Bill Brown is a young giant, composing for many high profile projects in film, television, and video games including CSI: NY, The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, and The Devil’s Tomb. Here are his top 10 pieces of advice to all the Guerrilla composers out there:
- Connect — My most important piece of advice to young composers is to remember that this business is all about relationships (first and foremost) and also about having something original / unique to share musically that helps elevate projects to that next level.
- Maintain Your Connections — Find young directors, developers and producers in training who are in a similar place as you in their careers, help them, and build lasting, meaningful relationships. True friendships are the best – those where you trust one another like siblings and want to rejoin each other again and again along the path. That should be the first thing taught in music school and I think to this day, the subject is avoided! There should be a course called “Building Relationships 101” and then the follow-up course, “Listening, the secret to collaboration 101.” I could go on…
- Be Yourself — Whatever comes from the deepest part of you, the music you really loved creating and listening back to will resonate with others, trust that and keep that in mind as you go. Don’t try to be anyone else, they’re already taken.
- Study — Learn everything you can learn about scoring and composing – I’ve always believed that more knowledge and constant practice is key to succeeding along this path.
- Enjoy The Journey — Remember that it is a path, there is really no destination – instead, if you work hard and are good at what you do, there are rich moments along the path that build into a meaningful career, something you can be proud of. There is no mountaintop. If there is I have no clue where it is, and it would probably be boring there anyway.
- Record Live Musicians — In regard to your tracks specifically, I would recommend getting ‘out of the box’ as quickly as possible. Buy a microphone (doesn’t have to be expensive) – plug it in and get real instruments into your cues. That is something that everyone will respond to, even if they don’t know exactly why. Musicianship should be first and foremost. Just an iPhone and an instrument can be magical in the right hands.
- Engage — Making YouTube videos is also a way of connecting and growing an audience, which is crucial in today’s business. No composer can just sit in his or her studio, write some music without picture or context and somehow magically connect with directors, producers or developers. All forms of social media are relevant and important.
- Make Killer Demos — Write music to already existing film footage just as practice and even to share with colleagues. It’s a faster route to having people understand how you react to picture, to narrative, action, the soul of the project when you’re just getting started. When you do start to meet directors or developers (like in college for instance) offer to help them by scoring their student films / game projects, etc!
- Practice — Practice as much as you can and as often as you can, share your work to help build your audience of friends and followers, and continue down the path. As long as you believe in what you’re doing, enjoy it, bring something original and soulful to the table, work hard, get out there and meet new people, and nurture those friendships, you’ll have a very good chance of success in this business.
- Build A Team — Remember, no one does it alone. I’m so grateful for all of the amazing musicians I work with, my incredibly talented director, producer and developer friends and colleagues, and equally as importantly for my wonderful team of assistants over the years. I’m also at a place in my career where I have the support of a manager and even a PR company. It’s important to keep creative separate from business if possible, and it makes sense!
I feel very excited about the possibilities now and in the future, to a great degree because of all of the incredible people I have surrounding me and supporting me. These are the reasons I keep coming back and creating – these people help make it fun and exciting. The work itself can be sometimes challenging, sometimes it seems insurmountable even, but we just take small steps, we believe in each other… and with that we can create really great things together. And when we sit back and look at the work we’ve accomplished, it can be a pretty amazing feeling.
I wish you great things, and don’t forget to enjoy the process, the creating, learning, and the collaborating. That’s where the magic is.
Bill Brown
BillBrownMusic.com