We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Joshua Sohn. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Joshua below.
Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Joshua with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?
I have to credit my private Percussion professor & mentor, Doug Wolf for teaching me how to work hard. He was the Principal Percussionist for the Utah Symphony for over 30 years and taught at the University of Utah where I attended back in 2006-2010. My musicianship didn’t really take off until he showed me how to perform super-challenging music through solid practice habits and focus. Alongside a studio of a dozen of other percussion students, I was driven to succeed through the competitive spirit he instilled in us. He would always talk about “job security” and how important it was to be prepared for any barriers that come your way. I remember hearing a funny story where he would have life-sized cardboard cutouts of celebrities that would watch him practice just so that he would feel the pressure of an audience. Because of him, I managed to practice at least two hours a day and come out of college as an accomplished performer. That work ethic carried over to other aspects such as when I was a teacher and now as a composer. There were many other role-models and mentors that also helped me along the way such as George Brown, Kelly Wallis, Lynn Brown, Christian Davis, Jay Lawrence and of course my family.
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?
When you watch a movie or play a game, do you notice the music that is playing in the background? Well, my job involves creating the music for that! Writing music for movies and games is a little different than writing for a stand-alone song that you would hear on the radio or Spotify. The big difference is that it is mainly background, instrumental music that supports the visuals and storytelling that is being conveyed on screen. This is also known as score. While sometimes the score and songs overlap, in my world I tend to compose more music that involve score. I really enjoy scoring film and games because of the way I can shape the scene for the audience in a matter of seconds and help them feel a certain emotion. It is also very challenging to do this job well which makes this craft a life-long pursuit.
Over the last decade, I have worked on a dozen films as well as musicals, TV shows, and commercials. Last month, I finished scoring a thriller movie that will premiere on TV in the near future. I am also currently working on a VR game for the Oculus Quest. In my line of work, there are no guarantees of steady work but I have been very fortunate to have come this far and feel like I have only scratched the surface of my potential. My hope is to keep going and write music for as long as I can.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Some of the words that come to mind is self-discovery (seeking the why, learning from your mistakes, learning about your strengths & weaknesses), courage and resilience. I think self-discovery is the most important because you really have to dig deep and find out why you do the things you do. You have to be honest with yourself and know the true intentions behind your actions whether it’s from fear, ego or whatever else. Sometimes, you act a certain way to make yourself look good but it doesn’t really get you to where you actually need to go in life.
Eventually, you’ll know what you have to do and it’s up to you to decide whether you take the journey or not. That’s where courage comes from. I’ve learned that the role-models that I admired who have achieved the things that I desire have all found their way through their own self-discovery as well as a mixture of luck and missteps that they learned from. You can’t exactly follow their path to achieve where you want to go. So you have to find that for yourself.
Once you commit to that decision and cultivate courage, then resilience comes forth. Just remember that nothing happens in a vacuum. Your personal life will affect your professional life and vice versa. Every successful person has gone through their own struggles, so you’re not the only person that has something going on that is stopping you from achieving what you want. I’ve had gone through certain experiences such as a long-term break up, loss of my parents or financial struggles, but it never deterred me from continuing this path. Cultivating resilience comes from a deep desire to obtain what you want and being able to come back from any adversity that comes your way. It helps to remind ourselves how short life is and how precious the time that we have while alive.
How would you describe your ideal client?
I have had wonderful clients in the past. I think the ones I tend to enjoy working with the most are the ones that give me a lot of creative freedom to experiment and they trust in the process. Sometimes, the experimenting doesn’t always work out the way they or I envisioned, but understanding that it may occur on the next time around. I would love to find other talents who seek to create high quality work and have something important to say in their message. Great collaborations between film makers and composers such as Steven Spielberg and John Williams are rare to find. I strive to experience that type of collaboration.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sohncompositions.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sohncompositions/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sohncompositions/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sohncompositions/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoshuaSohn4
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SohnCompositions
- Other: IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8734234
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/sohncompositions
