Meet Jon Mohr

We were lucky to catch up with Jon Mohr recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jon, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.
There are two ways I did this:

First, the decisions I’ve made throughout my life and music career have led me to this point. The risks I’ve taken, opportunities I’ve accepted and declined, all led me to where I am now. So over time my confidence has grown because I trust myself to make the right decision for me and my career.

Secondly, I mainly compare the work I create today to the work I created in the past. When I look back on a song I made in 2020 for example, I can hear improvement and I can hear myself getting closer to the sound I want. I’m also no longer at the point of “everything I make sounds terrible, I don’t know what I’m doing, I’m not gonna listen to this track at all once I’m done.” To be clear– there are absolutely still times when I’m not super satisfied with my work, but a good portion of the time, I’m pretty satisfied with it. And I listen to some of my own songs in my free time nowadays. Some people may think that’s self absorbed, but if you don’t make music YOU would listen to, why are you making music?

I’ll also say that there is definitely a time when you SHOULD compare your work to others. If you’re trying to up your orchestration skills for example, recreating orchestral tracks you like is a good way to do that. If you want to write more effective trailer music, recreate successful trailer cues. The times I’ve done this have SIGNIFICANTLY helped my writing and production, and has also allowed me to develop my own musical voice as my skills improve.

So those two big factors are where I’ve developed most of my confidence and self esteem. It’s important to keep it in check as well, but being confident in yourself when pitching to publishers or clients helps a ton, just be sure to reel your ego back during situations like these. Be quietly confident.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I’m Jon, a cinematic composer and producer from Ohio. I have also had a stutter since elementary school, but I’ve been able to create an online brand through content showcasing my work and workflows, and have been very lucky to write music for a label sub-published under Universal Production Music. I’ve also had my music featured on TV shows across the world for the UFC, Supersport Blitz, and on channels like Discovery, CBS News, and FOX Business. I’ve also been lucky to have my music performed and recorded by an orchestra in Budapest, and have had the chance to work with talented musicians and composers across the world as well.

Lastly, I’ve done this all through teaching myself, a few mentorships, and a third-party course, all from my apartment.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The first thing: deference to expertise. There are ALWAYS people better/smarter than you, and there are always people who know things you don’t. I’m pretty confident in my abilities, but I keep in mind that I can learn something from everyone I meet. In relation to this, whenever I’m collaborating on a project with others, I let people who are better in certain areas take the lead in said areas. For example, with Arcane Skies–Robert is a genuinely brilliant orchestrator and has a more solid grasp of how to work with the orchestra than I do, so I let him orchestrate sections and also improve the orchestration of my own sections to make sure the orchestration is top notch. Additionally, when he is finished, I take care of the mixing and augmentation by adding in my own VSTs, reverb, FX, etc.

The second thing: “I’ll do X, if Y happens, I’ll figure it out.” This is in reference to applying for opportunities, workshops, gigs, etc. In practice, most of the things I apply for I end up getting rejected from, but every once in a while I get accepted for something and I “figure it out from there.” The important thing with this mindset is that it prevents me from blocking myself off from various opportunities because it may not seem “within my grasp” or “feasible” at the time I’d apply for it. In addition, we’re very good at figuring out how to make things work one way or another, so why can’t I roll the dice, and if I land an opportunity, figure it out from there? It’s somewhat similar to the mindset of “if you never ask, the answer is always no.” I’ve had the chance to foster some lovely friendships and working relationships with people by simply reaching out and politely asking if they’d be interested in working on X thing with me.

The third thing: share your journey and your work, and share it in a human way. I think lots of people believe that just sharing a link to their video with a caption like “I’d like to present my new track, X” and nothing else is good enough, but I don’t feel that way. With every post I make about a song I’ve released, I make sure I write a caption that gives someone a reason to click and listen. To again use Arcane Skies as an example–in the caption for that, I explicitly mentioned how this is the first track I’ve had recorded with a live orchestra which is a literal dream come true. I made sure to tell a story. And honestly this is just my personality–I enjoy sharing this stuff with people. When you share this kind of stuff with others online, you give them a chance to connect with you, and vice versa. It’s beneficial for you as a person and also for your career.

What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
My dad–(my mom passed when I was very, very young unfortunately) gave me lots of empathy and ability to see things from other people’s perspectives. Even with people I strongly disagree with, or topics I also disagree with, I can usually see “why” they feel the way they do. This is one of the things that also keeps me from growing too confident, I have my viewpoints on certain things like my own workflows, opinions on what works best, etc., but as I mentioned earlier, I can learn something from everyone I meet. I’ll also admit that it is a little fun to be uncompromisingly angry, but I find myself feeling that way less and less as I get older. It’s exhausting for one, and two, I genuinely want to try and understand. For this, I’m very thankful for my dad.

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