After seeing how Christian Henson is encouraging composers in the same area to get together, I thought it might be interesting and useful to have some location-specific threads, especially for those of us not in places like Los Angeles or London, where there isn’t as concentrated and easily accessible a community. We can talk about jobs and other opportunities, concerts, gatherings... anything local, really, musical or otherwise.
That said, I’m not even in New York at the moment. Except for college years, I lived there my whole life until I was 25. For most of that, I had terrible tunnel vision towards Los Angeles, and took living a half hour outside of the biggest city in the world for granted. A few years ago, circumstances led me elsewhere entirely, which I thought might be a nice stepping stone in the direction of Los Angeles, but predictably, things got in the way, and yada yada yada, I’m still in limbo.
It’s given me a chance to really think, though. I’ve realized that I never truly wanted to do the Hollywood thing, not unless the proverbial big break magically came along. There’s too much about that whole path that just doesn’t work for me, or that would be practically impossible. As much as it feels like shooting myself in the foot, admitting I don’t have the right stuff, betraying my childhood ambitions… I just don’t believe that’s the right way for me to go anymore. I want to go back home, now that I’ve gained some perspective on how great it is. Right now, I just have to sort out the practical stuff: a place to live, and a steady job. I’d love that job to be relevant to what I care about, but I’m rapidly exhausting the borrowed time I’ve been living on during which I can be picky about that kind of thing.
In some ways, I know it’ll be harder to do this kind of thing there. In others, I expect it to be easier. I’ve known, or at least witnessed, so many composers from New York get nowhere until they moved to Los Angeles, or finally get their foot in the door, and then move anyway. It’s disheartening, and sad, that a place like New York seems to be relatively barren for media music, given its rich history in so many other musical niches. It’s a naive dream of mine, and I would have to have a musical career to speak of in the first place to attempt it, but I would love to somehow leave New York as a larger presence on the media music map than it was when I found it.
Anyway, that’s my mostly irrelevant life story. I’m hoping there’s at least a few other New Yorkers on VI-Control who are there now, have been there, or are planning to be there. Let’s stop being second-class citizens in the world of media music.
That said, I’m not even in New York at the moment. Except for college years, I lived there my whole life until I was 25. For most of that, I had terrible tunnel vision towards Los Angeles, and took living a half hour outside of the biggest city in the world for granted. A few years ago, circumstances led me elsewhere entirely, which I thought might be a nice stepping stone in the direction of Los Angeles, but predictably, things got in the way, and yada yada yada, I’m still in limbo.
It’s given me a chance to really think, though. I’ve realized that I never truly wanted to do the Hollywood thing, not unless the proverbial big break magically came along. There’s too much about that whole path that just doesn’t work for me, or that would be practically impossible. As much as it feels like shooting myself in the foot, admitting I don’t have the right stuff, betraying my childhood ambitions… I just don’t believe that’s the right way for me to go anymore. I want to go back home, now that I’ve gained some perspective on how great it is. Right now, I just have to sort out the practical stuff: a place to live, and a steady job. I’d love that job to be relevant to what I care about, but I’m rapidly exhausting the borrowed time I’ve been living on during which I can be picky about that kind of thing.
In some ways, I know it’ll be harder to do this kind of thing there. In others, I expect it to be easier. I’ve known, or at least witnessed, so many composers from New York get nowhere until they moved to Los Angeles, or finally get their foot in the door, and then move anyway. It’s disheartening, and sad, that a place like New York seems to be relatively barren for media music, given its rich history in so many other musical niches. It’s a naive dream of mine, and I would have to have a musical career to speak of in the first place to attempt it, but I would love to somehow leave New York as a larger presence on the media music map than it was when I found it.
Anyway, that’s my mostly irrelevant life story. I’m hoping there’s at least a few other New Yorkers on VI-Control who are there now, have been there, or are planning to be there. Let’s stop being second-class citizens in the world of media music.