We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Andrew M. Edwards. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Andrew M. below.
Andrew, so happy to have you with us today. You are such a creative person, but have you ever head any sort of creativity block along the way? If so, can you talk to us about how you overcame or beat it?
Writer’s Block is not a block – it’s the mental equivalent of a banner notification. Working for too long on one task drains our batteries. When that banner pops up, it signals that it’s time to take a break or move to work on another project. If a hard deadline is imminent, shifting from creative work to editing or administrative work can recharge the creative battery (and vice versa) without sacrificing time. Always having something else to work on – another professional project, a personal project, or a hobby – is critical in maintaining a healthy “battery life” all around, as well. Having a disciplined schedule is also crucial to maintaining healthy brain battery levels. I write music in the same time block every morning (8am-12pm) and do either editing, mixing, or score preparation in the afternoon (1pm-4pm). Time for exercise, lunch, and correspondence/admin is baked in. 6 pm is the cutoff on a typical day, after which I cook dinner and spend time with my husband and friends.
Now that this is “The Schedule”, my brain is ready to go every morning with no block in sight.
As in everything, balance and good habits are key.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I create music, primarily for film, TV, podcasts, web videos, dance, theatre, the concert stage, and video games. Stylistically, my work tends to live at the intersection of ’60s sci-fi, ’70s minimalism, ’80s synthpop, ’90s shoegaze, and ’00s post-rock, blending classic electronic and modern acoustic sounds. My best work comes out of collegial, and challenging collaborations, and that dynamic attracts me most to a professional relationship. Projects that tend to draw me in are largely documentaries, science fiction, arthouse, or queer-focused. I try to use my powers for good. The short film, “#MessyKidnapping” – directed by frequent collaborator, Greg Emetaz – is making the festival rounds right now, most recently at the DaVinci International Film Festival in Los Angeles. The original wall-to-wall score for this short was performed by Kakophonix, Hunouk Park, and Tomas Videla, and is available to stream everywhere. “Somewhere Confidential” – a detective noir stoner comedy feature film – will be coming out later this year and features one of the most ambitious musical scores I’ve ever done. Nearly 90 minutes of full orchestra in the Silver Age style. It was an exhausting and incredibly rewarding experience, made all the better by performances from musicians Adam Dib, Nathaniel Geiger, and Michael VanBodegom Smith. The soundtrack for that will be out in the summer.
“Kala: A Musical Faerie Tale” is a stage musical with a book by my beloved Jennifer Heaton, featuring 20 original songs. The show will be performed at my alma mater – Urbana High School in Urbana, IL – in May. Very excited to be updating the arrangments, doing some rewrites, and adding some new music to this fantasy-pop spectacular. After the performance, we’ll be packaging up the show for community theatres, high schools, and college groups to produce.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
For aspiring film composers:
1) Be an unapologetic geek about the things you love: Trends come and go, but being true to your innate passions is what gives you a unique and distinctive voice.
2) Seek out new things: books, movies, art, theatre – challenge yourself. Broaden your horizons and experiences. Interesting artists have interesting lives.
3) Be disciplined: Set a schedule and stick to it. Optimize work time by including breaks, meals, social time, etc. Get regular sleep and exercise. Eat good food. Chemicals in moderation. Practicality and balance. This is a superpower.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I am always on the lookout for new collaborators, be they film and television directors, video game developers, podcasters, choreographers, or theatre makers. Folks who know what they want, and know how to ask for it. Folks who know how to delegate, inspire, and challenge. I’m particularly interested in working on documentary television projects, indie/arthouse/queer dramatic projects, and science-fiction or horror projects. Would love to work on a moody, immersive video game. My music is streaming everywhere, and a demo reel is available at andrewmedwards.com.
That’s also the best place to connect with me.
Contact Info:
- Website: andrewmedwards.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/andrewmedwards/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfe3aL886Gi0sKHWNLQcqsg
- Other: I do not like social media, and generally only use Messenger to communicate with people. I’d rather meet people in reality than interact via our flattened, de-contextualized doppelgängers.
Image Credits
Rupen Dajee Joel Henderson
