Meet Josh Ginsburg

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Josh Ginsburg a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Josh, so great to be with you and I think a lot of folks are going to benefit from hearing your story and lessons and wisdom. Imposter Syndrome is something that we know how words to describe, but it’s something that has held people back forever and so we’re really interested to hear about your story and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

I overcame imposter syndrome by solely focusing on my work and avoiding thinking too much about whether or not I was capable of being a professional musician or if I was the best person to do the job at hand. For a long time, I struggled to deal with imposter syndrome. It presented itself to me as a voice in the back of my head that reminded me that I wasn’t not good enough, or that I still had a lot to learn about being a “professional” musician. After beginning to write music every day, whether I was working on a specific project or not, and continuing to hone my abilities every day, I slowly began to overcome imposter syndrome and the voice in the back of my head began to fade away.

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 am a composer for a wide variety of film, tv and video games. Something that I love about this career is that every day presents unique challenges that prompt me to create something fresh and exciting. Whether I am working on a romantic comedy film that needs some happy/quirky music, working on an action-based video game that needs dark/driving music, or composing for an informative documentary that needs light/inquisitive music, I always look forward to writing music that improves the project that I’m composing for. One of my favorite aspects of being a media composer is when I present original music to a client and the music is working perfectly alongside the show/video game. I always enjoy getting engrossed into the universe of a show or game by writing/listening to music that enhances what I’m seeing on screen. There is something truly unique and emotionally moving about watching a powerful project play alongside music that perfectly mirrors the visuals, and that paints a musical picture for the listener. Music is able to give emotion to visuals, and can set the tone for a scene that needs auditory cues.
Over the past few years, I have worked a great deal with composer and guitarist Tim Kobza. I met Tim while I was studying at USC and after I graduated with my undergraduate degree in 2018, we began scoring film and tv projects together. Since we began working together in 2018, we have worked on feature films, games and tv shows together, spanning a wide variety of genres (including Drama, Romance, Comedy, Action-Adventure). We recently launched a website for our work together called “Heart Strings Music,” where clients can learn about us and contact us to work on projects together. Tim and I work well together, since our skill sets complement each other. His mastery of guitar and pop/jazz music work well alongside my background in film music and jazz. As a team, we enhance each other’s music by sharing musical concepts, workshopping them together and collectively creating music that suits our projects to the highest level. We continue to write for projects in all genres and look forward to working with new collaborators all over the world. Some of the notable projects that have scored together include “Ten Truths About Love” (Tubi), “Kangaroo Kids” (Sunn Stream Productions), and “Single and Ready To Jingle” (Lifetime).

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

The three qualities that have been most impactful to my journey are open-mindedness, persistence, and patience. These qualities are all necessary to be a successful media composer. I always need to keep an open mind when working on new projects, with new collaborators or when scoring a new scene in a film or game. Every project and scene that I work on presents unique challenges. I strive to rise to each challenge, while continuing to grow as a writer. While I draw on my existing skills as a composer for every project, I always try to improve with each subsequent project. Whether I attempt to improve my music production abilities or find ways to innovate on existing musical concepts, I keep an open mind and strive to serve each project’s needs as effectively as possible. Open-mindedness, persistence and patience work together as a skills for a composer, as it often takes a bit of time to “crack the code” for what type of music a scene needs in a film, tv show or game. I advise people early in their music composition journey to learn how to enjoy the process of writing and re-writing. I can say from personal experience that some of my most satisfying completed projects were the ones that I needed to write a few versions of the music for to get to the final version. Although it is not easy to hear that one’s work may not be what the director of the project is looking for, I have learned to treat every iteration as a learning experience and as a clue to solving the puzzle. There is no shortcut to learning how to become an effective media composer, other than to work on many projects, write as much music as possible and continue to hone one’s craft. Keep an open mind when writing music, listen to your collaborators’ ideas and work with them to create the best/most effective music possible.

How would you describe your ideal client?

My ideal client would be a director/producer/creator of a film, tv show or video game that is looking for a creative, original score for their project. I enjoy working with people who are passionate about their work, communicative, and open-minded to workshopping musical ideas. As a composer, my job is to create music that articulates feelings that often cannot be conveyed with words or actions alone. With this in mind, I enjoy working with people who have a vision of how their project will ideally feel to their audience and what emotions it will convey.

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