you may need to knock on doors for a year.  When I first started 8 years ago, there were a lot less people going for these jobs.  I’d suggest – and I did this too – to have a website with music examples.  Please don’t put 20 different styles of music.  Anyone can pull up a drum loop and put a guitar loop over it.  Find what you love to do, whether you think it’s commercially viable or not.  For me, it happened to be orchestral music for action/sci-fi.  Unless you’re creating a music library, you don’t want to have “Comedy,” “Action,” “Drama” – everyone wants to show that they’re a well-rounded composer, but then you become a musical “jack of all trades” and master of none.  Go for your strengths – go for less pieces that sound more original than more pieces that sound like everyone else.

Q: What was it like working on score for a game as iconic as “Star Trek”? - Eric Perkins, MBBS graduate

A: Star Trek was one of the few instances where I knew it was a brand name, a franchise, before I got involved.  It was a great excuse for me to buy as many Star Trek toys, DVDs and soundtracks as I could, and study and analyze everything.  I totally immersed myself in it – I picked apart the Goldsmith and Horner scores.  My first reaction to a new job is always, what toys can I buy? What music can I listen to?  What can I analyze and study this week?  Getting to do big space themes was really fun – everything I’d hoped it would be.

Please visit the Full Sail University Music Business blog to read my recommendations for artists in this position.

“Think like an entrepreneur, not an employee.” Sepetys shared a quote from Henry David Thoreau: “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.”  We each have that “song” in us and matter what you do, you always have to keep pursuing your own creative passions.  Don’t subject yourself to only thinking like someone else’s employee, no matter what job you have.

“Create a profit center for yourself.” The way you can bust your ass for 10 years, collect money for 10 years, then retire, is by building intellectual property.  Be part of something that creates passive income – what she calls “mailbox money” – like songwriting.  If you can figure out one new innovative way to monetize music, you could make millions.

“Don’t wait to be thanked.” As an artist manager, you’re there to make the artist look like a king or queen – not to build yourself up.  You need to find a way to fulfill yourself creatively in other ways.  You can’t wrap up your identity in the business.  A good manager knows their place – you’re the helper, not the talent.

“Networking ‘up’ is not the only way.” Many people mistake networking for only trying to build relationships with people more successful than themselves.  That’s a mistake.  Build relationships with all the people around you, but remember that it’s about quality, not quantity.  Always offer to give something first.

“Being cooperative matters more than being talented.” The primary reasons people fail are denial of reality and rejection of feedback.  Never be too good for constructive criticism.  You’ll find that the people who are most cooperative will get the most work and find success over people who are simply talented.

A few weeks back I also interviewed Jared Gutstadt, Founder/CEO of Jingle Punks, about the new iPad app his team launched for music supervisors to access their extensive music library.  The response has been great, and I have a lot of respect for a young company that can be flexible and innovative with new platforms.  (Jared is also a fellow NYU alum, yeah Bobcats.)  That interview will be coming soon on TheComet.com.

My next interview is later this week with the famous, award-winning composer Alan Menken.  Sound familiar?  You may know him from little films like Little Shop of Horror, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin – in fact, he holds more Oscars than any other living person.  I can’t wait to pick his musical genius of a brain.  Feel free to leave questions for me to add to the interview in the comments!

This week I interviewed Maureen Crowe, the president of the Guild of Music Supervisors, best known for her work supervising music for films including The Bodyguard, Wayne’s World, and Chicago.  In this excerpt, Maureen discusses how she launched her career, and gives advice for aspiring music supervisors.  The feature interview will be published on

When I started, there weren’t very many music supervisors.  I came from the Newhouse School at Syracuse with a communications background.  I used a local TV station as the subject for a project in my documentary class, and I ended up working there before I graduated.  I always wanted to come out to L.A. and learn about the film business.

First I volunteered on a student project for the American Film Institute.  Then – I had done musical theater all my life growing up – so I interviewed for a job as an assistant music coordinator on a television show [editor's note: this was a little show called Fame, based on the blockbuster film about the students of the New York City High School for the Performing Arts].  I think they liked that I had the combination of having done some production work and also having a musical theater background.  The producer then started asking me to look for music for the show – that led to working with dancers, choreographers, producers, directors, then later into marketing and all aspects of the business, which really appealed to me.

What’s hard now is that there are so many people in the field.  That’s why I believe, if you know what you’re doing, you should belong to a guild.  That way there’s a standard that separates people that really don’t know the business side, they just think it’s about having a record collection.  When someone doesn’t know what they’re doing gets a job and do a terrible job, the show’s a wreck, then supervisors in general get a bad rap.  If you’re a good music supervisor, you can represent and educate a lot.

For me, it was really preparation and luck – you’ve got to have both.  A lot of it is just putting yourself out there – going to panels and events and volunteering and meeting people.  I still do that to this day.  You never really arrive – it’s always about what you’re doing next.  How are you pushing the ball forward?  If you like that, it’s a really rewarding career.  If you want stability, it’s not the business for you.  You have to enjoy the journey.

If you want to become a music supervisor, meet people – filmmakers, directors – in your age group.  Put yourself out there.  It may help to find local film shoots, wherever you live, and reach out to become a production assistant.  Suggest to the producer that you could work with them on something else – a lot of films don’t have supervisors, but they may just need 1 or 2 songs.  Still do your PA work, but supervise on the side.  Then you can get a credit.  As soon as you have credits, and you’ve delivered, and there were no problems, then you’ll have a good reference for your next job.

http://thecomet.com/posts/composer_cyril_morin_blends_traditional_modern_rock

This guy is one of the most humble and gracious I’ve met in the music industry, and his music is stunningly beautiful.  His solo album, The Evolutionist, is streaming on his website and is definitely worth a listen.

Q: You do so many projects – documentaries, television, American and international films – what draws you to specific projects?

A: I’m starting to be more picky about what I’m doing because some movies take a lot of time and also it depends if I have to spend a lot of time far from my family.  But there are some directors that if they call me, I’ll be in for sure. It mostly has to do with the director, how interesting the story is, and what the schedule is. It’s not so difficult to make a choice.

Q: How long does it usually take you from start to finish to complete a project?

A: I would say for a feature, between 6 weeks and 2 months. TV features or documentaries can be done is about one month.

Q: So once everything is in place, could you walk me through the first few steps that you take?  To me, scoring a film seem so grand, like a huge undertaking. Where do you start?

A: First of all, I will say doing music for a film is never simple. When I read the script and I start to speak with the director, a big part of the music begins to appear in some way. Way before starting post-production, it’s in the back of your mind and even if it’s going to start 6 months later it’s still running in your head. With my last movie, I heard the story months ago and when I started working – really writing – it took me a weekend to find the chords, the right place, then a week to put the first demos together because it was just there.  The creative process doesn’t take a lot of time, but to finalize the process takes a lot of time. Let’s say you picture your next vacation – it’s easy to imagine where you want to go – actually making it happen is different. The process with music is exactly the same.

Cyril Morin will discuss more about his influences, current projects, and what keeps his job exciting in the upcoming feature interview.