Career of the Month: Composer - ArtistshouseMusic

Each month, we'll be learning more about a particular music career, providing you with an inside look at what it takes to develop a successful career in music within a specific area. For November, we'll be chatting with an accomplished film composer, Jeanine Cowen, and learning that her skilled writing and arranging music is only one aspect of the talents one must develop to make it today as a composer.

Jeanine's Backstory

As owner of her own film and video scoring firm, JMC Music, Inc., Jeanine Cowen is uniquely qualified to talk about the dual track career of a composer/entrepreneur. A classically trained percussionist, she first became captivated with film scoring when a college friend asked her to write music to accompany a short film. She loved the nuance and power that music could bring to the art of film making.

Jeanine has resided in Boston for 20 years, tapping the city’s exceptional array of musical talent to perform on her soundtracks including members of the renowned Boston Symphony Orchestra. She maintains writing and production studios in Boston and LA to service her stable of film, TV, and game development clients. She also teaches Pro Tools for Berkleemusic.com, within the Music Production and Engineering department on the Berklee campus and is heading up a new Recording Arts program at the Center for Digital Imaging Arts located at Boston University, which has the potential to link young composers and filmmakers together just as each are beginning their careers.

In this interview, she references the points in her career where she has had to rely on making a “leap of faith.” It is clear that for Jeanine, these leaps have led to an expanding range of musical possibilities and accomplishments.

How did you discover your interest in a career in music?

Well, I can’t even tell you when I didn’t imagine having a career in music.

Did you grow up in a musical family?

It’s not so much that I had a musical family but that I was always interested in music. I started playing drums at a very young age. My family always encouraged me. The school system I went through had a very strong music program, which was wonderful for me. I started private lessons in third grade and then continued to play from there on out.

You studied classical percussion at Northwestern and then switched over to Berklee. Then you ended up studying at Berklee in music production and engineering, and then also added the film scoring degree?

Northwestern is a fine program and when I went there, I wanted to be an orchestral player. After a few years I realized my passion was really with film scoring. The only two film scoring programs were really at Berklee and USC. Once I landed at Berklee and I saw the MP&E department, it was the best of any world that I could imagine.

What was your first paying job or gig in the music industry?

My first paying gig was playing in the pit orchestra for a local music theater organization when I was in school. I vividly remember getting paid for that first gig!

What kind of shows were you playing for?

Oh, you know, we did Fiddler on the Roof, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, all of that stuff. This was while I was in high school.

You started playing music at an early age, so as your career has unfolded, what skills have been helpful to you along the way?

Every piece has been helpful to me along the way. Being able to read music has been huge. I started composing when I was in high school—being able to orchestrate and arrange and think about what other musicians need and can do has been important to me, and I think it has led to me being more comfortable in the studio and being able to get out of the musicians what I need from them. The other thing that was actually key for me was my education at Berklee—forcing myself to think out of that classical box and thinking about improvisation and jazz. Having an experience with a lot of different genres of music has led to me being a much more versatile film composer. You never know what you’re going to be writing. You need to be able to deliver. You need to be competent in a lot of genres.

So being a film composer or orchestrator is actually a generalist job because every filmmaker comes to you with a different set of challenges.

And you also need to know your own deficiencies, so you can go out and hire or consult with people who will be able to deliver the pieces you can’t.

Early on, were there some mentors who influenced you, who helped shape your direction?

My high school band director really instilled a love for music and also the confidence that I could actually make a career out of it. Beyond that, I think my two private instructors, who were both college educators, had a big influence. They were remarkable because they pushed me to be a better player than anyone else was. It’s very important to be the best player that you can be. At Berklee, George Monseur and Danny Harrington, who taught the core music classes, and the entire MP&E department. And then the whole Berklee vibe—that’s really where I learned to listen. People don’t talk much about hearing and listening but they are critical skills and rightly emphasized at Berklee.

You started freelancing in high school. What’s it been like to be the person in charge of your next job… and the next?

I’ve been freelance almost my whole career. There was a brief stop when I was employed at a game company. Besides that year, I’ve been working for myself. It started with an internship with another film composer, Mason Daring, which turned into my first scoring job. Working for him and seeing him work was really an in incredibly eye-opening experience. It informed me as to how you are successful as a film composer.

So having an apprenticeship with someone already scoring films gave you a good idea that there’s more to it than just sitting down at a computer and sketching out scores.

Oh yeah! It’s this way in a lot of the industry. Many times, as a film composer, you write something that you normally wouldn’t write if left to your own devices. You are, in the end, working for someone else. You need to be able to meld your intuition with what their needs are.

Was it scary leaving school and realizing, “I’m responsible for my next paycheck, I’ve got to find my next client, I’ve got to open a business bank account?” Was there a point when you thought, “Wow, this is a big challenge,” or was it a straightforward evolution?

It was a challenge for a long time! When you’re working for yourself and you are really the master of what happens to you, you have to have a leap of faith. You have to be able to say, “I know it’s going to work out.”

One of the things I learned is that I have to have at least a month or two of living expenses in the bank, so when it comes to the end of a project, I don’t freak out and take a project I wouldn’t necessarily take otherwise. I think that the payoff of working for yourself is incredible. Being able to guide yourself to the projects that you are more drawn to makes a huge difference. As a composer, you have to write music that comes from within you. Having projects you connect to allows you to do that. If you’re writing for a project that you don’t truly believe in, you’re going to have a hard time being convincing.

