Meet Michael Licata, Jr

 

We recently connected with Michael Licata, Jr and have shared our conversation below.

Michael, so many exciting things to discuss, we can’t wait. Thanks for joining us and we appreciate you sharing your wisdom with our readers. So, maybe we can start by discussing optimism and where your optimism comes from?

Staying optimistic as an artist and creator isn’t always an easy task, but when I stop thinking about it as work, it reminds me of why I started composing and producing music in the first place. The love of it and the magic that comes out in the music. Sometimes, you just have to take a step back and look at it from a different perspective. If you do what you love and love what you do, it’s not work, it’s a passion.

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 started out my music career at the age of twelve years old as a DJ which actually spanned into a full time career for over twenty years in NYC and the surrounding Tri-State area. Having the gift of Synesthesia grew my interest and passion for music even more. Synesthesia is the ability to see colors and visuals with sound. Basically every time I hear music, I can see it and each key has a color and those colors have been the same since I was a kid. That being said, I really wanted to start writing and producing music so at the age of seventeen I began piano lessons with a great teacher, Diana Reichstetter, who was actually the one who discovered the Synesthesia. In 2009 I produced a hit EDM record that landed significant airplay on NYC FM radio which led me to DJ the Winter Music Conference in Miami, FL. I was playing alongside some of the biggest DJ’s in the world. Years later I took an interest in composing film music which came very natural to me so I auditioned at the piano for Berklee College of Music’s online Bachelor’s degree program for Film, Game, & TV Music Composition. During my time in school, I had the opportunity to score the music for a film entitled, “AAgnostic.” Strangely enough, one night when I was doubting myself and this path, I was nominated for Best Original Score at a film festival in LA. My score for AAgnostic went on to win Best Original Score in LA, NYC, Berlin, Athens, & The United Kingdom. I was also nominated in LA, Paris, & Florida. Shortly after, I graduated Berklee with a 4.0 GPA, 16 Dean’s List Awards, and 4 Scholarships. It was clear I was on the right path! Recently I relocated to Windermere in Orlando, FL and am currently working on new film scores and new EDM that will be released soon. As much as I love to write orchestral film music, it’s also nice to return back to my roots and produce EDM again. Looking forward to these releases and hoping I can land more radio airplay here in Orlando this time.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

The biggest thing for me was learning how to play piano and going to school to study music theory intensively and also I really feel that starting out as a DJ played a big role in my ability to compose and produce music. If I can give any advice to anyone on this same journey as me, is to learn an instrument and study music theory and different scores. Sometimes I’ll sit down with a red pen and analyze music from the great composers like Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, etc. The biggest piece of advice I can give is to learn the rules of music theory and then break them because once you learn these rules of music theory, they’re meant to be broken. Einstein once said, “Imagination is better than knowledge.”

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

Yes. At the moment I am currently in search of a female and/or male vocalist and lyricist to collaborate with on some of the new EDM I’m producing. I’m also in search of a female vocalist that has an operatic & cinematic voice and sound to work with on the new scores I’m composing. If anyone reading this is interested or knows of anyone who might be, my information is below.

Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @mlicatajr

Contact Info:

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