Composer for Film and TV

Q: Tell us about a project you worked on you are especially proud of and why. What was your role?

A: I wrote and produced the score for the documentary "pornfluencer", my first feature length film with a theatrical release.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: A game, a tv documentary and a series pilot.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Digital. I think most of the time you don't really hear the difference anyways, it's more a workflow thing. At the end of the day it depends mostly on your skills as an audio professional. And I love the freedom that working in the box gives me.

Q: What's your 'promise' to your clients?

A: I'll be putting in all I can to create unique and fresh music.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: That I constantly learn how to write new styles of music.

Q: What questions do customers most commonly ask you? What's your answer?

A: I don't know musical terms, I'm sorry, I hope that doesn't bother you? Doesn't bother me at all, in fact I prefer people talking to me in plain language. Translating that into music is exactly my job. If you know music terminology and want to use it to specify things, fine. But it's no requirement at all.

Q: What's the biggest misconception about what you do?

A: Composers most of the time won't take a walk at the beach and suddenly the genius idea appears. It is a craft that involves sitting at your desk in front of your workstation and build up that music, step by step.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What do you want the music to feel like?

Q: What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?

A: Listen to their music. Do you actually "feel" it? Talk to them. Do you get along well? Making films and the likes is so much about collaboration, if you don't vibe, it can be very hard.

Q: If you were on a desert island and could take just 5 pieces of gear, what would they be?

A: Granted there's the possibility to plug in electronic gear: a decent laptop, a decent pair of headphones, some sort of (usb) microphone, a MIDI keyboard, Cubase.

Q: What was your career path? How long have you been doing this?

A: I got music lessons since I was a kid, played in orchestras and bands. After finishing high school, I started out studying music and social sciences. Later I did a masters degree in jazz composition and a postgraduate diploma in film scoring. I have been producing music and composing since I entered college, so for roughly about 10 years.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Influenced by jazz, classical music and electronic music.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Shit in - shit out. If the composition and the arrangement are really rock solid, you hardly can destroy it with a "bad" mix. On the other hand, there's no way of rescueing a bad composition in the mix.

Q: What type of music do you usually work on?

A: All sorts of music. Film music isn't a genre - any genre can be film music as long as the film benefits from it. And that's what makes it so interesting for me: with every new project I learn new things and grow. It never gets boring.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: My job is to translate the artistic vision of the creative director into music, convert abstract emotions and concepts into music that helps the audience actually feel those emotions.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Since I studied both jazz composition and film scoring, I have a rather profound education in composition and arrangement technics. I am equally interested in traditional "orchestral" writing, jazz as well as electronic music / techno. Every composition of mine draws from all of those 3 fields, sometimes barely noticeable, sometimes quite prominently.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: 1. Spotting session: we talk through the whole project and decide on the style of music as well as where (in the film) we want to put music and where not. 2. I present a first idea for a first part. 3. As soon as we decided that that's the direction we are moving towards, I tackle the other bits. Most of the time we will do a couple of revisions until together we agree that the music fully supports the project and is perfect in every aspect. 4. I will make a music mix. 5. Optionally: I preper stems for the re-recording mixer who integrates the music with the rest of the films' audio (dialogue, sounddesign...)

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I work almost entirely "in the box" with state of the art software tools and sample libraries. I have a very well treated mixing and production room where I make sure the music sounds that best it can.

Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?

A: There are so many out there but currently a big fan of all the work by Jonny Greenwood.

Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.

A: Composing and producing emotionally convincing and individually crafted music for movies, documentaries, commercials, tv shows, podcasts and games.