That’s important in creative careers anywhere. You need to have a sense of passion to go along with each commission.

The one thing that kind of got me through all of that—and it took me many years to realize this—is there are a lot of qualified film composers who on some level you are competing with, but if I write your score, I’m the only one who can write that score.

What is a typical day for you?

My typical day is a combination of writing music but then being an administrator of my business. You have to pay the bills, write the checks, make the calls. And then, there’s a certain amount of troubleshooting that seems to happen every single day. If I get to spend half of my day writing music, I’m really happy about it.

Composing is a fundamental part of the business, but it isn’t the whole business.

Yeah, and I think that’s the difference. You are a musician in a business. You’re not a hobbyist; you’re actually running a business. And that’s the same whether you’re working for somebody else or you’re running your own business. There are certain things that have to happen because you have clients.

What part of your work gives you the greatest satisfaction?

The struggle is always worth it, but probably the two things that I really love are being in the studio with musicians—making music with other people is an amazing experience, especially when you have this commonality of the final goal—and the other thing is actually seeing that final product and how it really does add to the final experience.

Talk about your first film scoring gig. How did you land it, how did you find out about it, how did it go, and what was it?

My first film-scoring gig was a feature film called Home Before Dark. I got it because the filmmaker had called Mason Daring and he simply didn’t have time so he recommended me. It was unbelievable. The filmmaker, Maureen Foley, and I just got along really, really well. It was a low budget film, but it was done very well. I still listen to the score and I don’t know how I wrote it. One of the cues in the score I wrote the night before the session, early in the morning.

Your résumé also includes a bit of work in the videogaming community. Is it a very different kind of composing and client management exercise from film?

Well, I think it’s different because if you’re working for a development company, it’s much more structured and they have milestones you need to meet. The collaboration is very different because you are frequently working with the visual artists, the animators, and the development team. As much as the film industry is very team based, it’s not as much face time. [PQ: Composing for film can be a very solitary position.] And it can be a much longer process.

Talking about a career as a composer, can you identify a few key skills or attributes someone should be strengthening or developing?

An ability just to make deadlines is enormous. You can’t be the one to miss deadlines or you just won’t get hired again. You really have to have a passion for the music you are writing so you can’t let yourself get talked into writing a score for something you’re really not into. You need to be able to figure out a new angle. If the client wants something you are just not willing to deliver, you need to figure out why that is and how you can work it to something that you can deliver.

How long did your apprenticeship last with Mason Daring?

It was just a few years. It was a couple of years on and off. And then for the next few years, he would hire me on and off for projects that were very specific.

Do you think a composer coming out of school today will have a hard time finding someone to apprentice with or mentor them? What do you think the next step would be once you’ve gotten a degree in film scoring?

I think it’s changed drastically since I got out of school. There are a couple of ways to go. There are definitely composers who need help; the thing is, they’re not going to advertise for a film composer to help write. They need somebody to get their system up and running, they need engineers, they need music editors. I think that those positions are really valuable for the same reason I really enjoyed working with Mason—to just get in the door and watch. I would suggest though, that if you get in that position, set a time frame so you’re only doing that for so long. The other possibility is really you can set up shop and have a sign that says “I am a film composer” on your door and really start going after the independent films that are happening around the country. Go out there and do your best. One of the things about being a film composer is you have to build up a clientele. A great thing for me is I have directors who do projects every few years but they always call me.

I’m working on a film right now with Roland Tec, which is the third project we’ve done. I won’t pass up a score from one of the filmmakers I’ve had a long-term relationship with.

You have to build up this group of people who love what you do. Start out with the indie films. Don’t promise them a fifty-piece orchestra. Promise them two or three key players that you know will work hard for you.

It seems as if we’re getting more visual media, and more ways to distribute visual media. Do you think long term there will be good career opportunities for people who want to work in the visual arts, or do you think there will be a glut with way more people trying to get into the industry than there are actual jobs out there?

I think that in the creative fields, there has always been a glut of people trying to get in. You have to be persistent and willing to stay in there for the long haul. The assumption is that you have the talent, but the question is whether you can hang around long enough to make it. So if you have a long-term goal, maybe you won’t be a full-time film composer right away, but that long-term goal is that in ten years you will be, so you can work toward that. I think there’s always been a glut. But if you are persistent and believe in your music, people will start to believe with you.

Looking back at your career to date is there anything you wish you knew from the outset that you know today?

Wow . . . I think that the thing I didn’t know was I was going to be a business person. I assumed I would just be writing music, and I wouldn’t have to worry about money and worry about contracts and all that sort of stuff. You have to have a business sense. You have to be willing to think about your contracts and think about your bank account and think about all of that stuff.

Is there a Yoda-like last thought to share with someone who’s going to start on a quest to become a composer?

The thing that I’ve realized—and it’s happened to me many times in my career—these moments are going to happen when you really need to make a leap of faith. You really have to believe in yourself. You have to just go for it. If you don’t go for it, then you’re gonna wonder for the next ten years if you should have just gone for it. You also have to realize that when the work comes, be prepared to do it. Don’t pass on a job with a previous client unless you absolutely have to.

The other thing that I’ve been very fortunate to grasp is that your life is actually happening at every moment. As much as you need to be dedicated to your craft, you can’t let your life slip by unattended. You need a community around you. Don’t alienate yourself in your own world.

Thanks very much, Jeanine, for sharing these insights!

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